Articles from the Religious Research Journal

2005

It’s Happening Now

By Tom Hemphill

The most important thing happening today is the preparation for the human race to be completely transformed, as a whole species, to a higher dimension of existence.  Everything else that you and I experience needs to be viewed and understood in light of this transformation event.

This is a theme I’ve touched on often in letters and articles in this journal.  Dr. John repeatedly spoke of the Second Coming of the Christ as a real event, one that we should expect to see in our lifetimes.  I believe the long-awaited Second Coming will not be an appearance of the distorted picture of Jesus worshipped by most Christians, but the actual presence of the high spiritual being who brought Christ-consciousness to Earth through the life and teachings of the Master Jesus. 

I believe the elevation of humankind to a new paradigm, and the Second Coming, are the same event.  Christ incarnated 2000 years ago to lay the groundwork and begin the preparation for us all to evolve.  This ascendancy is our birthright.  This is what our species was created to become. 

                When will this happen? I do not know the date or time, but I expect this transformation of humanity and Earth to occur within my lifetime – and quite possibly within the coming decade.  Indeed, the transformational process is already well under way and will not be stopped. 

Many spiritual people are being taken out of traditional roles in the world as we know it, and are experiencing rapid (and not always comfortable!) spiritual growth.  It is as though we are being prepared for something - something big.  We find ourselves relocated, ideas changed, priorities clarified, values shifted, awareness deepened, spiritual openness heightened, relationships cleansed, love expanded, yin and yang balanced.  

Without knowing a list of facts or doctrines, or even agreeing on the details, we who are involved in this process know we are transforming because we feel it deep inside: we are being transformed and we are to be agents of transforming the world around us.  As the Hopis say, “You are the people you’ve been waiting for.”  The transformation of individual human hearts is already bringing about the transformation of the world.

So how does the change in my heart or your heart bring about a transformation for billions of human beings?  Consider the following excerpt, from The Hundredth Monkey, by Ken Keyes Jr.:

The Japanese monkey, Macaca fuscata, had been observed in the wild for a period of over 30 years.

In 1952, on the island of Koshima, scientists were providing monkeys with sweet potatoes dropped in the sand. The monkeys liked the taste of the raw sweet potatoes, but they found the dirt unpleasant.

An 18-month-old female named Imo found she could solve the problem by washing the potatoes in a nearby stream. She taught this trick to her mother. Her playmates also learned this new way and they taught their mothers too.

This cultural innovation was gradually picked up by various monkeys before the eyes of the scientists.

Between 1952 and 1958 all the young monkeys learned to wash the sandy sweet potatoes to make them more palatable.

Only the adults who imitated their children learned this social improvement. Other adults kept eating the dirty sweet potatoes.

Then something startling took place. In the autumn of 1958, a certain number of Koshima monkeys were washing sweet potatoes -- the exact number is not known.

Let us suppose that when the sun rose one morning there were 99 monkeys on Koshima Island who had learned to wash their sweet potatoes.

Let's further suppose that later that morning, the hundredth monkey learned to wash potatoes.

THEN IT HAPPENED!

By that evening almost everyone in the tribe was washing sweet potatoes before eating them.

The added energy of this hundredth monkey somehow created an ideological breakthrough!

But notice.

A most surprising thing observed by these scientists was that the habit of washing sweet potatoes then jumped over the sea --

Colonies of monkeys on other islands and the mainland troop of monkeys at Takasakiyama began washing their sweet potatoes.

Thus, when a certain critical number achieves an awareness, this new awareness may be communicated from mind to mind.

Although the exact number may vary, this Hundredth Monkey Phenomenon means that when only a limited number of people know of a new way, it may remain the conscious property of these people.

But there is a point at which if only one more person tunes-in to a new awareness, a field is strengthened so that this awareness is picked up by almost everyone!

This is a clear picture of how God is working through us – all of us with open hearts, clear minds and a desire to cooperate with God’s will.  We spiritually open our consciousness to new awareness, love-centered values, greater trust.  As we do so each of us is, as it were, learning to wash our sweet potato in the stream. 

