Two Choices

Choosing Humanity's Destiny in a Time of Accelerating Change

There are two paths opening for us on this planet: a path up to healing and evolution, and a path down to crisis and chaos.
The Upshift by Ervin Laszlo

We won’t experience 100 years of progress in the 21st century
—it will be more like 20,000 years of progress (at today’s rate).
The Singularity is Near (2005) by Ray Kurzweil

It is not conjecture in the least. The coming decades will hold more change than humanity has experienced in thousands of years.
A World Made New: A Channeled Text by Paul Selig

Tipping Points and Singularities

Though debates rage and heated, opposing viewpoints flare, often igniting into violence, there is no longer any question that humanity is at a tipping point—the species and its planetary home. The pace of change is unprecedented in our history. The cumulative impact of more than two centuries of largely unfettered industrialization on our earthly ecosystem and the effects of the post-World War II Great Acceleration have been only prelude to the technological, social, demographic, political/governmental, ecological, and existential crises that we are facing.

It isn’t the first time. Some say that earth is on the precipice of a sixth extinction event, and number six will be at the hands of mankind! In fact, we have created a slot or placeholder on the current Geological Time Scale (the 4.5 billion-year calendar of key geological events) for a new “epoch.” We’ve dubbed it the Anthropocene Epoch, a condensed time period reflecting humanity’s overwhelming and lasting impact on the earth, leading to markers like climate change, biodiversity loss, and plastic pollution. It would seem almost egotistical, if it weren’t so tragic. Why? Because the “Anthropocene” is not just a term of geologic time, it is paradigm of rupture, materiality and warning.

For more information check out:

The Debate Over the Anthropocene, Explained

But wait! Tipping points aren’t extinction events. They are events or trends that can lead to major shifts in behavior, communication, belief systems, economics, climate, technology, etc. They can be positive, like man’s use of fire, the invention of the printing press, or the discovery of penicillin. Or they can be negative, like widespread famine, pandemics, or the amassing of weapons of mass destruction.

Currently, our problem isn’t about any one tipping point. The problem is that we are in the midst of a multitude of converging tipping points all accelerating at an ever faster pace and on a trajectory toward a singularity of unknown scope and magnitude. It’s not quite the black hole of a gravitational singularity (as defined by physics), but it can be just as dire. Many disciplines, in fact, use the scientific concept of “singularity” as metaphor for any density point leading to abrupt, unpredictable and irreversible change.

At this point in time, the exponential growth of emerging technologies is perhaps the most promising and the most problematic of anticipated tipping points. In fact, we might say that technological tipping points occur every 3-5 years. But the time lapse between old and new (innovation looping) is narrowing, if not disappearing all together. Take the Smart Phone revolution, for example, or genetic engineering. (See an AI Overview from a Google Search: From Dolly the Sheep to CRISPR genome editing.)

In the field of AI we are long past a tipping point. Ray Kurzweil, noted futurist and inventor, believes we are experiencing a technological singularity as we speak. His Law of Accelerating Returns states that as technological progress occurs in shorter and shorter timespans, growth and innovation will expand exponentially. Kurzweil predicts that our current rate of technological growth soon will surpass human abilities to control and comprehend it.

For more information see:

The Singularity is Closer Than You Think
FYI: Turing Test: A test of a machine’s ability to exhibit intelligent behavior equivalent to, or indistinguishable from, that of a human.

Stop the Train, I Want to Get Off.

“Don’t I get to have a say in where we are headed!?”

Are we at the mercy of a world out of control, spiraling toward a future that we can’t even imagine. Well, actually, as any avid Sci Fi aficionado will tell you, we do have plenty of possible, fantastical scenarios to download from hundreds of streaming options. Unfortunately, most of the portrayals of possible futures are rather grim and usually stuck in the same human mindset of domination, exploitation, enemies and eternal warfare, on a planetary and cosmic scale.

But we are not there yet. Besides, we are so caught up in our immediate planetary state of crisis that we’ll just have to let that “singularity” train continue to careen into the future. There is no getting off at the next station. Even for those who yearn for Mars.

In America, at this moment, our focus is much narrower, set on an unexpected tipping point that seems to be outpacing all others. In only a matter of months, political and governmental divisiveness and disruption has taken a dangerous leap forward with unexpected speed and force. A sense of disorientation and unraveling are being felt throughout the country, and the ripple effects are worldwide.

