What’s Actually Happening With The Consciousness Shift on the Planet?
Entering a new phase of experience
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If you’ve been exploring spirituality over the past few years, one thing you may have heard people talk about is the “shift in consciousness” happening on the earth right now.
They point to the renewed interest in spirituality, contemplative practices, accessibility of sacred medicines, and increasing numbers of the population who are waking up to a deeper identity.
My thoughts on this have evolved over the years and I woke up inspired to share my updated sense-making for what is actually going on.
Is there a shift in consciousness on the planet happening right now?
Yes.
But the consciousness on the planet has always been shifting and expanding.
So why is it that now people seem to be beating the drum about this?
My hot take on the feeling of an underlying shift is that more people are experiencing a novel delineation in experience which is being amplified by the information age.
Let’s explore this in more depth after some background.
What Does A Shift “Consciousness” Even Mean
I think of consciousness as the context through which we experience reality. It is our vantage point and container for experience. It is impacted by many things, but perhaps the most primary is our awareness of absolute reality.
Awareness of absolute reality is our capacity to see the true nature of things. This includes:
Who we are
Why do we respond and experience life the way we do
What unconscious influences impact our experience
What is actually happening with material reality unfolding around us
As awareness expands, we develop a deeper capacity to see and understand these things more clearly.
The impact of major shifts in consciousness tend to be all encompassing. As we unfold more deeply into authenticity and understand our true nature, it impacts how we relate to others, wisdom, our desires, predominant emotions, attitudes, physical structure, thoughts, and perceptions.
Shifts in consciousness are fundamental. It’s why channeling your energy towards it is so compelling.
Consciousness Expressions
The notion that there is a consciousness, or context for experience, is not limited to an individual entity.
It can be applied to many things beyond the experience of animal including any collective. A country has a consciousness. A company has a consciousness. An interest group has a consciousness.
The consciousness of something is an expression of its parts. So the consciousness of a country can be thought of as an expression of the consciousness of its population.
Models of Human Development
Many great thinkers have recognized that there is a fairly consistent continuum of human experience which is mediated by the evolution of consciousness. These models have attempted to plot out how this experiences expresses to provide a map of human evolution. Here are some examples:
David Hawkins Map of Consciousness.
I’ve written extensively about my experience with this here.
Ego Development Theory / Stages International
There’s a ton of these type of models. The more robust ones all point to a similar trajectory of humans moving from an ego-dominant perception of separateness, to a more unified vision of Self and reality. Concurrent with this shift is the expansion of love, wisdom, contribution, and innate wholeness.
Consciousness Has Always Been Shifting
If we look back at the past 1000 years, we can see many developments which reflect the development of human consciousness.
1000(ish) years ago - humans lived in the middle ages in a world dominated by feudalism. There were marked gender and class hierarchies. Major innovations included gunpowder and printing. Relative to today, this all seems very primitive.
100 years ago - in America, the concept of mass production really took hold. The ratification of the 19th amendment enabled women to vote for the first time. There were still racial segregation laws in parts of this country. Better than 1000 years ago, but still pretty undeveloped relative to today.
50 years ago - the personal computer was developed setting the stage for the digital age. Civil rights continued to progress in a more inclusive way. The environmental movement started to take hold, reflected by events like the Clean Water Act (1972) and Endangered Species Act (1973).
10 years ago - Mental health awareness started to become more socially accepted. A greater emphasis on diversity, inclusion, and equity in the workplace started to become more prominent. Unprecedented technical innovation relative to 50 years ago.
Reflecting on this timeline reveals that humans have continued to evolve into more interconnected, aware, technologically advanced, and inclusive societies.
Many people look at this from the lens of knowledge, instead of recognizing that this is actually just an expression of a more robust consciousness which creates the conditions for knowledge.
Consider that the raw materials on the planet have always been the same. The laws of physics have always been in operation. We’ve always lived in groups of people to varying degrees.
What’s changed is our perspective which is based on our awareness of the true nature of things.
One way to think about knowledge is that we are unfolding into a deeper understanding of what already is. Take our evolution of how we view Earth as an example. The widening circles represent the expansion of awareness and subsequent ability to see what already is clearly.
Awareness creates the conditions for knowledge.
