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Abstract |
In the spring of 2009 I wrote a three part article in the Stonyhill Newsletter on Primitive Ego Psychology© the growing and urgent need for each of us to a) explore our primitive ego’s tendency to use denial and b) to develop the observing ego skills needed to increase our psychological intelligence through an intentional growth in our self-awareness. The three Stonyhill Newsletter articles encouraged the intentional and conscious evolution of our primitive ego and showed how Primitive Ego Psychology© and its Primitive Ego Theory of Human Social and Spiritual Development© could be used not only to mature the narcissism of both our individual and collective primitive ego, it could also help us prepare for the rapidly approaching, life altering storm clouds of change gathering on the horizon. This current article combines the material included in the three newsletter articles into one document as it explores the impact of primitive ego denial on five of the more significant challenges and changes that could soon be impacting human culture and life as we know it; -global warming, At the end of the article there are three indexes for further study that include: |
Our unconscious primitive egos me focused narcissism, and its pervasive use of denial to avoid emotions that are uncomfortable, routinely causes us to ignore threats of danger and warnings of impending change until they actually begin to impact us directly and personally...or when they threaten to impact us in the “very” near future. It is often amazing how emotionally shocked we can be when the totally expected events, that our primitive ego has dismissed as unimportant, actually arrive.
In other words, despite the many scientific warnings reported in our media concerning the serious consequences we are creating for the health of our planet and the future survival of our species, there is little doubt that because of primitive ego denial, most of us will be emotionally “shocked and dismayed” when the impact of these impending challenges actually arrive on our doorstep.
We are rapidly running out of time to innovate and implement some of the pro-active choices and life-style changes that we are clearly going to need to successfully cope with the crises and life-altering changes that are coming. Simply “knowing” is not enough. We need to remove denial and emotionally connect our cognitive “knowing” with decisive action.
Choosing to remain trapped in unconscious primitive ego thinking, unable to creatively prepare for the life-style transformations that are certainly coming, could lead to a future that becomes very uncomfortable for us; perhaps even traumatic; a future in which we could find ourselves limited to powerless, last minute ineffective knee-jerk responses as we try to cope with the global challenges we will be facing.
This is not to imply that we are necessarily facing the end of the world or a dooms day scenario, but there are many scientists and futurists convinced that some of the global challenges headed our way (see Index A below) will almost certainly have the potential to bring about significant environmental and social change.
They arguably warn that some of the challenges headed our way could potentially threaten the very survival of our species. But regardless of the level of threat, they tend to agree that virtually all of the challenges currently threatening our planet, and our human culture, have the potential to “significantly” impact the way we currently live our day-to-day lives.
So how do we break out of the denial that we seem to be caught in and begin to search for creative solutions? Our species created these problems so we certainly should be capable of finding some solutions. After all, as a reflexively conscious species, the willingness to grow and evolve is always a choice. Right?
Unfortunately, as Einstein so wisely once reminded us, it will not be possible for us to solve the problems that we have created for ourselves if we insist on continuing to use the same thinking process that created the problems in the first place.
Only if we are willing to increase our psychological intelligence, by learning about Primitive Ego Psychology© ( see article #27 on Awakening at http://www.stonyhill.com/articles.htm) and doing the work of intentionally maturing our primitive ego consciousness, will we have the vision and wisdom needed to creatively face these dangerous threats we have unconsciously created for ourselves.
Understanding Primitive Ego Psychology© and using some of the simple insights contained in the Primitive Ego Theory Of Human Social and Spiritual Development© (see Stonyhill Newsletter #4 at http://www.stonyhill.com/newsletters/newsletter_archives.htm) that are included in this article could easily put us, individually and collectively, on a path toward the conscious evolution of our species (see Index B below).
Unfortunately, embracing denial and doing nothing is also a choice; a choice that many will make. But educating ourselves can make a difference!
By educating ourselves on the details of the challenges threatening us, perhaps we can avoid some of the emotional shock and dismay that will be created by the disruptive social, economic, and life-style changes that are certain to be created when they arrive. Additionally, incorporating some of the suggestions contained in Index C below will help us proactively prepare for the inevitable life-style changes that are coming.
So, to help us break the primitive ego denial holding us hostage and begin the process of making the challenges looming on the horizon “real” for us, lets take a more detailed look at five of the more serious threats contained in Index A below that appear certain to challenge our planet and our future as an evolving global culture.
Despite daily warnings and mounting scientific evidence, the ominous threat of global warming is an excellent example of our collective primitive ego’s ability to deny reality; our ability to essentially ignore a rapidly growing threat.
Virtually every reputable scientist in the world is in agreement that global warming is a critical and rapidly growing crisis for the future of our planet. Ice packs are melting. Glaciers are melting. Polar bears and other life forms are facing extinction. Weather patterns are shifting. Hurricanes and storms are growing in magnitude and intensity. Some bird species are already migrating further north and scientists are concerned many of them will not survive.
The scientific evidence for global change due to warming is overwhelming.
Despite this growing evidence, our primitive ego prefers to deny the warnings of scientists by giving credibility to those global warming naysayers who attempt to introduce doubt and reject these scientifically based warnings on the grounds that we don’t “really” have “conclusive proof” that global warming is real. They suggest that the earth has successfully gone through warming trends in the past so we don’t really have to worry about it.
Regardless of claims to the contrary, the evidence for global warming continues to grow daily. Our oceans are becoming more acidic. Changes in ocean temperatures and currents are beginning to threatening the viability of our ocean’s food chain and its ability to continue providing the various species of fish and other sources of protein that humans have harvested for thousands of years. Upwards of a thousand fish species are already migrating to cooler areas of the ocean and like the birds, many of them are not expected to survive. When added to the estimate that 75% of global fisheries are currently at or beyond sustainable levels of production, the long term survivability of many species of fish is already in question.
But because these changes are not an immediate threat to each of us individually, and because of the economic impacts that would result if we were to begin taking these threats seriously, global warming and its impact on the health of our planet are essentially ignored by our collective narcissistic primitive egos. If we bother to think about it at all, most of us dismiss these threats with the thought, “our government should do something about the problem”.
We deny the impact of the changes attributed to global warming, in part, because we have been conditioned to see ourselves as subjectively separate, unique individuals living in a world where reason and logic rule. Our primitive ego has come to believe it is a superior and totally separate being.
We have, in some ways, been corrupted by the 18th century Enlightenment and its adoption of reason as the primary authority defining “truth”.
Through the success of our efforts to scientifically understand the natural world by breaking matter into smaller and smaller parts so we can learn how the universe works, the hubris of our primitive ego has begun to believe that we now have the power to actually control nature.
