A new age of enlightenment

Welcome to Science and Spirituality – a new blog to open up conversation and about our nature as human beings and how we’re changing. We want to be part of a paradigm shift – a shift that is already happening, towards compassion and connection: towards a new age of enlightenment.

We believe humans have the capacity for change, and that we stand on the brink of a fundamental change – in how we understand the world, live our lives, and relate to each other. We are a changing race. The evolution of our bodies allowed our brains to grow, and allowed us to carve out a new niche for ourselves – to use tools, to develop speech. Our consciousness awakened. Our brains are the key to our survival – the things we’ve invented, the things we’ve built. But our brains are also our downfall – the things we’ve destroyed, the people we injure. It’s time to take the next leap forward in evolution: from body, to mind, and now to spirit. We know how much a change in our thinking can change our world. We’ve seen it before – in the Enlightenment, in the 18th Century.

The 18th century Enlightenment was the Age of Reason – it said arguments should be based on reason and logic. It said everyone was equal and everything could be analyzed and criticized – nothing was too sacred. This was a massive change in how people thought about knowledge and the world around them, including their traditions, morality, and institutions like the government and the church. So many of the values we cherish sprang from this: the importance of freedom and democracy, religious tolerance, the scientific method, the belief – above all – in being rational. Immanuel Kant’s motto for the Enlightenment was “Sapere aude!” – Dare to know! That Enlightenment brought the freedom to use one’s own intelligence. Today’s Enlightenment is the freedom to experience one’s own spirit.

The new Enlightenment’s motto is, “We are connected.” In terms of physics, we’re connected to matter, our observations changing what happens in an experiment. In our lives and souls, we’re connected to a universe far beyond ourselves. In society, we’re connected to each other. The wellbeing of every individual is wrapped up in the wellbeing of their society and the wider world. What benefits one person in a group can’t help but benefit the rest of the group. Good generates good – and sometimes in the most unexpected ways. For example, increasing a woman’s literacy raises her child’s life expectancy – regardless of her income, her social class, or where she lives. Globally, it’s increasingly obvious that we are connected at every level: economically, environmentally, politically, socially. No country can stand alone; no person can untangle their fate from the world’s. So let’s use that – instead of trying to live despite the world, let’s embrace it. Embrace it: accept it, but also hug it close, because it is a power for good stronger than we realize.

Let’s build on these connections – intellectually, but also spiritually. Intellectually, let’s help develop our emerging, new way of thinking: the understanding that we’re all connected. Just like the first Enlightenment showed, a massive shift of assumptions is possible: changing the way we think can change the world. But for the new Age of Enlightenment, our hearts need to be signed up too. Love: light: connection: optimism: however we phrase it, this is a change we need to feel. The world may seem to be teetering on the edge of darkness, with recession, and wars, and climate change – but all around us we can also see green shoots sprouting, new promise. People’s unstinting generosity to each other, when it’s needed most. A concern and horror for war that we’ve never seen before in human history. An energy for change and a willingness to sacrifice our own pleasures for the good of the planet. We hope you’ll join us – thrashing out ideas on the blog, spreading the word, and changing the paradigm to…

• compassion
• love
• connection

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