This understanding explains why many of the teachings of evolved beings hundreds and thousands of years ago are now overlapping with the latest “discoveries” of modern science. Science as a way of knowing is catching up to information from the original way of knowing: direct experience. Due to the limited number of humans who had access to a consciousness that could realize such knowledge, a more observable way of knowing was necessary for human development.
Awareness which supports knowledge empowers humans to actualize it. The results in a more complex and evolved world moving that moves towards a more robust expression of potential that already is.
Despite the advancements over the past 1,000 years, humans in aggregate still have a long way to go for the collective consciousness to move into a more unified state of wholeness. To get a sense of what this may look like, you can check out the consciousness models above which attempt to describe how the greater depths of consciousness tend to express at the individual level. As more individuals move into this experience, it will express collectively.
I think it’s important to point out that pockets of ancient societies seemed to live more harmoniously with the earth and each other than we do today. This also didn’t seem to be the predominant case. By and large, I think there is a lot of evidence that reflects humans have evolved to a more expanded state of consciousness over the past 1000 years.
So Why Does It Feel So Different Right Now?
Looking at the meta models of consciousness, there’s really 3 different explanations for the feeling of a consciousness shift right now:
The expression of the current shift is more novel relative to the past, making it feel like a big shift is happening
There’s a much more rapid acceleration in consciousness expansion than in past history
Both
My sense is the answer is 1 or 3, and I have more certainty about 1.
Each model of consciousness has stages, and then the notion of a phase or paradigm shift.
Generally the phase shift is associated with a major shift in identity that occurs when a being recognizes it is not its body and thoughts, but rather an experiencer of that. When this is recognized, the being also becomes aware that its consciousness is actually a conditioned consciousness. This inspires an exploration for truth, authenticity and returning to its true Self.
Hawkins denotes this paradigm shift in what he calls the move from the linear to the non-linear or spiritual paradigm at an energy calibration of 500+ on his scale.
Spiral dynamics denotes the paradigm shift from the postmodern stage of development to integral stages.
The Stages model which is tightly intertwined with ego development theory delineates the paradigm shift as one moves from 4th person perspective to 5th person perspective.
Relative to other shifts in the stages of human consciousness, these phase shifts are much more distinct because the sense of “who you are” changes.
For example, the shift in identity represents a much bigger transformation than going from an ego-centric materialist who mostly focuses on self advancement, to someone who still identifies with the ego and now cares more about the world around them. This person still identifies as their thoughts and body.
So my sense is that this “feeling” that a big shift in consciousness is happening right now is more acutely an expression of more people moving through a distinct phase shift. That’s why it feels like there is this “big acceleration.”
If we were to view the distribution of human consciousness on a bell curve, this would express as the curve moving. In this hypothetical illustration using David Hawkins model, you can see the distribution in the spiritual paradigm has increased dramatically relative to 20 years ago.
Ultimately it’s unclear whether there is an acceleration or we are just now entering an era where more people are going through this marked shift on the human continuum.
Many people will try to measure the consciousness acceleration using something like David Hawkin’s model or point to the underlying physics of the situation as the cause for an accelerant. I.E. as more beings occupy high vibration states of being, it becomes easier for others to ascend. There is a “pulling up effect” based on the law of resonance.
Maybe this is the case. Maybe it’s not. I’m just happy that a greater swath of humanity seems to be moving in a compelling direction.
As more people move through this phase shift, we’re seeing more people acting as shepherds to help others. This is a more physical manifestation of the “pulling up” effect. The shepherding can be seen in everything from the technologies we build to the vocations we hold. This is happening in a big way. For example, I know a ton of ex-executives who are now entering some sort of healing profession.
This shift feeling is also pronounced because it’s happening in the information age. The rise of social media has empowered anyone to have a microphone. Imagine if this happened 500 years ago? You might hear how people in your town are having an awakening, but that’s kind of it. This would have felt less like some widespread phenomenon.
I believe these conditions for amplification are aligned to human’s readiness to receive the information and transform. It’s all part of an intelligently designed system which we’ll talk about in the last section of this post.
Why The World Is A Wreck
A lot of people look at what’s happening in the world and find it hard to believe that “consciousness is expanding.”
There’s wars, people are sick, and many systems are fraught with corruption.
What gives?
My personal take on this is two-fold.
Firstly, all of this is a reflection of the consciousness on the planet right now. So as great as it is that many people are moving into more expansive states of being, this still seems to be a minority experience. This has been recognized by most consciousness scholars who believe that most humans are living from a place oriented around survival and self-advancement. These have taken on more evolved forms than literal survival in modernity like accumulation.
