Communication technology has rapidly advanced human consciousness but what comes next?

I have always had a fascination with being a pioneer, exploring a relatively wild frontier.  This was much of my instinct about leaving North America, forging a life in the Andean highlands of Ecuador. Never being a city person, but also never being a country person, always stuck in the suburbs, I found great pleasure in my experiences with wilderness camping. During my last 25 years in the U.S., I lived in suburbia outside of Minneapolis, Minnesota. The North Shore gave me some relief, but it was when I “discovered” the Beartooth Wilderness outside of Red Lodge, Montana. I manufactured a way to enjoy wilderness camping with other men each August, leading groups on a Vision Quest experience.

Peace amid chaos at the Oasis.

When I made the decision to leave the U.S., I found a position as caretaker for a property, an outdoor wedding venue, where I could work six months each year, giving me the other six months to explore Central and South America. To practice living simply, my employer allowed me to craft a rustic apartment in an old barn. I had electricity, but no running water, making my way each morning to the well, where I would haul six gallons for my daily needs. This practice for six years gave me a deep appreciation for simple living and prepared me for the life that I desired to live, now in the campo 30 minutes outside of Cuenca. Here our water supply would come solely from the rain. Obviously, to get through each year’s dry season, we needed a rather substantial water collection system.

Now as we face our first big challenge, things get a bit exciting. I have always loved the expression “necessity is the mother of invention.” My life’s work has been the study of the evolution of consciousness of our species. I have marveled at what we, as homo sapiens, have done well. While we have not excelled in many arenas (world peace, for example), what we have accomplished in the field of communication is extraordinary. I can remember as a young boy my family’s first television. It was more a piece of furniture for the living room, with a tiny screen, of course only black and white. In one lifetime I have witnessed miracles in the technology of communication.

The compelling question, for me, is why? Why have we exceeded generational expectations in this one arena? In my book, “The Third Pulse”, I explore this idea. I imagined the last 100 years, 1932-2032, of our species, the extreme acceleration, especially in relationship with communication. Seven years before I was born, the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. I call this event The First Pulse. In 1967, “the summer of love,” the first ever television broadcast using satellite technology was the BBC event “Our World.” This broadcast was seen by over 400 million people in 44 countries. The featured group, The Beatles, sang the song “All You Need is Love.”  I name this event The Second Pulse.

Fast forward to today, where we sit on the precipice of an amazing experience. Imagine what kind of event could precipitate “world peace?” If our excellence in communication might be our salvation, what could this look like?  A recent example arose during the Covid “crisis.” As the world was essentially shut down for at least a few months, necessity being the mother of invention, there was a sudden explosion of the technology first exemplified by Zoom. Worldwide video connection, essentially for free! Remember the days when a phone call from the East Coast to California was a $20 luxury?

OK, so how do I integrate our advances in communication technology with our evolution of consciousness? What could be the exact nature of The Third Pulse? Is it an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) like the First and Second Pulses? Does it mean, as would a Carrington event, or an all-out nuclear exchange, the end of the world as we know it?  Or could it mean a way in which all the world comes together in the name of love?

I’ll give you a hint and save the explanation for part 3. This is a quote from “A Course in Miracles”, which says, “The end of the world is not its destruction, but its translation into heaven.”

To be continued.