It seems ironic, somehow, that the Great American Experiment currently has at its helm a leader bent on shrinking the movement toward a global world order, hardening national boundaries through militarization and punitive commercial relations, and denying human influences on environmental degradation. Our leader and his dominant political party are moving at breakneck speed to unravel national mores and institutions, enforce autocratic control and diminish basic human rights, in particular, the right to chose. Arbitrary actions are being taken with intention to exacerbate social, economic and racial inequalities and foment unrest. All toward a single purpose—the self aggrandizement and feigned elevation of a single individual!

We find ourselves, in just a matter of months, on a trajectory toward a very uncertain and unpredictable future. Are we facing our own irreversible singularity?

Countermeasures, New Paradigms and Human Choice

We are at a tipping point. The old world is moving into history, and a new world is waiting to be born. It will be a different world, but whether it will be better or worse than the world we have created is yet to be decided. It is still up to us to decide.
The Upshift: The Path to Healing and Evolution on Planet Earth, by Ervin Laszlo

Though politically our world and our country seem to be in the stranglehold of immovable forces, there are innumerable counterforces at work—many long-standing institutions like Greenpeace, the World Health Organization, USAID or NGOs of all kinds established to help the poor, the dispossessed, the exploited, and those trying to preserve the environment and prevent species extinction. Many are known international activists. Many more are small quiet voices in every local community on the planet. Others are wisdom seekers and spiritual thinkers striving to “upshift” human consciousness and rekindle humanity’s sense of purpose and stewardship.

Many of these voices will prevail, but we see now that national leadership and governmental influence are no longer viable solutions toward positive change. Perhaps they never were. Even the more “enlightened” governments like the United States that have depended on laws and legislation and leadership to put nations and mankind on a trajectory toward equality, justice and peaceful co-exstence are dismembering the very institutions meant to elevate human values and common purpose among all peoples.

We can no longer depend on history or existing institutions or even the disparate voices of hope to shift the human narrative. There is no true leadership that can save us from ourselves, and keeping the peace today is as dependent on warfare as it has ever been, but far more deadly. Radical change is needed. What we have known and the narrow beliefs of what we think is possible are no longer tenable. We need new paradigms. New ways of understanding our own reality. In fact, we need to change this reality at its most fundamental state.

I would be the first to say that such objectives are impossible, unless we are allowed the luxury of hundreds or thousands of years of evolutionary change. I would say things have gone too far. We have reached a breaking point. We have run out of time and our ability to make choices toward positive change will soon be eclipsed by an unknown and uncharted singularity. We are on the precipice of a radically different, dystopian future.

Yet there are those who will not give up. Those that are steadfast in the belief that radical change is possible and that we do have the time and capability to achieve it. What is needed, they say, is a comprehensive paradigm shift of human existence that can serve as a blueprint for evolutionary change.

Ervin Laszlo, who I’ve written about briefly in this publication (A New Paradigm of Reality) has dedicated himself to the idea that mankind can change its trajectory and its reality in less time than we think. A new paradigm of existence is needed, he says, and a new paradigm of existence is possible. He calls it the Upshift.

Laszlo’s perspective is cosmic in scope, yet applicable to some of the most mundane aspects of human activity, in particular: Politics. And his perspective couldn’t be more timely in light of the current state of our country’s political dysfunction. In promoting the idea of an “upshift,” Laszlo reduces a very complex process or blueprint for change into a single principle:

What is good for the whole, is good for the part. Applied to politics, this means what is good for society as a whole, is good for every person and every structure and organization in society.
The New Paradigm in Politics, edited by Ervin Laszlo

According to Laszlo, the current philosophy of contemporary politics and politicians is obsolete. It is Newtonian, mechanistic and random. Its assumption is that the universe is a chance-created mechanism, simply the result of a succession of accidental events in planetary physicochemical and biological evolution.. The status of the human being is due entirely to the resulting “fortuitous combination” of their genes. Within this philosophical framework, the human mindset is Darwinian and survivalist. Force prevails and is employed by those who possess it first and foremost to create wealth and power for themselves.