We have lost touch with the humility of our early ancestors; with the more feminine aspects of our psyche. Over time, the more aggressive masculine psyche of our primitive ego has increasingly denied the more intuitive feminine insights of our more evolved observing ego consciousness. Over time the feminine part of our psyche found itself effectively banished from consciousness and driven into the unconscious.
As a result of our primitive ego hubris, we have lost the feminine, observing ego wisdom of our ancestors who knew intuitively that we are nothing more than an infinitesimally small part of an immense universe. We have lost the awe necessary for us to maintain a spiritual heart connection with the fragile planetary life support system that sustains us.
We no longer intuitively recognize or experience our systemic inter-connection and inter-dependence with the rest of creation even though quantum physicist’s are now learning that the energies contained in every part of creation; from the largest galaxy of the universe down to the smallest elements of matter, are all actively communicating at the quantum level with one another. Just as all parts of the human body are systemically interconnected and communicate with one another, we are learning, that at the quantum level, the entire universe is also systemically interconnected. Every part of creation, regardless of size or distance, is actively communicating and sharing quantum information with all other parts of creation.
Our collective primitive ego has embraced logic and reasoning to the point it has lost touch with its ancient sense of spirituality. It has convinced itself we have the God given right to arrogantly use the object called planet Earth in whatever way best suits our immediate needs.
Only when we decide to abandon the untransformed masculine energy of our primitive ego and learn to embrace the transformed feminine energy of our more enlightened observing ego consciousness will we effectively reverse global warming and begin working with nature rather than against it.
Another good example of our primitive ego’s inability to accept a growing threat as “real” is our voracious appetite in the Western developed nations to consume “stuff”. We never seem to have enough to satisfy our hunger for “more”. The Buddhists refer to our primitive egos insatiable need for “more” as our hungry ego. Despite massive and growing evidence to the contrary, in its need for “more”, our collective primitive ego has blindly bought into the myth that unlimited economic expansion is somehow an actual reality; a real and valid law of economics.
At the current level of consumption in Western culture we are depleting the natural resources of our planet at an alarming rate. Yet our collective primitive ego blindly continues to support an uncontrolled level of consumption that is clearly leading the world toward inevitable economic, environmental, and social crises. In simple terms, our planet is simply unable to “sustain” the developed nation’s current standard of living….and that number is about to increase from one billion to over four billion as the developing nations of India and China grow in economic strength and complexity.
Our primitive ego dismisses the uneasy discomfort we feel when we read that the Eastern cultures of India and China have also decided to embrace the myth called unlimited economic expansion and are rapidly catching up with our Western culture’s ability to consume. It is estimated that each of their economies will catch up with ours in roughly one to two generations. Even if the rest of the “developing nations” remains at their current levels of consumption, China and India alone will create a four-fold increase in our human species’ ability to consume. The only emotional reality that emerges from the narcissism of our primitive ego consciousness is a gnawing petulant sense of anger and resentment that “they“ are going to start taking “our” vitally needed planetary resources; resources that “we” need.
Our Western appetite for “stuff” is enormous. Some say that we are literally “trashing” our planet. Consider the following: even ignoring the European nations:
Every man, woman, and child in America sends roughly 4 ½ pounds of trash a day to a landfill.
It is estimated that 99% of all purchases made by Americans will be trash in a landfill within six months of the time it is purchased.
America represents only about 5% of the world’s population but we are currently consuming over 30% of the world’s resources.
In other words, if everyone alive on the planet today were to enjoy life at our “current” American level of consumption, we would need the equivalent of roughly seven “earth sized planets” to support them. And each of those seven planets would be in the process of rapidly depleting their natural resources. By the end of the 21st century we would need roughly eleven earth sized planets…..and it would not be long before all eleven of those planets would be nearing the end of their ability to sustain a viable developing human culture.
There are those who suggest the answer to the resources depletion problem is recycling; that we should recycle more. Recycling is obviously important, but unfortunately it is a very small drop in the solution bucket. What is needed is a radical shift in our mind set or worldview. We need to learn to genuinely embrace the concept of long term “sustainability” in our human culture.
We need to shift from purchasing a never-ending list of “wants” to purchasing essentially only those things we actually “need”. And the “needs” we purchase need to include the “real” cost to make them. In other words, our consumer costs should include all of the production costs of a “green” manufacturing process, all costs associated with recycling the item, the green disposal costs for all non-recyclable and toxic materials in the item purchased, and all of the true “green” costs of transporting both the raw materials and the finished products.
The current cost of products being consumed by the developed nations is artificially low. The green recycling and disposal costs of toxic chemicals and materials used in the manufacture of the item, all of the costs associated with manufacturing and transportation carbon emission and air pollution clean up, and the final green disposal of all toxic materials contained in the products we buy need to be included and passed on to the final consumer.
Virtually none of these “green” costs are currently included in the purchase price paid by the consumer. If we as “end users” had to pay all of the “real” green and sustainable costs for the items we consume every day, there is no doubt that our current level of consumption would very quickly decrease to a more manageable and sustainable “need” based level. We could significantly reduce the prodigious rate at which we are currently depleting our planets natural resources.
Unfortunately, the collective narcissistic primitive ego of our Western culture currently embraces a non-sustainable, throwaway mindset. Through aggressive marketing campaigns we are encouraged to not only notice the obsolescence of virtually everything we own, we are reminded over and over to compare what we currently own to the shiny new products we “could” own.
At the same time we are being bombarded by aggressive marketing campaigns, the products we currently own are breaking down and wearing out due to an intentionally designed rate of obsolescence built into everything we purchase. Our unconscious primitive ego has been intentionally trained and conditioned to compulsively “throw away” the old so we can buy “new and better”; a learned behavior designed to drive the unlimited expansion of our economy and our capitalistic free market system.
We obviously have the technology and manufacturing know-how to engineer and produce products with far higher levels of quality; products that might cost more but could last almost indefinitely. So why are we content to purchase “inexpensive” (think “cheap”) products that we know are going to quickly wear out and fall apart? The answer is simple:
our individual and collective primitive egos choose to ignore the reality that “unlimited economic expansion” is a non-sustainable myth,
our individual and collective primitive egos do not perceive intentionally engineered obsolescence as having an impact us personally,
our narcissistic individual and collective primitive egos have been carefully and culturally conditioned to ignore both of the above realities, and lastly,
our individual and collective primitive egos narcissistically always wants the newest and the best (even if it is “cheap and poorly made)…...so it continues to consume…..denying the long term impact of its behavior on the planet and its own long term survival potential.
This built in narcissistic tendency toward denial in our individual and collective primitive ego is clearly evident in many aspects of our culture. For example, economists are warning us that the default in credit card debt is going to be the next “crisis” we will be dealing with in the financial melt down we are experiencing.
