Awakening Consciousness
Bold New Visions for Us, the Earth and the Univers
by Barbara Amrhein
“Identify yourself with
the whole of mankind.
Everyone who wills can
hear the inner voice.
It is within everyone.”
~ Mohandas Gandhi
I
n our emerging global community, the digital age has pro- must go beyond political, social and economic strategies to
pelled us, with ever-increasing velocity, towards a world that their psychological and spiritual roots.”
seems at once limitless and all-encompassing, yet infinitely In late 2000, the Fetzer Institute supported an initia-
smaller and more fragile than previously imagined. Events that tive investigating the current character of group and col-
a few decades ago may have aroused a nation’s compassion lective consciousness, the Collective Wisdom Initiative
or concern—drought in Asia, nuclear power plants in Russia (CollectiveWisdomInitiative.org). The website is a dynamic
and Europe, political upheavals in Africa—now have a recog- clearinghouse for information, insight and individuals, all
nized potential to affect every world citizen, both physically linked within the emerging field of collective wisdom. The
and spiritually. Today, as we text and Twitter, blog and link in to organization’s motto, “Together, We Can Know More,” sums
Facebook, MySpace, Badoo, Bebo and dozens of other social up its credo that to succeed, the quest requires a partnership
networking websites, we create instant communications that between scientific processes and wisdom traditions.
span continents, cross cultural barriers and bridge political Robert Kenney, Ph.D., a Fetzer Institute fellow and
divides. We awaken consciousness and forge connections. faculty member of the California Institute of Integral Studies,
Such connections are becoming the warp and weft of a discusses his vision of collective consciousness: “By coming
universal fabric, weaving us all together. Now, inspired orga- together in groups to consciously generate collective wis-
nizations are deftly exploring, encouraging and researching dom, we believe we have the potential to heal conflicts that
the global awakening that accompanies them. seem impossible to heal; embrace with compassion, polari-
One of the better-known is the Fetzer Institute (Fetzer. ties and paradoxes that tear the fabric of our psyches and
org), in Kalamazoo, Michigan. A privately operating founda- communities; and cultivate our capacities to love and forgive
tion, the institute is on a course to foster awareness of the in groups splintered and polarized.”
power of love and forgiveness in the emerging global com- He explains that as people come together as artists,
munity, through research, education and service programs. educators, mystics, practical idealists, scholars, activists and
This mission, according to Fetzer’s website, “rests on our especially, pragmatists, we bring forward some of our own
conviction that efforts to address the world’s critical issues light, seeking to do together what is not possible alone.
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Southwestern Virginia
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