In the last several decades, the outdated ideas of reality put forward by Newton, Darwin, and even Freud have been overtaken by new scientific theories in quantum cosmology, quantum biology, and quantum consciousness research. Ervin Laszlo turns to these findings to reframe the fundamental nature of our reality. His new paradigm of reality is not a universe of lifeless, soulless aggregates of inert chunks of matter. It is more like a “great thought” than a great rock. It is a reality in which consciousness creates matter, not the other way around. He goes further to say:

Quantum scientists are telling us that we are really one. And many consciousness researchers say that the one of which we are a part is a cosmic consciousness. Here I introduce a daring idea that I am now convinced of. The cosmos is consciousness. This is the ultimate insight. We are elements, projections, manifestations of the cosmic consciousness. With this insight, the pernicious and mistaken fragmentation of the world into separate and often opposing people, organizations, and states can be overcome.
The New Paradigm in Politics, edited by Ervin Laszlo

Laszlo’s bottom line is that holism is the new paradigm. “The old paradigm “creates separation and self-centeredness, encourages all-out competition, and warrants the pursuit of individual, corporate, and national interests without concern for the consequences to others. The new [paradigm] is one that respects the interest of the whole system of societies on the planet, together with the natural ecology in which it is embedded.”

This new paradigm gives us freedom to choose for the greatest good. It gives us agency and empowers each one of us to make choices based on an inner knowing of who and what we are, not based on history or unexamined beliefs steeped in fear and separation. But Laszlo reminds us that tangible human systems alone are not enough to “upshift” society into a more beneficial and “higher order” state. And that is why he strongly acknowledges the contributing factor of human consciousness in guiding us to a more humanely evolved future.

Evolutionary Consciousness: A World Made New

In an accelerated time…changes come so rapidly that what you … believed to be, or counted on being, may be removed before your eyes. If you don’t know what to expect, you may be open to something higher, but nearly all of you would seek to replicate the old…. You will continue to choose the old even when the old clearly no longer serves you.
A World Made New: A Channeled Text, by Paul Selig

Does the idea of a holistic paradigm in politics have a real chance of being picked up and made use of by the politicians of our era, and their followers?

Let’s ask the question another way. Has history brought us any closer to a better world for all? Have we come any closer to peaceful co-existence or a sense of oneness with our earthly home since our own creation story: separation of humanity from source, brother against brother, fearing for our survival at the mercy of a hostile world? Have our beliefs, our actions, our institutions, our domination of the natural world, our dependence on national boundaries and punitive laws and legislation and militaristic solutions to scarcity and fear brought us any closer to a safer, more secure state of being? Has any of this served us well?

Adopting a paradigm based on the philosophy of holism in politics is a daring move, although to most it may seem trite and just a bit too “new agey.” But as long as we continue to disparage new ways of perceiving reality, we will, by default, continue to descend into the chaos and brutality of old ways of thinking, old ways of acting, old ways of being.

Holism of course implies a tripartite understanding of reality: mind, body, spirit. We generally accept the concepts of mind and body because they help us negotiate our three-dimensional, physical world. Spirituality, on the other hand, is an outlier and best left to religiosity. Yet it is the spiritual component of our existence from which an “Upshift” likely will emerge—the “unknown-self;” the “higher-self;” 'the “inner-self;” the “true-self.” It will come from the Conscious Self.

This perspective is not commonly understood and is generally rejected out of hand by science, technology, and perhaps a vast majority of the human populace. This is so, despite the often proven fact that we are born into this earthly reality with the knowledge of who and what we are and where we’ve come from (See, for instance: The Cosmic Cradle by Elizabeth and Neil Carman).

Unfortunately, there is a veil of forgetfulness that descends over time. But not for all. And at one time or another, most of us have experienced an intuitive sense or unexplained synchronicities that force us to rethink our beliefs about our spiritual nature.

For those of us who are seeking a spiritual connection, there are indigenous peoples who guide us to a deeper understanding of self and source. There are contemporary philosophers and thinkers who have tapped into the vibration of evolutionary consciousness and try to teach us. There are innumerable individuals and families who welcome the newborn as teachers themselves with first-hand knowledge of a higher vibrational existence from which they have come. And there are those who channel the wisdom and knowing of spirit guides who urge us to transform individual, collective, and planetary consciousness toward higher purpose.

It is from the latter source (channeled wisdom) that we can learn and are learning the “how” of upshifting to a higher level of consciousness. One that will transform humanity’s mindset from one of separation and domination to an experience of oneness and peaceful co-existence. One contemporary source comes from the discarnate spirit guides channeled through psychic medium Paul Selig. He has published multiple volumes of verbatim text first appearing in 2010. Deepak Chopra refers to Selig’’s work as “authentic straightforward truth straight from the source field.”