Once again, because it is not yet impacting us directly, our primitive ego can comfortably deny the problem and narcissistically assume that it is someone else’s problem to deal with. And once again, we will be emotionally “shocked and dismayed” when one more totally expected reality eventually arrives.
The above examples are only two of the more than twenty serious challenges and impending crises that scientists and social experts forecast we will be dealing with in the near future. (See Index A below). The severity of some of these problems will undoubtedly be eased by scientific advancement and technical solutions, but to assume that scientists alone will be able to finally solve these challenges is simply another example of our species’ primitive ego denial and narcissism; our total faith and dependence on logic and reason to solve all of our environmental and social problems.
Lets take a look at two more of the challenges facing us and the changes that they are going to create for us.
The global runaway population explosion that we are experiencing not only increases the problem of global warming, our Western culture’s already voracious appetite for “stuff”, and the myth of unlimited economic expansion we discussed above, it also:
is rapidly increasing the already critically high levels of land, water, and air pollution,
puts enormous pressure on the availability of land for both housing and farming,
puts additional pressure on the consumption of our planet’s already dwindling natural resources; especially fresh water for irrigation and potash for fertilizer,
is creating global food shortages for many of the developing third world nations whose rapidly growing populations are already struggling with starvation and dangerous levels of malnutrition,
adds to the growing global unemployment crises,
directly contributes to the growing economic strain on our global education and health care systems, and most importantly,
is a primary cause of our rapidly growing global poverty.
When the lack of political status and social power created by poverty is combined with armed conflict and environmental overload, those living in poverty, especially women and children, are effectively denied access to the financial and educational resources needed to obtain homes, land, and farm tools…..the ability to be independent and survive on their own. Current estimates agree that roughly one billion people currently live on “less” than one dollar a day. It should come as no surprise that they are struggling daily with the ethical and moral issues of poverty and lack of adequate nutrition.
Dictatorial political systems of government, racial and cultural discrimination, ethnic dislocation caused by political unrest over land ownership, and the on-going violent political power struggles over the ownership of natural resources in many third world nations, all combine to create conditions in which the self-focused abusive leaders of these small developing nations are encouraged to withhold critically needed food and medical supplies from their people as a way of maintaining their oppressive political and economic power.
The poverty and genocide in Darfur is a good example of what happens to those caught in the middle of political conflict in these rapidly developing third world nations.
We are clearly in the middle of an unparalleled human population explosion. In one more generation we will reach a global population of over 8 billion. As one article on global population growth recently reported, “the mothers of the next two billion people soon to be living on our planet have already been born”.
Scientists are now estimating that our planet can sustainably support only about 1.5 billion people at the level of the developed nations of the world. There is virtually no doubt remaining…….with 11 billion people living on our planet, we are clearly headed for a crisis!
Our planet reached one billion people for the first time about 1800. We hit the two billion mark in 1930. Three billion in 1960. Four billion in 1974. Five billion in 1987. Six billion in 1998, and seven billion in 2009. It is estimated that global population figures will slow down in the coming decades, but current forecasts indicate we will be well over 11 billion within roughly three generations.
All the people who have ever lived on Earth is estimated to be roughly 106 billion. That means we are headed for a scenario where roughly 10 % of all people ever born on our planet will be alive and consuming space and vital resources within a few decades.
It is estimated that population growth and the impact of global warming on food production alone will create severe food shortages and malnutrition for an estimated two to three billion people by the end of this century. Given the forecasts that we will soon be facing severe fresh water shortages and the fact that 87% of all fresh water is currently used for agriculture, some scientists and social experts are predicting that severe food shortages will be a global problem well before the end of the century.
Even in the face of these sobering statistics, the ability of our individual and collective primitive ego to employ denial is alive and well…...we are narcissistically able to assume that we are doing fine. Because most of us in the Western world are clearly still eating pretty well, because we have pretty good educational and health care systems, and because most of our children are not suffering from malnutrition, it is easy for our primitive egos to assume we can safely leave the problems created by overpopulation for someone else to solve.
But before our primitive egos get too complacent we might want to consider a few more statistics on our growing global population problem. Consider:
Only about one billion people currently enjoy our Western culture’s standard of living and the earth is already running out of many critically needed natural resources.
Current projections have us growing by roughly a billion people every 11 years for the next couple of generations, and in recent years 80% of this growth has come from the developing nations.
In 2005 it was estimated that almost a billion people on the planet were suffering from chronic malnutrition. This is a sobering reality when you consider that 27% of the world’s population is below 15 years of age.
The sobering reality is we live on a planet where 80% of the people alive today are living at sub-human standards struggling simply to survive…..and they are beginning to want more. They are waking to the reality that day-to-day survival is not enough. They want their share of the “good life” that we enjoy in the Western cultures.
80% of the world’s population is increasingly aware that Western culture represents only about 6% of the world’s population but we are currently consuming roughly 1/3 of all our planets resources.
The bottom line….virtually every one of the seven billion people alive today are struggling to increase their standard of living to approach that of the Western world.
These statistics reflect some important realities for the future of “life as we know it” because soaring global population growth combined with rapidly growing levels of poverty are rapidly becoming an excellent formula for global unrest.
We are a nation building fences because we are worried about “illegal” Hispanics south of the border who want to share in the “good life” that we enjoy. Given the growing level of poverty in the world, it is becoming obvious that immigration problems are going to be the least of our worries in the coming decades.
To get some perspective on this issue, we need only to ask ourselves a couple simple questions…..
What would “we” do if we woke each day to watch our children struggling with malnutrition and a lack of clean drinking water, or dying due to lack of adequate medical care capable of treating even simple illnesses.
How would we feel if our children were growing up uneducated while people in another part of the world were concerned with providing college educations for their children?
At what point would we aggressively begin to insist on change?
What would we be capable of doing as an individual or as a nation of people when we awoke to the realization that we had little or nothing to lose and everything to gain?
How much force or violence would we be willing to use, or justify, to get our piece of the “good life”?
Would we be willing to continue shipping our natural resources to the already developed countries?…..the very resources that we are going to need for the growth and economic development of our own country.
The simple example that most clearly reflects or illustrates the high level of denial inherent in primitive ego thinking is the amazing reality that the majority of primitive egos living in our Western culture are honestly shocked and puzzled as to why the rest of the world is getting so angry with us.
Our primitive ego’s ability to ignore the obvious is amazing.
We are consciously unaware that runaway global population growth and over population is one of humanities most important growing crises. Incredibly, most of our conservative Christian churches---including the religiously conservative administration that controlled Washington under the Presidency of George W. Bush for the last eight years---continue to deny people access to birth control on ideological grounds; even when used to control the spread of AIDS.
