# 13 Where is the trap? And where is the exit?
We are on a journey. The crisis we are facing is the gate to a new evolution of consciousness. The solution to the crisis lies in the situation itself.
Someone living in medieval Christian Europe had little chance to improve his life. His life was defined by the conception of a powerful and vengeful god that governed his society. Although the underlying principles differ, the situation was equal to an untouchable living in the Indian caste system. Both conditions are very different from the ones many people live in today in terms of the mass of information that’s accessible, and in terms of individual aspiration and possibilities to transform oneself.
In medieval times, no one could imagine flying, crossing the ocean in a few hours, or conquering the universe to visit the moon. Today, we cannot only imagine doing this, but we are doing it. In times gone by, women and men couldn’t have equal rights because nothing like human rights existed. Today, those rights exist, at least as a worldwide declaration, and people can fight for them, although that can mean putting one’s life in danger. All these achievements have been directly connected to the development of human consciousness for thousands of years. This development allowed us to imagine things like flying, human rights, democracy, and the end of slavery, and then bring this vision to life. But this development is inseparable from the ecological, political and societal destruction we face.
Our society is a source of trauma: dictatorships are built on this, but it’s not limited to them; our ‘open’ or democratic societies are, too. We traumatize ourselves daily: school, workplace, medicine, families, politics.1
To give a short overview:
- It starts at the beginning of life: pregnancy, birth, and childrearing as a way to disempower women, traumatize children, and re-establish patriarchy.
- It continues with school and adolescence: we are raising children who are distanced from self-realization and the opportunity to thrive by following their own path. Instead, they create the ‘socialized mind’ as an addiction to outer confirmation and guidance.
- We maintain it daily with our social institutions, workplaces, and toxic culture.
„Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.“ (James Baldwin)
The crisis we are facing
If we understand ‘crisis’ as a point of decision and a gate into transformation, we can see our crisis as the gate to a new evolution of consciousness, a consciousness that integrates the current situation into a new understanding of interconnected being and living; a consciousness that can build new societies that overcome the faults of the current one.
Now, how do we get there?
The solution lies in the situation itself. Suppose we fully acknowledge our situation and try not to shy away but immerse ourselves in the tension, paradox, and paralysis. If we open up to our helplessness and ask for guidance, we will find it. The exit lies in the trap itself: „Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.“2
We must understand that our society is a society of crisis, of a toxic culture that runs deep into our daily lives, families, schools, workplaces, and how we meet each other. We also build a society that holds us in a lower state of consciousness and robs us of the ability to thrive and evolve. That’s the trap we are living in. And neither a fully worldly life and society based on the hope of salvation through technology nor a fully spiritual life and society can help us out of this trap. We can only break this circle if we turn inward, raise our consciousness, and build new societal structures that allow humans to thrive in their potential
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Don’t turn back, turn inwards
We are not living in medieval times, and we need not live in toxic societies anymore. We only have to envision this new reality and allow it to realize itself. That’s the power of imagination, which is not different from having equal rights for women and men, or flying to the moon. The difference is in the way we act. We are not working outwardly; we are working inwardly.
Maté, G.M.D. (2022) The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture.
Baldwin, J. (1962) ‘AS MUCH TRUTH AS ONE CAN BEAR; To Speak Out About the World as It Is, Says James Baldwin, Is the Writer’s Job As Much of the Truth as One Can Bear’, The New York Times, 14 January. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/1962/01/14/archives/as-much-truth-as-one-can-bear-to-speak-out-about-the-world-as-it-is.html (Accessed: 30 October 2024).