The Complete Idiot's Guide to 2012 - Dr. Synthia Andrews Nd [110]
Social and Religious Tension
As economic pressures build and resources become more limited, competition for resources becomes more intense. The result is an increase in social, religious, and political tension. We’re seeing war for oil in the Middle East, and barely contained stress in many parts of the planet. Fishermen have to travel farther for fewer fish, farmers are forced to buy GM seed, and people have lost faith that governments are in place for them.
How much additional stress will it take to push things beyond control? One pandemic? Five massive hurricanes? Three earthquakes? Or a solar flare that knocks out satellite technology and the power grid? Will you be ready? See Chapter 20 for tips on preparedness.
Assessment 2012
This chapter (as well as the previous three) has assessed the unique stress the global community is under as we head toward 2012. We found consistent support in today’s world for the prophecies of 2012, but this doesn’t mean things have to get worse. We can turn things around with nothing more than a change in attitude.
Population Bottleneck
What the Mayan and New Age predictions describe is what in ecology is called a population bottleneck. This happens when the resources of a system become so narrowed, or conditions become so extreme that the population is massively reduced. Those who get through the neck of the bottle to the next era of growth and expansion have demonstrated an ability to adapt and change.
The bottleneck we are in was predicted by the Mayan prophecies, which say this time eliminates what doesn’t work and establishes a better foundation. Our current mindset doesn’t work. We can’t have unlimited growth with finite resources. We can’t take whatever we want without paying back. The new behaviors we need to adopt may be spiritual. In the creation stories, the earlier ages created the material world. Each time, what was missing in creation was the “people’s” ability or desire to “worship.” We can loosely translate the word worship to mean spiritual awareness. If humanity develops the tools of spiritual awareness, will we make it through the bottleneck? Or more importantly, will the bottleneck be needed at all?
Attitudes for the Fifth Age
It’s been suggested that the bottleneck we’re going through is creating a change in paradigm, or the way in which we see the world. Right now modern man acts as if the material world is all there is. People act as if we are in competition with each other for our piece of the pie. If you get your piece, I might not get mine. How about this: neither if us gets a piece of the pie unless we both do. Or, even better, there is no pie! It’s a myth!
The world is more than matter. Energy flows constantly from one form to another. Imagine money as a flow of energy rather than a piece of a pie. In the pie analogy, once you eat it, it’s gone. In the energy analogy, money is in constant flow, coming in and going out. Can you encompass an idea that we effect the direction of flow? Check out Chapter 21 for more on this.
In our travels around the world and our discussions with elders of many traditions, we have come across attitudes that repeat in all traditional cultures. These are attitudes that can assist us all in the transition underway. You will not be surprised; these four cornerstones are things every culture teaches:
◆ Respect: For self; for others; for all life forms; for the planet itself; for the celestial bodies; for those we walk beside; for our ancestors; for our descendants.
◆ Gratitude: Everything is a gift, nothing can be taken for granted—not the fruits of the earth, not the ground we walk on, not the people we love or the wealth we aspire to. However much we may deserve something or however hard we’ve worked for it, what we have is a gift and can be taken at any moment, including life itself.
◆ Harmony/Balance: The flow of life exists in rhythms and harmonics. All things have their place.