Despite the fact that many people living in Western cultures are virtually unaware of population growth and the crises it represents, it is already impacting us even here in the United States. Anyone living on either coast of the United States, or in any major world city, already knows first hand the limited availability and rapidly rising cost of land, housing, and fresh water.
Our current housing crisis and economic problems are temporarily bringing prices down, but the pressure of more and more people wanting land, to live and build on, are driving prices to levels that only the very wealthy will soon be able to afford. The West Coast states of California, Oregon, Washington, and Arizona already reflect land and housing prices that are significantly higher than most middle class workers can afford and it is doubtful that banks will ever again be allowed to create mortgages that a prospective buyer is not realistically able to repay.
When we consider the 60 -70 million baby boomers getting ready to begin down sizing and moving out of their high end homes and properties, one has to wonder where all the buyers are going to come from to purchase those expensive homes.
When the gap between a culture’s wealthiest people and it’s poorest people is too wide, it has the potential to create massive upheaval in the fabric of that culture. When the gap is global in nature, the potential for conflict and social crises is severe. A hungry person, a person whose children are starving, a person who has no hope for a better life for themselves or their children, or a person who has nothing to lose, is a person capable of becoming very dangerous.
There are many who believe we have very little time left for our wealthy Western culture to voluntarily demonstrate our compassion and belief in equality and justice. For the poor of the world to have more, it means we are going to have to be willing to live with less, but it is clear that reducing the enormous gap between the wealthy and the poor of the world is absolutely essential if we are to successfully create a peaceful global culture.
Ignoring the reality that over 1/2 of the earth’s human population currently live and survive at a stone age level of development is no longer an option. It is becoming more and more clear that we must learn to evolve our level of consciousness and compassion. Allowing ourselves to remain trapped in the unconscious primitive ego of childhood thinking ,when our species is struggling with survival issues, is an unacceptable form of self-imposed ignorance.
We are evolution itself; a species that began its evolutionary journey as star dust. We have evolved into a reflexively self-conscious species capable of contemplating the Initiating Consciousness of the universe itself. Becoming self-aware, awakening to the reality around us, and increasing our individual and collective consciousness is a choice each of us is fully capable of making…..unfortunately, so is ignorance.
For over 14 billion years the evolution of our human species was driven by chance and a glacially slow, random biological selection process. With the birth of reflexive consciousness, roughly thirty five to fifty thousand years ago, humans became consciously aware of their self-consciousness and the evolutionary growth of our species shifted from simple biology to growth in our ability to think. Virtually overnight, the evolutionary growth of our human species had shifted into high gear.
No longer limited to simple biology, the evolutionary future of humanity would now be determined first and foremost by our willingness to evolve and enlighten the consciousness of our species.
Because there is no form that is not first preceded by consciousness, the birth of reflexive consciousness not only changed the way our species would evolve, it also gave us the God-like ability to create form; to become co-Creators with the Initiating Consciousness of our universe.
Over time, we learned to create the forms called tools, fire, the wheel, bridges, science, philosophy, human culture, and even the moral forms or categories of good and evil. Since reflexive consciousness is capable of creating form using either conscious or unconscious thoughts, it meant that humans also had the ability to create the forms of good and evil using both conscious or unconscious thoughts.
Primitive Ego Psychology© and other advancements in the science of human social and spiritual development have taught us that when we use an unconscious primitive ego thinking process, the forms we create tend to be evil or hurtful to others. When our behaviors come from our more enlightened observing ego consciousness the forms we create tend to be more conscious and compassionate.
The evolutionary message of human history is clear. The more enlightened and evolved our species consciousness has become over the last 35,000 years, the more compassionate our behaviors have become. Today, we stand at a critical crossroad in the evolution of our human culture, and given the severity of the ominous shadowy challenges looming on the horizon, we are rapidly running out of time.
As we attempt to create a compassionate 21st century global culture in a world filled with military weapons, weapons of mass destruction, competing religious and political ideologies, human social cultures that function on a continuum from highly advanced technology to stone age cooking fires, it means that more than any time in our human history, we must individually and collectively be willing to embrace the conscious evolution of our species…….a willingness to consciously and intentionally increase the level of our human consciousness…….an unconditional commitment to move from our current primitive ego consciousness to that of a more enlightened, self-aware observing ego consciousness.
Since most of our thinking energy and attention over the last thirty five thousand years has been directed toward the art of warfare and the scientific advancements that war encourages, we have created an almost exponential increase in scientific knowledge and technology; technological advances that give us the ability to heal and reach new heights of human civilization…….. and, at the same time, the power to destroy ourselves.
Primitive ego “survival of the fittest” thinking allowed our species to survive when we lived in caves and gathered as tribes. It has created great empires and destroyed great empires. It has allowed us to make great scientific advancements. But in the last few decades it has become clear that those scientific advancements have far outpaced our human growth in morality and ethics. We have evolved our scientific knowledge, but the wisdom to ethically use this scientific knowledge for the benefit of all living creatures has not entirely or functionally entered our species consciousness.
Most humans alive today are undernourished and living in poverty. The impact of our human culture is currently creating the greatest mass extinction of plant and animal species the planet has ever encountered. It is estimated that without human influence, we would lose one species every five years due to natural causes. The rate today is estimated to be in excess of 50,000 a year. Some scientists estimate that one-fifth of all living species could disappear within 30 years, and at the current rate of extinction, fully ½ of all species could be gone in 100 years. Not only are we causing the extinction of tens of thousands of species each year, we are rapidly running out of time to evolve beyond the narcissistic consciousness of our inner child’s primitive ego and develop the wisdom needed to protect our own species from extinction.
We may live in a world where we can travel to the moon, build computers that are beginning to surpass even the human minds ability to think, and generate electricity from nuclear reactors, yet our collective narcissistic primitive ego consciousness still has half of humanity under nourished, living in poverty, and cooking food over open fires.
Only our more enlightened observing ego consciousness is capable of guiding the much needed “conscious evolution” of our species. Our primitive ego’s are far too narcissistic and emotionally immature to do this work.
No living species, including our own human species, is able to experience significant evolutionary change without challenges to the survival of their species. The global challenges facing humanity today are clearly threatening the future survival of our species, but that is simply a natural part of reality. Eventually, every living system is required to cope with threats to their long term survival. The struggle to survive, and dealing with the stress related to that struggle, are not unique to any living species; including ours.
All threatened species use the stress, created in their struggle to survive, to energize their search for biological and evolutionary solutions to overcome the problems and challenges that threaten them. In other words, they use “survival stress” to adapt to the challenges and changes they are confronted with by the real world.