Selig’s guides pose a question to us: “Why were you born at this particular time?” [Note that this question is contrary to the idea of a “random” universe.] Their response is simple, yet riveting and foreshadowing of a spiritual acceleration that is perhaps countering the exponentially accelerating forces set in motion by humanity toward a catastrophic planetary outcome.

You actually came for this. You incarnated at this time to be party to a process of acceleration that will support the generations that follow you. This is not all about you, you know, and the idea of who you should be or the relationships you should prize. It is about legacy. And the legacy that is being left by those of you here, who are at the basis of this transition, is the legacy of grace, new possibility, and what can be claimed when you become willing to release the old. In three generations, the awareness will have risen. In four generations, it will be cemented in a very practical way in the energetic bodies of all who incarnate.
A World Made New: A Channeled Text, by Paul Selig

The guides refer to this new awareness as a change in tone. It is not something that you see, but “you may see the fruits of it.” It is perhaps a change or transformation that takes place “outside of time,” but impacts change in three-dimensional reality. Selig’s guides repeat throughout all texts a number of salient points that underscore their key messages:

• Throughout history, mankind’s choices have been made from a legacy of fear and separation.

• Humanity clings to the old because it expects the old. It is what we have known, and even in its misery, it is predictable.

• To transform, we must let go of history. We can no longer “fix” things. The old must be replaced.

• Before change can happen, mankind must face its creations. We are participants to all of them, good or bad.

There is much more offered up in the messages from the guides, but fundamentally, what they are telling us is that, on its own, humanity has not been able to correct its path. (Refer back to comments by Ervin Laszlo earlier in this article: …”tangible human systems alone are not enough.”) Humanity has done its best in almost all ways with the tools it has, but it has operated in fear and separation and a belief in one higher than the next, one judged to be better than the next. And it is this collective belief that has created a perpetual reality of war for profit and famine for greed.

It is up to our higher selves to bring into the collective consciousness a world and a mindset not of opposites or hierarchies, not of dualities or unexamined beliefs. But a world where labels no longer exist, where peace does not mean the absence of war, where oneness is an effortless way of being among all the earth’s creatures.

In recent times, an unveiling is occurring among human beings. Many, many people are now being born already attuned to the higher senses and an elevated consciousness. But, as of now, these new souls are ill-equipped to manifest their full awareness and abilities in an effort to reframe reality. They are simply not allowed to step outside the bounds of long-held beliefs. Radical change goes against the grain of what we believe is possible. Or more accurately, what humanity has chosen to see as impossible.

Selig’s guides tell us that this will soon change. Human beings do have choice. Those that come first are in some ways seeding the common field (our reality) with a light that others may awaken to. As souls incarnate into a newer reality they will be allowed to fully express who and what they are: “I am allowed to know, I am not bound by gender, by age, by religion, or by the things I was taught I should be bound by.”

We will no longer be striving to find God or purpose or existential validation. We are of God. We are of Source. We will know neighbors as the same, and the idea of all of nature as an expression, a manifestation of Source. The guides tell us that we will no longer be trying to figure out what things are.

We will know what things are. When we know, we are realizing. When we are realizing, we are seeing what has always been true.”
A World Made New: A Channeled Text, by Paul Selig

Again, the message of evolutionary consciousness and transformative change comes from many places, seen and unseen. Ervin Laszlo’s Institute of New Paradigm Research reminds us that all significant change in human history has been the result of action by one or a small group of individuals. “If Greta Thunberg and Malala Yousafzai can create global awareness on critical issues, and set off worldwide movements, how much more is possible with all the strong, dynamic, creative, young and committed individuals we have? Such individuality holds great hope.”

There is no more time remaining to be talking about how to renovate the current systems. It is now imperative that we make moves to replace them with a vision of a world—both national and international—that respects the moral principles of the human being alongside an environmental and cosmological ecosystem of relational values. No more prizes for forecasting the rain; only prizes for building the ark.
The New Paradigm in Politics, by Ervin Laszlo

Thanks for reading!

Additional Resources:

Global Tipping Points Report 2025
Global Tipping Points Report 2023
Population Connection
Singularities in Space-Time Prove Hard to Kill
What is a Singularity, Exactly (Or: Singularity for Dummies)
What is Reality? by Ervin Laszlo
The Great Upshift by Ervin Laszlo
What is Channeling? by Hené Wahbeh: Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS)
Paul Selig YouTube Video

My Personal and Substack Websites:

New Paradigms of Reality
Consciousness, Society and Civilization
Judith Gusky’s Website