If you’re reading this, my guess is you might be an early adopter.
Second, the collective consciousness expansion process mirrors the individual process.
Most people who’ve had significant leaps in consciousness will tell you that the shift can be a destabilizing experience. Often the old paradigm needs to break down, before a new one can be built. This process can be incredibly painful and tumultuous. Some traditions refer to this transitional period as the dark night of the soul…and guess what, this phenomenon can continue to happen as you expand to new vistas of experience.
Many of us have gone through this, and yet expect the global and cultural shifts in consciousness to behave differently.
That’s now how this works.
The process for the species and the individual are one in the same. This alludes to the property of totality and holographic nature of our reality. Each part contains the whole and vice versa.
All this is to say that all the chaos in the world right now is just a natural part of our collective evolution. In my opinion, the growing pains are a necessity for a more expansive and unitive transformation.
It feels like as more people make and are poised for this transition right now, the growing pains are particularly prominent. I suspect we’ll continue to experience this for a good while.
Overall, I find this perspective on why worldly challenges supportive.
It creates a deeper reverence for the world exactly as it is, which doesn’t negate the inspiration to improve it. The difference is that as consciousness shifts, the context for wanting to improve the world moves from patterned reactivity or projection, to a more pure emanation like love for that which you see - because you are that!
Why I’m Not Worried About A.I. Or Any Tech For That Matter
I’d be remiss if I didn’t call out A.I. which seems to be the latest drumbeat of people ruminating on how the world is going to shit.
Is A.I. going to wipe us out? Are we going to become a slave race with no jobs?
In my experience, a distinct feature of consciousness evolution is that the power and capacity we are endowed with aligns to what is supportive for the whole.
For example, in our individual journeys, siddhis or special abilities tend to emerge when someone no longer lives from an ego-centric consciousness. In a brilliantly intelligent design, a being gets access to extraordinary capacity when they possess a pure motive to uplift the whole around them. From this more unitive view and desire, they are bestowed with greater power which they use to help others.
I believe the same property exists for the collective.
Humans only get access to capacities which can further collective evolution when they are ready for them. This holds true with our technological innovation.
It’s easy to look at many things that have been invented like the atomic bomb and ask, how could this possibly further humanity?
I don’t claim to know the answers, but I notice that people tend to look at things from a very fractional, short term perspective that does not take into account totality and human evolution.
If we never had access to a weapon so powerful, what would that mean for humanity’s development of temperance or ability to globally organize? I don’t know for sure, but it’s an interesting thing to reflect on.
My own belief is that technology arises out of the level of consciousness that creates it. I believe implicit in these conditions of advancement are that humanity can handle it and in the long run, it serves the whole.
Again, I think this works precisely the same way as the natural emergence of “inner technology.” If we didn’t have the consciousness to handle it in a way that serves the collective expansion, it would not have emerged. This doesn’t mean there won’t be growing pains and stress throughout the process.
This outlook on A.I. and technology is supportive for me and aligns to my direct experience.
One reflection you may take is to look at history and try to play out what would have happened if current technology existed in prior periods. For example, what if nuclear bombs existed during the crusades? Would they have been used more loosely? What about giving people guns in the middle ages when killing people was no big deal?
It's an interesting exercise to play this out and compare how we exercise our current capacity relative to how cultures of the past might have wielded it. Again, lots of people in power are operating from a shallow depth of consciousness which is why we still see a lot of harmful behavior. Overall, my sense is that our current world is more tempered and less harmful than perhaps many civilizations would have been a thousand years ago.
So, is consciousness rising on the planet?
It always has been and will continue to do so.
I just think we are entering a marked new phase of experience, at a much bigger scale than times of the past.
I am optimistic about the future and see the current state of affairs as a requisite passage for our collective evolution. I think this is an empowering mindset and feel inspired to support this evolution that continues to unfold.
-Scott
If you like my writing, feel free to click the ❤️ or 🔄 button on this post so more people can discover it on Substack 🙏
Great compilation and synthesis of various models of consciousness shift. As an environmentalist and spiritual journeyer one of the things that gives me hope is that evolution in nature rarely happens without pressure. Conditions change and the organism has to change to adapt and thrive. I hope that will be the result of the polycrisis modern humans have created.
This is a masterclass, bravo !