As was pointed out above, when our survival as a species is threatened, humans are not limited to slow biological and evolutionary changes. We have the ability to evolve very rapidly through the growth of our consciousness.
But unlike humans, other plants and animals, faced with challenges to the survival of their species, do not have the ability to deny the threat, to hide behind primitive ego beliefs and ideologies, and they certainly do not use primitive ego denial to avoid the very stress that would enable them to find creative solutions to the challenges and crises that threaten the survival of their species.
Because life is never perfect there are always crises to be overcome, dangers to be faced, hardships to be endured, and uncertainties to be embraced. However, the species that survive and evolve always manifest two very important characteristics; they embrace the stress inherent in challenges to their survival, and they are flexible in the face of crises: they are able to embrace change.
Stated simply, living systems use the stress created by challenges to their survival to enable and encourage the evolutionary process. For most living systems it may be a very slow biological process, but they do act, and they do evolve.
Without the stress that survival challenges bring to all living species, the probability that a species will evolve is very small. For example, sharks and cockroaches have been around for tens of millions of years because their ability to survive as a species has not been challenged. They have never had to deal with the stress of species extinction that causes a threatened species to evolve.
Our human species is now at a cross road in its ability to evolve; to survive. We can remain trapped in the denial of primitive ego thinking pretending that life is actually the way we would ”like” things to be, or we can find the courage to deal with reality and the stressful challenges that are ”actually” beginning to threaten our survival as a species and the future of human civilization on this planet.
I am convinced that we are flexible and intelligent enough as a species to deal with the changes that are coming, but only if a) we willing to break out of denial and the limited primitive ego thinking we are currently using, b) we are willing to intentionally increase our psychological intelligence through the conscious evolution and maturation of our primitive ego, and c) if we are willing to openly embrace a more enlightened observing ego species consciousness; a willingness to become more human.
Our primitive ego almost universally differentiates the world into dualistic, black-and-white categories of right and wrong, good and bad, and especially good and evil. Our primitive ego beliefs always represent “absolute truth”, and it always needs to be “right”. It gets aggressive and angry when others challenge our beliefs or criticize us.
As a result, our primitive ego is rarely able to emotionally embrace both extremes of any issue; especially when confronted with an antinomy or paradox in which there is a contradiction between two beliefs that are both true and reasonable. In other words, when there is truth on both sides of an issue, our primitive ego will almost always choose to believe one side of the paradox, and once chosen, it will then will forever, aggressively defend that side as an absolute truth. Our more enlightened observing ego consciousness chooses to walk the middlepath by accepting the reality that there is almost always truth on both sides of any issue. (See article #8 at http://www.stonyhill.com/articles.htm)
Since the time of the Renaissance we have embraced an overwhelming cultural focus on the more masculine traits of logic and reason. We have lost touch with much of the wisdom and more subtle intuitive aspects associated with the feminine side of our psyche. Over the last four hundred years we have essentially split off our feminine psyche and banished it into the realm of the unconscious. As a result, we have lost our intuitive awareness of the deep systemic interconnection that exists between all forms of Creation.
Because of the Renaissance we have made amazing intellectual advances in our scientific understanding of the universe and the mathematical laws of physics, but to gain this knowledge required that we turn everything in creation into an object to be differentiated, dissected, explored and understood. We have gained great knowledge, but we have sadly lost the deeper wisdom that our ancestors possessed. We have lost our spiritual, life connection, with the rest of creation.
The narcissism of our primitive ego is convinced that each of us is a separate, unique individual. We have been taught the concept of individual self-worth since the day we were born. It is an integral and valuable part of our Western psyche. In fact, most of the scientific and social advances credited to Western culture stem directly from our ability to honor our individuality. Concepts like freedom, democracy, justice, free will, capitalism, the power of reason and logic, and individualism all emerged in Western culture as a result of the cultural changes brought on by the Renaissance period and 17th century Enlightenment.
Unfortunately, our primitive ego is interested only in power; the power to control that comes with knowledge; the power to create the illusion of safety that comes with understanding. But there is an equally powerful knowledge that comes from the wisdom of knowing that we are not greater or more powerful than the forces of nature. Our ancestors understood the power of humility; the importance of working “with” the natural cycles of life.
They honored the limits inherent in our humanity and the limits inherent in the natural laws of the created universe. They worshiped their Gods and honored the spirit of the Earth Mother that sustained them. They intuitively “knew” that our species represents only a very, very, tiny part of the unimaginatively large and overwhelmingly complex Creation we call our Universe. They understood and embraced the concept of humility.
We have unarguably made great scientific and technical advances in the last four hundred years, but despite hundreds of years of scientific study and inquiry we have only begun to scratch the surface of ultimate knowledge regarding the mysteries of our universe. Yet in our hubris we have come to believe that we can--without consequence--control the forces of nature and safely ignore the limits of natural law.
Our hubris and blind faith in the supremacy of reason and logic, combined with our cultural rejection of wisdom and intuition, has clearly put us on a path that could ultimately end up destroying everything we have created.
Only our more feminine, contemplative observing ego has the ability to sit quietly and humbly in awe of what we do not yet understand. Only our observing ego is capable of the humility and wisdom we need to ensure our survival as a self-reflective species; to honor the limits that come with finite life. And unlike our narcissistic primitive ego, to know that we are not God.
If we are to experience wholeness, we must learn to integrate logic and reason with wisdom and intuition. We must learn bring both sides of our intellect into full consciousness; a level of consciousness often referred to as the Authentic Self; the Essential Self. Until we achieve this level of spiritual integration we will remain psychically fragmented and cut off as a species from the full potential of our reflexive consciousness.
We may not be fully ready for the challenges that we have unknowingly created for ourselves, but ready or not, they will soon be upon us. These challenges are going to force us as a self-conscious species to move beyond the current adolescent narcissism of our species and intentionally manifest a more mature adult consciousness. Primitive Ego Theory is an effective tool to ensure this “conscious evolution” of our consciousness, but the choice is ours and time is running out. Life as we know it is about to undergo some very challenging changes.
We all depend on the Earth and its resources for our survival. The earth is humanity’s only life support system and it simply can no longer continue to support “unlimited” human expansion and consumption. For those who have the courage to look at the growing evidence, our planet’s fragile life support system is already showing significant signs of stress.
If sustainability is the concept that must become part of every economic and environmental decision we make in our human cultures, then our current uncontrolled population growth, encouraged by primitive ego denial, is clearly not sustainable.
Despite the fact that our planet “cannot sustainably support” even one billion people at our current Western standard of living, India and China are both about to attempt increasing that number to four or five billion! The reality is simple. Our planet simply cannot support that kind of growth. But the most important question is whether we are going to redistribute our immense wealth voluntarily and peacefully or wait until 8 billion people living in poverty take it from us.