When will “the moment” come for humanity?  When will humanity ascend?  When will Christ come again?  When the hundredth (human) monkey “gets it.”

It was not literally “Monkey No. 100” who turned the awareness of the whole tribe.  The “hundredth monkey” is a way of expressing a profound spiritual reality: all of us, at our deepest level, share the same consciousness.   

This is not new.  Schopenhauer said in the 1920s, “The total number of minds in the universe is One.”  And many of us would add, “The total number of hearts in the universe is One.”  For 10,000 years of stressful human existence we have known our separateness; now we will know our Oneness, and thus become the species that God always intended us to be.

What the experiments with Japanese monkeys proved is that not only humans but monkeys also can tap into a common knowledge pool – including those humans or monkeys who did not learn it for themselves.  The new awareness (of how to wash a sweet potato) becomes part of the race consciousness.  It becomes one more thing that “everyone knows” and all the species experience it. 

Not all members of a species must go through a certain learning or training or growth experience.  When enough of us have done that work – washing sweet potatoes or opening to spiritual awareness - the blessing of knowing is available to all.

In this same way, we are progressing toward our destiny as a species.  Dr. John taught that the promise of the Second Coming is real.  Humanity is being lifted – and is lifting itself – into a higher paradigm of existence. 

I believe that all humans who are prepared will share in this transformation.   It will spread from the few who have been challenged and nurtured to be leaders, and it will spread not just across one’s immediate community (the monkeys on the original island), but throughout society and throughout the world – just as happened with the monkeys’ new awareness.

Not all of humanity will be ready and able to make this transition at the same time.   There will be those who are just not ready or willing to make this leap of growth.  Ancient predictions anticipated about half of humanity would move forward together; more recent projections suggest this could be higher – more like two-thirds of our race.

Those who are not ready to move on are not condemned.  They will be nurtured and assisted to grow, even as we humans always have been.  Dr John made this clear repeatedly: they will continue to have opportunity and encouragement to live and grow spiritually in a physical setting suited to their skills and needs, and they will join us as and when they are ready to do so.

Our role, then, as spiritual pioneers (whether or not we think of ourselves that way), is to seek our own spiritual growth first, and then to seek to assist others with their spiritual growth.  This is a high calling and a difficult undertaking.  However, if you are reading this journal, you must consider that you are among those who volunteered in this lifetime to be a pioneer and a leader for this effort. 

Transformation is, for sure, a time of major changes in all aspects of life.  So many of us in spiritual work have experienced deep spiritual hunger, stressful changes in lifestyle, re-awakened sexuality, a need for more self-awareness, a clearer intuition, changes in key relationships, an expanded charisma, a break-through in knowing Love.  We are the aware ones, the incarnate souls who have been called to lead humanity in this vast undertaking. 

We are the monkeys who first learn to wash their sweet potatoes.  Our personal spiritual growth is the means by which others will learn, like us, to wash their sweet potatoes.  Our individual, personal spiritual growth will stimulate and facilitate the spiritual growth of countless others.  And so, by God’s grace, the whole species will come into this new awareness and wholeness and Oneness. 

So, what’s next?  What is the nature of this new learning we are to acquire and share?  What dogma and doctrine must we adhere to and teach?  What are the definitions and rules we are to go by?

There aren’t any.  No hard rules or dogma or doctrine, no “right answers” to the exam, no surefire prayers or practices or recipes.  Spiritual growth does not work like that. 

Think of the world as bathed in darkness.  Think of each spiritual pioneer or trailblazer as a candle, a point of light.  Think of each point of light gradually becoming brighter and brighter with light as each of us grows in spiritual awareness and commitment. 

Then think of the lights beginning to connect with each other, to join and become stronger lights, to set up light grids.   Eventually there will be enough light that we will be able to see in the light.  No longer prisoners of spiritual darkness, we will see clearly, and discover who we really are. 

We have always been far more wonderful than we knew, but we could not see it for the darkness that surrounds us.  As the light of spiritually-infused humankind grows and spreads, we are increasingly able to recognize our true nature and our true beauty.  When enough of us can see, really see in the light, there will be a true transformation for all of us.

