Notes from the Revolution

Sometimes I feel like an itinerant geologist traveling to different locations to take readings of the seismic activity beneath the earth’s surface and to detect any potential tectonic shifts. The only difference is that my field of study is not rocks but consciousness!

I frequently lead Evolutionary Enlightenment seminars and Enlightened Communication discussion groups in various EnlightenNext centers and other locations in Europe and the United States. In facilitating discussions both for members of EnlightenNext and for the general public who come to these events, I have an unusual vantage point. I’ve written on Notes from the Revolution about the unexpected and startling developments in consciousness that are taking place via conference calls, but a large part of my work and exploration occurs in the context of in-person discussion groups.

Recently I led a day seminar at the EnlightenNext center in Paris, assisted by my colleague Patrick Bryson. As soon as I entered the room to begin the event, I was aware of a powerful current of consciousness. I instantly knew that whatever was about to happen would be successful. The feeling of confidence was like a strong wind behind a sailing ship, but it had nothing to do with Patrick or me—we hadn’t even said a word at that point!

My experience leading Enlightened Communication groups over the past few years has brought me face-to-face with the extraordinary reality of a collective enlightened state and the truth of the non-local nature of this phenomenon, which has been demonstrated in an undeniable way. For example, in public Evolutionary Enlightenment events I was leading in Copenhagen and New York two months ago, people who had no prior experience of Evolutionary Enlightenment or Enlightened Communication found themselves in a shared state of higher consciousness, which coincided with the beginning of the sustained worldwide shift in consciousness among Andrew’s student body documented here on this blog.

That collective experience was characterized by what one student described as “an all-consuming unity among us—an existential relaxation born of a shift of identification to a sea of universal, non-local consciousness and, as a result, the profound feeling of being at home with everyone and everything.” But what transpired in Paris this past weekend went beyond even that, and any Enlightened Communication event I had previously been a part of!

The atmosphere within the group of about thirty people (which included newcomers who had no prior exposure to Enlightened Communication or Evolutionary Enlightenment) began with a shared state of higher unity, which is where we would have previously ended up. Although the experience was blissful (it was described by one person as “champagne in the cells” – this was France after all!), what was profoundly significant was that no one wanted to stop there. As if out of nowhere, there arose an urgent passion to explore and understand the nature and significance of what was occurring. People spoke with a rare and discriminating comprehension about what was unfolding, about the paradoxical qualities of the intersubjective consciousness we were immersed in. Patrick said afterwards that it was as if some extraordinary force was let loose, at the same time that it remained within our control, taking us all into a vast, unknown, and completely new dimension.

Having realized over the past few months the extraordinary and inherently non-local nature of collective consciousness, I immediately suspected that what was taking place among those thirty people in Paris, many of whom were participating for the first time, may be connected to a significant development in conscious evolution occurring in Andrew’s body of students, as well as in other events at EnlightenNext centers throughout the world. My intuition was confirmed the next morning when I heard that in Enlightened Communication events in Boston and New York City that same weekend, there was a very similar quality of investigation. People in these groups moved beyond merely enjoying the experience of collective higher consciousness, and were actively shifting their attention to understanding its significance. One participant in Boston described it as “a vortex of interest” in which she was understanding this higher state of consciousness “from the inside out.” And a fellow student, Mary Adams, who led the group in New York, described it as “one of the most subtle and exquisitely intelligent Enlightened Communication groups I have ever been in.”

What I heard from others, and what I myself witnessed in the discussion group in Paris last weekend, is redefining the larger goal and purpose of these groups. A deeper interest in furthering the development of consciousness is superseding a focus on the experience of collective higher consciousness, however blissful it may be. And in that light, it is clearer and clearer to me that when we speak of being motivated by the evolution of consciousness, this is not hyperbole or some poetic metaphor. What is most significant is that when people come together with that shared interest, it actually makes higher levels of awareness and understanding more and more widely available for others.

As we continue to stretch to apprehend and articulate the swirling infinite potential on the horizon of our collective field of experience, I vividly sense we are bringing untapped creative novelty into manifestation, into actual existence for anyone else to be able to access. Integral philosopher Ken Wilber has described new advances in human development or understanding as being the basis for what he calls “Kosmic grooves,” or “Kosmic habits.” In a recent Guru and the Pandit dialogue from What Is Enlightenment? magazine titled “Following the Grain of the Cosmos” he explains:

And in another Guru and Pandit dialogue, titled Higher Integration, Ken elaborates on the challenge of what it takes to bring these new “Kosmic grooves” into existence:

Indeed, when I am sitting with a circle of people and I witness an immediate unity and a higher collective intelligence emerging right in front of my eyes, I am more and more convinced that the beginnings of new Kosmic grooves really are being laid down in consciousness. As I continue to take soundings on my travels, I do feel that I am scratching into fresh earth, and listening for the seismic murmurs of a new tectonic movement!