I am convinced that until we find ways to begin reducing the number of people living on our planet and begin to voluntarily redistribute the wealth that we enjoy in the Western world, we are going to continue our headlong rush toward severe global upheaval. At some point, it is inevitable that those living in extreme poverty, roughly 80% of the world’s population, are going to run out of patience. They are not going to ask for their right to share in the benefits of a 21st century civilization, they are going to demand it as their moral right.
Because our narcissistic “me” oriented primitive ego is rarely willing to share with “others” what we subjectively feel is “ours”, I am also convinced that simply waiting for our human culture to voluntarily mature and evolve our primitive ego consciousness into that of a more compassionate and spiritually mature observing ego consciousness is also unrealistic.
The primitive ego’s of the wealthy are not going to voluntarily agree to higher taxes as a way of beginning to redistribute their enormous wealth to those living in poverty, and the primitive ego’s of middle class Americans and Europeans are not going to voluntarily reduce their standard of living to globally sustainable levels so we can more realistically and safely digest the rapid increase in the living standard of several billion people in China and India coming within the next couple of generations.
I am convinced that Primitive Ego Psychology© and specifically the Primitive Ego Theory of Human Social and Spiritual Development© are mental health tools that could effectively lead our species toward the level of psychological intelligence that we so badly need to achieve.
Using the primitive ego thinking process of our unconscious inner-child simply does not make sense when we take the time to understand its limitations and dangers. Once a person develops the insight and self-awareness to begin paying attention to the many embarrassing ways we manifest primitive ego thinking in our day-to-day interactions with those around us (see Index B), like a snake shedding it skin, growth in consciousness would become almost effortless.
I believe that if the insights and wisdom of Primitive Ego Psychology were taught to grammar school and high school students in our public school system, we could experience a significant increase in human consciousness within one or two generations.
If the wisdom of Primitive Ego Psychology© could become a self-conscious part of the adult human psyche, the ability of our species to create a truly compassionate global culture would increase dramatically. We would have the tools to evolve both our individual and collective consciousness, and the ability to more intentionally take control of the evolutionary future of our species.
If we could become more conscious and self-aware of the energy we are manifesting and projecting into the world we would find ourselves less frightened by the unknown, more able to creatively engage the challenges that are an integral part of life, and most importantly, we would have the ability to manifest a more authentic and matured spirituality; the ability to live more gently with the natural laws of nature and creation….especially those of the earth mother that birthed us.
Our primitive ego belief that “if it doesn’t impact me directly, it is not ‘real’ ” is a very dangerous way to live. Just because our primitive ego embraces a strongly held belief does not mean that it accurately reflects truth. We must learn to embrace reality and facts even when they conflict with the narcissistic ideologies and firmly held beliefs of our primitive ego.
As most of the scientific world is already warning, continuing to deny the reality of global warming and the dangers of non-sustainable economic expansion will inevitably lead to irreversible planetary changes capable of threatening life as we know it; and could even potentially lead to the eventual extinction of our species.
Individuals and species that survive and evolve always deal with the reality of “what is”, with high levels of flexibility, and an open acceptance of change. The Navajo’s called this “huzho”….. the ability to be “one” with “what is”. When faced with drought for example, rather than pray and drum for rain, the Navajo would dance and pray to become “one” with the drought. They survived when others perished. They embraced the realities that faced them. They knew that ignoring or denying the reality of the real world was a sure and certain path to disaster.
We may live in the modern world, but we would do well to challenge the denial inherent in primitive ego thinking and begin to embrace the concept of huzho.
Authentic spiritual growth through the evolution of our primitive ego consciousness however, is a very difficult journey to sustain until we are open to bringing our spiritual practices into a mutually supportive community. Authentic spiritual growth is an inner light best reflected in relationship with others. When asked if he was enlightened, the master replied. I do not know. Ask my wife and my children. Only they can know.
Unconditional love, compassion, justice, care, inclusiveness, diversity, and cooperation are always manifested and shared in community with others. If we are serious about our spiritual growth, if we want to achieve authentic spiritual growth, then we need to find others who are also interested in growing spiritually and come together in community to mutually support one another on our respective journeys.
The following is a summary of what I believe will be some of the critical challenges that we will soon be facing as a human culture. I have no doubt that there are other challenges coming that I have not included so feel free to add to the list.
The important thing to remember is that none of these challenges can be effectively solved using only our primitive ego consciousness. They will require a far greater flexibility, a willingness to deal with “what is” rather than “what we would like things to be”, and the courage to change despite the uncertainties that many of these challenges present.
The dangers of religious, political, and cultural tribalism (we are no longer defined in tribal language, we must quickly learn to let go of tribal ideologies(religious, political, and economic) and embrace the reality that we have become a global species)
Theism: the dangers inherent in mainline religions antiquated tribal definition of God (see Issue #31 of the Stonyhill Newsletter)
Master narratives and tribal ideologies (religious, political, and economic) that displace truth
Our blind acceptance of the myth called unlimited economic expansion (see article above)
Global over population (see article above)
Our blind dependence on fossil fuels
The danger of world poverty (many empires have fallen when its people faced hunger)
The depletion and redistribution of the earth’s natural resources(our planetary life support system is showing signs of stress and malfunction)
Global warming ( many scientists are now warning that our previous models are no longer accurate and that the changes are coming more rapidly than previously predicted.)
Food shortages (billions of people are suffering with hunger and poverty…many are children) (see article above)
Lack of access to adequate health care (people living in poverty, roughly ¾ of the worlds population, do not have access to modern health care) (see article above) According to United Nations figures, the lack of effective family planning in poverty areas of the world result in population growth of 70 million to 80 million unwanted pregnancies annually, 19 million abortions and an estimate 150,000 maternal deaths. Women burdened with the care of these unwanted children are trapped in poverty. The men often abandon these women when faced with providing for all of their unwanted children. Population growth and poverty are mutually supportive and self-sustaining.
Global financial systems are currently driven by greed and the illusion of wealth)
Availability to access fresh water for drinking and for irrigation.
Species extinction of land and ocean based life forms (we are currently in the middle of the greatest species extinction the planet has every seen….virtually all extinctions are the result of environmental changes created by human culture)
The rapidly growing digital information and collective intelligence that computers are beginning to compile regarding our personal lives (for example most automotive dealers can obtain bank financing for you, get the vehicle insured, close out your trade in vehicle with the bank that currently holds your mortgage and the insurance company that insured it, and issue a new title and a registration from the Department of Motor Vehicles at 9 p.m. on a Saturday night with nothing but your social security number!!)