No dogma. No recipe.  No strategy.  Rather, a myriad of spiritual beings, millions of incarnate souls, working individually and together for spiritual awareness, openness and trust.  It isn’t about learning a new requirement; that would be more traditional religion.  Spirit is about learning to know ourselves, accept ourselves, rejoice in ourselves.  It’s about humbly offering ourselves to God.

What do you need to do about it?  I can hear the metaphysicians saying, “But Tom, you don’t need to do anything.  You are not a human doing; you are a human being.  You just need to be who you are.”  OK, I accept their point.  But I also know that for those of us who are blessed with strong masculine energy, we hold ourselves true to our commitments by finding ways to act on our convictions.

So, if you feel you want to do something proactive, I suggest you relax.  Detach.  Let it be.  That is, let this new thing happen to you.  Don't fight it, even though it will feel odd at times.  Doing something new for the first time always feels a bit odd.  Stay open.  Seek awareness.  Find a spiritual partner or partners to talk with.  

Know that you will be taken away from some of what has always felt real and important.  You may change jobs, move, get married, get divorced, go back to school.  You may go through a variety of symptoms of rapid inner change, including depression, disorientation, restlessness, eating or sleeping disorders, or addictions.  These will pass as you heal, but they may be traumatic as you experience them. 

You will learn, as the Apostle Thomas wrote 2000 years ago, that the world you have always accepted as “real” really isn’t.  And that you must break your belief in the apparent “reality” of this world in order to be open to accept the Truth of the world which is coming. 

The apparent “truths” of this world – economics, politics, wars, relationships – are mostly founded on traditional human consciousness, not on God’s values.  Dr. John said that in the new paradigm, only that which is done in keeping with God’s values and God's purpose will be rewarded. 

It’s not that our current world-as-we-know-it needs to be improved or corrected.  Rather, it needs to be replaced.  Wholly.  Not because it is wholly evil; it is not.  But because it is not wholly in keeping with God’s will and purpose for humanity. 

God wants more for us, not less.  That means we must let go of what apparent security we now have in the world as-is.   We must be willing to risk being rejected as crazy.  We must be willing to live and work according to our deepest convictions, even though everyone else (except our partners in the Light) will continue to live in the old paradigm, taking it seriously, trying to fix it, believing it to be real, and finding a sense of security there. 

It is not easy to live in the old paradigm, yet embrace and seek the new – especially when our sense of the new is hazy at best.  Yet, if the one thing we know for sure is that the old paradigm is passing away, and the new paradigm is upon us, what other course of action makes any sense?

                Increasingly, we spiritual pioneers must dis-invest ourselves in the issues of this world, and invest ourselves in reaching toward the next. To the extent that you seek importance, acceptance, accomplishment or recognition in this world, you bind yourself to this “reality.” To focus on reaching for spiritual growth and awareness, and to be a ray of light for others around you, you need to not compete in the current milieu.

                You don’t have to reject everything, or do some dramatic self-castigation number. But you must be willing to stop “playing the game” of doing well in this world, in order to focus your energy on reaching toward the next.

                In short, you must set aside any need or yearning to be “successful” in the eyes of the old paradigm. Oh, this is hard to do! It’s especially so for those of us with abundant masculine energy and its competitive nature.

                Yet, what it takes to be a success in this paradigm is at best irrelevant in the new paradigm. The pursuit of “success” (whatever that means to you) in the here and now is a counter-productive focus for being a spiritual pioneer leading humanity away from this paradigm and into a new one. “Success” in the new paradigm will be based on spiritual values, and will not necessarily correlate with success in the here and now.

It is certain that we cannot cling to the old paradigm and simultaneously leap into the new.  We must be willing to release our need for this world to be “real” rather than transitory.  We must truly become, “in the world but not of the world.”  We must be willing to hunger for, reach for, commit to, and submit to something so far better than what we have known that we literally cannot imagine it.  It is beyond us – yet it holds the key to every dream of humankind for a far better life, a far better world.

Still not convinced?  The Bible says that when God "speaks” (which means to act), his word goes out and does not return to him without accomplishing the purpose for which it was intended.  I believe that.  Whatever God intends is fulfilled.

