(I am revising my book The Chrysalis Age: A Handbook for Spiritual and Global Transformation in the New Millennium. As part of that process, I am posting the sections of the book as I revise them.)
This journey in mapmaking begins with a metaphor to represent the terrain. The Chrysalis Age is structured around the concept of a spiral, which is http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifan ancient symbol implying transformation. The turns of a spiral relate to the flow of both physical and spiritual energy, suggesting evolution, or physical transformation as the energy flows outward and involution, or spiritual transformation as the energy flows inward. The spiral that is this book turns inward, signifying spiritual transformation by returning to the same fifteen core aspects of the world that it studies, each time from a different and deeper perspective. These aspects of the world cover a wide variety of topics chosen to give the broadest possible assessment of the current state of our world as well as a glimpse at the possible directions it may take.
The first of these is the physical world, which explores the world of oceanic, geological, and meteorological forces that support life and our civilizations. Next is the natural world of life and living things, followed by the human world of societies and cultures. These are then followed by a look at the clash of cultures created by globalizing forces and the effects on modern society of communications technology in media and the mind. We then explore the living conditions of humanity in their urban jumble. After this comes an exploration of globalization in terms of corporate ecology, the global economy and world government. Then we begin an examination of technology starting with progress vs. development, before looking at computers and robotics, genetic engineering, nanotechnology, and the notion of an emerging global brain, or cybiont, from the mesh of interconnected communications that spans the globe. Finally the fifteenth aspect ponders the notion of spiritual emergence and how it might affect our future. Each one of these fifteen aspects is investigated from the dominant perspective of each of the five turns of the spiral that is the Chrysalis Age.
The first turn deals with worldviews, or the different ways that we view reality as we develop as individual humans and collectively as societies and cultures relying on developmental psychology and various studies of sociocultural evolution to suggest that there are deeper ways of perceiving the world available to each of us. This turn explores how we can shift from a world dominated by Traditional and Modern worldviews to one that openly expresses an Integral perspective, and ultimately, a Spiritual one.
The second turn deals with ethics, or the system of morals that we use individually and collectively to make decisions. This turn examines how our ethics is informed and created by our worldview and how deeply our personal and collective ethics affect the transformation of the world.
The last three turns are each about creating a vision of the future and how we can implement it. The third turn focuses on transforming the world in general, providing suggestions for change from an Integral perspective. The fourth turn then explores personal transformation, presenting a series of contemplations and meditations to facilitate personal development toward an Integral worldview. Finally, the fifth turn investigates spiritual transformation, again providing a compliment of meditations to promote the transcendence of our ordinary view of reality for one that sees and embraces the Divine in all things.
The recurrent theme of this book is that we desperately need a new more encompassing worldview and an ethics that is based not in religious dogma or philosophical rationalizations, but a direct understanding of the interconnectedness of the world. Given these two prerequisites of an ever-widening worldview and an ever-deepening ethics, the book then explores how we can begin to imagine a new vision of the world; one that is created in apprehension of its interconnectedness. This vision is in direct opposition to the world we are blindly fashioning in our ignorance. Globalization is in serious need of guidance and spirituality is the single most important tool for shaping that transformation. The pages that follow chart the need for conscious transformation of self and world, examining both from a number of depths and perspectives, suggesting the methods and providing the tools to turn this map into a reality.
Before we can begin with the map itself, we first need to familiarize ourselves with the legend that defines the symbols used to represent the terrain. In this simple analogy the legend is a brief survey of a number of fields that are inter-related, at least from a kosmological point of view. These include globalization and spirituality as well as religion, the psychology of personal development, sociocultural stages of development, stages of transpersonal development, the perennial philosophy, paradigm shifts, complexity and systems theory, issues of epistemology, the Great Chain of Being, holons, the spheres of existence, and finally, philosopher Ken Wilber’s Four Quadrants of Being. These subjects are the filters through which the fifteen layers of the world that are the heart of the map are explored. Each of these topics is introduced before the aspect of the world that it is most related to, highlighting its importance. For instance, in the first turn, complexity theory, or the study of complex networked systems such as ecologies, is discussed before the chapter on the global economy. By viewing the global economy as a complex system similar to an ecosystem, we can gain a greater insight into the dynamics necessary to keep it functioning in an optimal manner that benefits all of the world’s citizens.
Just as the clock altered our conception of time and the compass refined the cartography of the Renaissance, so too will the technology of the Chrysalis Age change and amend our apprehension of the world, improving our ability to represent it. If we use this technology wisely it can aid us in transforming the way we construct our individual and collective maps of reality. This book is but one map of the kosmos and by no means definitive. Because the ground to be mapped is expansive, its scale of representation is by necessity large as well. The book covers a great deal of territory and unfortunately some of its subjects can only be sketched vaguely. This should serve not to discourage the reader, but rather to encourage them toward their own investigation of the world and the deeper reaches of their inner self. We are all mapmakers and this map is by its very nature a challenge to all travelers in this Chrysalis Age to create their own maps, shrinking the scale were they can and working together to provide a clearer picture of the ground we cover jointly. From one mapmaker to another, I hope you enjoy the journey.
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