Energy storage: our batteries and hydrogen cell technology is not yet sophisticated enough or capable of storing power generated by solar, wind, and ocean waves to supply the power needed to operate an electric car or provide stored power adequate to run the average home
The myth of rugged individualism vs. the power of community: most new creative advances happen by teams of people not individuals alone, no one group or individual possess absolute truth….the world is gray and every issue is defined by shade of gray (middlepath thinking), and we will survive not as individuals, but through the evolution and spiritual growth of our species as a whole.
Humanities tendency to see earth as an object, rather than a living, evolving life support system for all life on the planet.
Lack of systemic thinking and our current throw away mentality ( see article above)
Radical sustainability and accepting the real cost of everything we manufacture and purchase must quickly become fundamental realities in every decision we make as individuals and as a species.
And finally here are some additional predictions of specific changes that are almost certainly coming:
The cost of fuel is going to reach $5 to $8 dollars a gallon within the next five to seven years (the era of inexpensive petroleum based energy is coming to an end (we are running out of cheap oil, India and China will begin to drive prices up as their economies come on line, Europe has been paying $5 to $8 dollars a gallon for years, and many of the exporting countries will need their oil production to power their own internal economies);
Property tax assessments are going to see significant increases in the next three to five years as local and state governments struggle to balance their budgets;
The price of food and other day to day household items are going to rise significantly due to probable double digit inflation in the next couple of years;
The costs of manufactured items are going to increase dramatically in the next ten to fifteen years as we begin to include the real costs of producing those manufactured item (increasingly costs for green manufacturing, the cost of recycling and green disposal, a carbon tax to deal with air pollution);
Given the amount of money that the governments of the world are throwing at the current economic crisis it is fairly certain that our financial markets will recover over the next few years as everyone goes back to business as usual, but when the expected inflation hits and the myth of unlimited economic expansion begins to unravel, stock market investors can be pretty certain to see the appreciation of their investments begin to slow down or even drop to reflect more realistic forward looking returns as the economy begin to reflect the new 21st century realities we are talking about;
The price and availability of commodities such as copper, zinc, antimony, steel, titanium, lead, gold, tin, silver, indium,potash, magnesium, and other natural resources are going to increase dramatically as China, India, and other developing countries begin to consume ever increasing amounts of these natural resources. The demand for these commodities is already exceeding our global ability to supply them.
It is impossible to forecast exactly when any of the challenges and crises listed above are actually going to arrive, but they are coming, and when they do they are going to significantly impact life as we know it. It is reasonable to assume that the majority of these changes will begin to exert significant impact on our way of life within the next 10 to 15 years; some will arrive much sooner.
Here is a partial list of some of the more critical limitations of our inner child’s primitive ego thinking process that needs to be replaced by more psychologically intelligent, enlightened, and observing consciousness thinking. As we become more intentionally aware of our knee jerk tendency to use primitive ego thinking, we will find ourselves intuitively moving toward the manifestation of a more enlightened social behavior. Once you know that there is a primitive ego controlling the way you relate to the world, change will begin.
It is important to remember that the primitive ego of your inner child is not bad…..it is simply the ego of a child. It is not reasonable to ask a child of 6 or 7 years of age to run your adult life. No child of that age has the life experience or understanding of the adult world to make effective choices.
Almost always, our inner child is simply using childhood survival skills to try to keep us safe from such things as perceived danger, criticism, abandonment, being ignored, not heard, and shame. We need to thank them for attempting to take care of us, but we also need to encourage them to let our more adult consciousness find a more enlightened and mature way of handling things.
The Primitive Ego Thinking Process Is Reflected In:
Our tendency toward splitting; using lack and white, all or nothing thinking
Belief that happiness comes from the world, not internally
Lack of introspection and self-awareness
Often very emotionally reactive in relationships with others
Tendency to take things personally
Survival of the fittest, vertical power, power over others, needs to be in control
Temper tantrum when needs are not met
Sense of entitlement
Perfectionism
Perceives others as objects
Is only able to offer conditional love to others
Sees world through the eyes of one’s inner-child, emotionally stuck in the past
Unintegrated split off parts of self
Our tendency to blame others for our feelings; the inability to own our own feelings
Our high level of self-focused narcissism; our lack of empathy, mutuality, and compassion
Our “me first” mentality, our tendency to use vertical power, survival of the fittest thinking
The belief that happiness and evil comes from the world; inability to see that both evil and love come from our own hearts
Our inability to delay satisfaction; to look beyond immediate needs and pleasures
Our belief that all of our beliefs represent absolute truth; our need to be right and in control
Our aggressive behavior when any of the above are challenged by others
Our inability to be self-reflective; to intentionally work on becoming more self-aware
Our tribal belief that “others” should not be trusted; us vs. them judgmentalism of others
Our inability to let go of the past and live in the moment with the reality of “what is”
Our inability to listen to others; especially when we disagree with them
Blind obedience to authority figures; eg. the belief that the bible is the literal word of God and should be obeyed without question; the belief that autonomy is unsafe and leads to punishment
Use denial to avoid uncomfortable realities unless we are being directly and personally impacted in the here and now.
Our tendency to deny reality or “what is”, and embrace the hopeful illusion that the world will somehow actually function the way we would “like it to function”.
The inability to recognize that no one can make us feel anything that isn’t already inside of us.
Our impatience; our insistence on “getting what we want, when we want it”
Our need to aggressively protect us and keep us safe from perceived threats to our well-being. Our primitive ego continually scans the world for threats. It sees “others” as potentially dangerous. It easily become very suspicious and fearful of anyone who is different. Given the reality that we see what we expect to see, it means that our primitive ego often sees the world as very threatening and very easily becomes frightened. When a child is frightened it often becomes aggressive and combative. Our primitive ego believes that the best way to remain safe is to reject those who are different, and to isolate ourselves from outside threats. ( Fearful, aggressive, right wing extremists are driven by primitive ego fears. They aggressively fear terrorists, homosexuals, blacks, orientals, immigrants, and those who have different tribal beliefs such as religious, economic, or political beliefs)
Learn to become more self-aware of the energy and behaviors we are manifesting. Especially those unconscious behaviors that are on auto-pilot or what I refer to as “knee jerk responses”. Almost always these unconscious automatic behaviors are simply childhood survival skills unconsciously driven by our primitive ego. Unfortunately they often get in the way of our ability to create compassionate communities and friendships with other people; a serious problem when we realize that the changes that are coming are going to require us to work cooperatively in community with others. Teamwork and systemic thinking will make the changes and problems that are coming much easier to solve. They were created by human culture, and they will best be solved by human culture. If we try to isolate ourselves or attempt to work alone to cope with the challenges that are coming, our potential for success will be significantly reduced. The Marlboro man will quickly find himself isolated, alone, unhappy, powerless, and struggling simply to survive.