And I believe that God created the human species not to be bound forever to three-dimensional, material bodies, but to grow beyond this very limited existence.  God intends that the incarnate (“in-the-body”) expressions of our souls, which are now done in the physical world we see around us and in us, will eventually take place in a body of a higher spiritual dimension. 

This will allow much closer collaboration between soul and personality, more effective use of each incarnate experience, more spiritual growth, more joyous service.  In a higher dimensional existence, we will have a far closer relationship with God Herself – not just believing in God, but knowing God.  The anguish of life in the physical, as we know it, will be no more.

As Barbara Marx Hubbard said, it is as though all that has happened to humanity thus far has been “in gestation.”   The human species has been like a baby in the womb - incomplete, filled with potential like the bud of a flower, but not fully alive.  What is coming is literally the birthing of the human race into our true and full reality as “children of God.”  We will leave the confines of the womb-life we have known, and enter into a Life so full and rich it is beyond our imagining.

Of course, like babes in the womb, we have a desire to cling to what is known and familiar.  As is true of many human relationships, our current womb-world is limited and restrictive and does not allow for much growth.  But, to give up all that we’ve known to enter into the fullness of human life – to be born and fully alive – that’s more than most of us nearly-born humans can contemplate.

For more than 50 years, the Religious Research Foundation has taught that this view of humanity’s future is real.  It will happen.  Dr. John spoke often of this coming change, this New Age.  He did not refer to this humanity-wide event as a shift in consciousness or ascending to a higher dimension.  After all, such concepts were unknown in the 1950s and 1960s.   Rather, he used the traditional language of Christians for 2000 years, identifying this rapidly approaching moment as the Second Coming of the Christ. 

You may be more comfortable thinking of this as the coming of the Jewish Messiah, or a kind of spiritual ascending, or moving into the fifth dimension.  I believe that all of these concepts describe the same event – the most important single event in humanity’s story.

Although we don’t have a precise timetable, we feel the momentum growing.   We know deep in ourselves that this is real.  Still, it is difficult to link kronos – chronological time, measured in exact minutes, hours and years – with kairos, or “God’s time.”  God’s timing is perfect for God’s purposes, but it’s often hard for us earth-bound, clock-watching people to grasp.

Dr. John always spoke of the Second Coming as virtually already happening – so much so that some Religious Research members were actively expecting it more than 20 years ago.   Other spiritual leaders refer to the now well-known concept derived from Mayan and other ancient mystical traditions that show an epoch of human history coming to a close in 1987.  This is followed by 25 years of upheaval and transition, and a new era begins in 2012.  Some spiritual leaders believe “the moment” will occur on the winter solstice: 12/21/12.

I contend that, while it may be fun to speculate on the date, the timetable for this is in God's hands and therefore we need not worry.  We are not responsible for timing.  It is up to us to seek the kinds of spiritual growth that will enable us to shine more brightly in the darkness, until “the Light has overcome the darkness” just as Christ said it would. 

It is up to us to seek other spiritual pioneers and build relationships of support and encouragement with them, sharing experiences and intuition and nurturing.  It is up to us to seek to build our small networks of a partner or a few spiritual friends into a larger group – one that can be used to link with other such groups, thus beginning to create the light grid that will truly and absolutely overcome the darkness. 

We do not see the big picture, nor the whole path, nor the new life that awaits us.  Still, we must act with faith and conviction.  It is up to you to be committed to take the next step that you can see, to take the action you are guided to, in faith that this step – however odd or challenging it may seem – is somehow leading you to greater spiritual depth and clarity and awareness and strength.  In so doing, you bless yourself and all of humankind.

The transformation of humanity and Earth is not being done to us.  It is being accomplished by us, through us, with us.  We are the agents of our own transformation. 

Remember that we spiritual trail-blazers and pioneers chose to be in this role at this time.   Our presence on Earth in 2005, incarnate in physical bodies, is planned and purposeful.  Whether or not they know it, all of humanity is counting on you and me. 

And remember that we are led by the Christ and guided and nourished by countless hosts of our Elder Brothers and Sisters in Spirit.  It is happening now!

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