Eat less meat. Much of the methane and carbon based gases that cause global warming come the global production of beef. Experts suggest we begin by eating vegetarian one or two days a week. The reduction in global warming CO2 and methane would be significant. *See Footnote Below
Limit the use of fish being used as food for pets. This one change would go a long ways toward protecting our critically stressed global fisheries.
Start a community or coop vegetable garden. A garden coop can supply a significant amount of your annual consumption of fruits and vegetables…..and significantly reduce your exposure to harmful pesticides and herbicides.
Start a compost pile to supply your garden with fertilizer. Petroleum based fertilizers are going to become very expensive as the price of oil resumes it climb.
Grow fruit trees in your yard. Barter for vegetables that others are growing.
Live closer to work. The cost of fuel is going to continue to climb significantly over the next three to five years. The shorter your commute, the less you will be spending on car expenses and fuel. Consider riding a bike to work…..or walking. Some experts predict that fuel will undoubtedly increase to $5 to $8 per gallon in the coming years.
Eliminate Debt. The money you pay on interest to carry your debt load is a waste of valuable financial resource for you and your family. Adopt a pay as you go philosophy. Save ahead for those larger ticket items that you know are coming….car, home repair, etc.
Reduce your overhead. Down size. Most people are living in homes far larger than they need. A home requires fuel to heat, electricity to run, maintenance and repairs, property taxes, lawns to mow and maintain, etc. The larger your home, the larger your overhead. Reducing the number of cars, televisions, computers, stereos, clothes, etc can help to reduce overhead costs too. Most of us are drowning in “stuff”. The larger your home, the more likely you are to have rooms full of “stuff”.
Simplify your life. When you slow down you will find yourself reading more, spending more time with people you care about, eating better, exercising more, and surprisingly, needing less “stuff” in your life.
Purchase smaller, more fuel efficient cars. Many people own cars that are larger than they need. The larger they are, the more fuel they require to operate.
Begin now to replace old windows with modern insulated windows. Most of the heat energy in a home is lost through doors and windows. Increasing the R value of insulation in the walls of your home and upgrading the insulating factor in your windows and doors could save you significant money as the cost of home heating fuels and energy begin to increase. Spreading the cost of these improvements over the next five to ten years will ease the financial impact on your household budget. It is important to remember that increases in home heating fuel costs are going to keep pace with automotive fuel costs.
Reduce wants and focus on needs. This is part of simplifying. As you shift from primitive ego “wants” and begin to focus more on “needs”, your life will automatically begin to slow down and simplify. Remember, the cost of “stuff” is going to continue increasing. Experts predict inflation could reach high double digit numbers in the next few years. Your financial resources are going to be under significant pressure. Saving money where you can will become very important.
Recycle. Remember the real cost of the “stuff” we purchase needs to include the cost of green manufacturing, green disposal, and green recycling…..especially the hazardous materials contained in the “stuff” we purchase. These real green costs are going to be increasingly included in the over all cost of manufactured goods in the coming years. When added to inflation, the pressure on your financial resources is going to be significant.
Fight the primitive ego tendency of using denial to avoid those things we would rather ignore. Become more conscious, self-aware, and learn to live in the real world. Learn to become more “psychologically intelligent”. Our primitive egos always want “more”, not less.
Replace expensive habits like going out to dinner, going to concerts, golf, skiing, music collection, etc with less expensive hobbies such as reading, hiking, learning a musical instrument, learning another language, digital photography, volunteering at your local hospital or a local non-profit agency, etc.
Limit the size of your family. Global overpopulation is a major cause of poverty and malnutrition….especially among children. Children in larger families often are denied the opportunities available to children from smaller families.
Begin aggressively saving for your retirement. Most people are poorly prepared to finance a comfortable retirement. Be sure to keep your retirement funds well diversified. It’s a rare retiree that doesn’t wish they had saved more for their retirement. Downsizing, simplifying your lifestyle, and eliminating debt can be very helpful tools when saving for retirement.
Develop streams of income. Many people reject small hobbies or business ventures because they can not “live” off of them. Financial planners today are emphasizing the concept called “streams of income”. When you have enough streams coming together, you could eventually end up with a good sized river! A river that could take a lot of stress and pressure off of finding or maintaining a “job”. This concept can be very helpful for retirees.
These are not suggestions that need to be made immediately, but the sooner you begin intentionally making these changes, the more you will find yourself prepared when the challenges and crises we talked about in the article actually arrive. Empower yourself so you are not “shocked” when the totally expected actually arrives.
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*We could make a significant contribution to reducing global warming if we simply cut our meat consumption by 20 %. This simple spiritual practice would protect the earth mother that birthed us and increase our enlightenment…our evolutionary spirituality….our ability to work “with” the laws of Nature and the Initial Evolutionary Impulse that created our universe rather than “against” it. As reflectively conscious beings, we are an integral force involved in shaping and creating the future of our world. Enlightenment is more than a personal goal, it is the goal of our species. Enlightenment is more than a psychological goal. It is how we act and behave; what we manifest. It is who we are.
For those of you who are looking for a spiritual practice that will make a significant difference for the world, consider the following:
It has been shown that eating too much meat is unhealthy; a primary cause of heart problems and clogged arteries.
It is expensive.
Cattle production is a major contributor of green house gases and global warming. Cow manure releases nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas that has roughly 300 times the warming effect of CO2. They pass about 200 liters of methane gas. Methane gas has 23 times the warming impact of CO2. When you consider the fact that there are 100 million beef cattle in the United States alone, these statistics begin to point to a significant cause of global warming.
It is estimated that livestock production is responsible for 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Cattle are raised on large amounts of grain which is very energy-intensive to produce.
It takes roughly ten times the grain required to produce the same number of calories from meat than it does from grain alone. In other words, it takes 10 units of grain to produce the same number of calories in meat that you would get from one unit of grain alone. Most of the world’s grain production is fed to cattle, not people.
The methane gas that comes from cow manure stays in the atmosphere far longer than CO2.
Roughly 30% of the world’s land surface area is devoted to livestock production and the damage to soil and surrounding water resources is very high.
Compared to rice and vegetables, beef uses 16 times as much energy and produces 25 times as much CO2.
In Latin America roughly 70% of former forest cover is now being used for grazing.
The average person in the industrialized world eats about 180 pounds of meat a year. People in the developing nations consume about 68 pounds a year. Between population growth and the fact that as the world economy grows for countries like China and India, one of the first things they will do is increase their meat consumption.
(The majority of these statistics came from Rajendra Pachauri, head of the U.N.’S Nobel Prize winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.)(Http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1839995,00.html)36
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