Review
Can we wake up in time? Exploring human evolution from both scientific and mystical points of view, Peter Russell shows beyond any doubt that we are standing on the threshold of a major leap in our evolution. This leap, he says, could be as significant as the emergence of life itself, and at its core is a spiritual renaissance. We are being called to put into practice the perennial wisdom of the ages, and only through such a major shift in consciousness will we be able to manage successfully the awesome global crises now facing us. We are, says Russell, hurtling ever closer to an unprecedented moment of culmination - the 'Omega' of history - when humanity will face its evolutionary moment of truth. And, like every species when faced with deep challenge, we must evolve to survive. We must metamorphose into a species truly worthy of the name 'wise', a species no longer fettered by self-centredness, or by outdated attitudes and beliefs. How? This book will provide you with much valuable food for thought as you seek your own answers to this question, and will inspire you with the courage and perseverance you need to make your own personal evolution a reality.
226pp, 152mm x 228mm, illus. in b&w, softback, 2009

Extract
Fear - The Voice in Our Heads
Fear is not of the present, but only of the past and future.
-A Course in Miracles

Looking to the material world for the satisfaction of our inner needs is the source of much fear. We fear any changes in our circumstances that suggest the world may not be the way we think it ought to be for us to be at peace.

We may fear losing our jobs because of the loss of income and the possibility that our lives may not be so comfortable. We may fear failure for the disapproval it might bring or for the loss of self-esteem. We may fear having nothing to do because others might not like us for it. We fear the unknown for the dangers it may contain. We fear uncertainty, not knowing whether or not we will find what we are after.

Here lies a sad irony. In the final analysis, what we are all after is a more satisfying state of mind. We want to be happy, at peace within ourselves. Our fears stem from the possibility that the future may bring us greater suffering rather than happiness. Yet the very nature of fear makes us more anxious in the present. And a mind that is anxious cannot, by definition, be a mind that is at peace.

Our concern to avoid suffering in the future keeps us suffering in the present. We have lost the very thing we seek.

Resisting Change
Not only is fear the root of many of our problems, it also leads us to resist the changes that would help solve our existing problems. Change can threaten our careers, threaten our feelings of security, or threaten our freedom. If this is the way we see change, then it is quite natural for us to resist it. We resist new technologies, new working practices, new customs, new ways of thinking. We resist changes to our plans, changes in our circumstances, and changes in our lifestyles.

Tragically, we also resist the very changes that we most need to make if we are to survive. We resist giving up our cars, reducing our energy consumption, saving water, recycling our waste, and doing without some of the luxuries to which many of us have become accustomed. Stuck with our material addictions, we anticipate that in one way or another the inconveniences of such changes will cause us some discomfort.

The same pattern underlies our resistance to change on a global level. This is why farmers continue to degrade the soil, why corporations continue to buy hardwood from the rainforest, why industries continue to pollute the air and water.

This is why the world continues to spend over a trillion dollars per year on armaments, rather than on food, sanitation, housing, and education. Someone, somewhere, believes the change would not be in their own best interest.

Yet, much as we may resist change, we cannot prevent it. If the patterns of the past hold up (and there is every reason to expect that they will), change is going to come faster and faster. We will need to become more flexible, more free in ourselves, to accept change. To do this, we must learn to let go of our many unnecessary fears.

If we do not, we may well find that fear will be our ruin. For there is one more problem that results from fear, one that we each must take care of if we are to survive an ever-accelerating pace of change. And that is stress.

The Inner Dimension
Because we are caught in the belief that our inner state is at the mercy of external events, we usually try to manage stress by managing the world. We seek to eliminate or reduce the circumstances that we think are causing our stress. And we seek to minimize the effects that these stresses have on our body and behavior by exercising, eating healthily, or giving the body the rest it needs.

While these may be helpful courses of action, it is also becoming clear that the mind plays a crucial role in most stress reactions. I may, for example, think that being stuck in a traffic jam causes me stress. In doing so, I overlook the crucial role my own thinking plays in my reaction. It is not the traffic jam itself that is causing the tension. A traffic jam is actually quite relaxing. No activity is called for, no vigilance is required, there is nothing that needs to be controlled, nobody coming along to interrupt my thoughts. In many respects, it is the sort of situation I may have been wishing for all day. I can shut my eyes and come to no harm.

If I find such a situation stressful, it is because of what I am telling myself - that voice in the head again. I may be imagining the possible negative consequences of being delayed, or be angry with myself for not having chosen a better route. I may be saying that this is not what I expected, that I want the situation to be different from the way it is. It is my thoughts that make me upset, not the jam itself.

Someone else who remains relaxed in a jam may be glad to be away from the demands of telephones, papers to sign, questions to answer, disagreements to settle. She may be pleased to have to miss the meeting. Or she may realize that there is nothing she can do to change the situation, so she may as well arrive late and relaxed as late and upset.

In almost all cases, it is not the situation itself that causes stress, but the way we perceive the situation. If I see the situation as a threat to what I want, a threat to my sense of identity, a threat to my inner well-being, a threat to my getting what I believe I need in order to be happy, or a threat to my expectations of how things should be, then I may well cause myself stress.

Managing the Mind
This alternate way of seeing a situation is the new meme that we must adopt if we are to survive the consequences of ever-accelerating change. The old meme tells us: The way you feel inside is a reflection of what is going on in the world around you - what you have, what you do, what you experience. The new meme says: The way you feel inside is a reflection of the way you perceive the world. If you want to feel more at peace in yourself, don't try to change the world around you for that can only bring temporary relief at best; change your judgments and interpretations about the world - change your mind.

Adopting this meme actually gives us much greater control over our inner responses. We may not always have much influence over the situation we find ourselves in, but the way in which we perceive a situation is something over which we have a great deal of influence. We always have a choice as to whether we see a change as a threat or as an opportunity. Thus, we always have a choice as to whether or not we upset ourselves over things.

This is not to imply that we should never try to change the world; there may be many things we can do to make the world a better place. But we should not fall into the trap of believing that this is the path to our personal inner fulfillment.

Nor does it mean we should sit back and let the world walk all over us. There may be many things we can do that will relieve the pressure we are under. If, for instance, we find ourselves suffering from an excessive workload, we can look for ways to reduce that particular problem. But what we do not need to do is make ourselves upset, and possibly ill, in the process. In fact, we will probably respond with more insight, higher creativity, clearer direction, better poise, and more effectiveness if our minds are not hampered by a response more appropriate to our evolutionary past.

Learning to manage our own thinking and perception is more than a very practical means of managing stress - with all the consequent benefits that may have for us as individuals and as a species. As we learn to work with ourselves in this way, we are learning to free ourselves from fear. We are beginning to challenge some of the fundamental beliefs that control our lives and that lead us to behave in shortsighted ways that are seldom in our true best interest.

Divine Union
Another important consequence of allowing the mind to sink into the silence of pure consciousness is that the qualities that usually distinguish one self from another are no longer there. All markers of individuality have gone. We become aware that we are the light of consciousness, and that this light is the same light that shines within all beings. We become one with all beings.

This is the divine union of which so many great saints and mystics have spoken. And, as they have repeatedly told us, it is only through a direct personal knowing of our deep inner unity with all beings that we will be saved.

This is our challenge. Can we wake up in time? Can we continue our evolutionary journey and grow from our current state of semi-wakefulness into the full realization of our true identity? This may sound like a lofty goal, but it is, in fact, where each of our lives is taking us. It is just the state of full human maturity.

From Waking Up in Time, ?2009 by Peter Russell, published by Cygnus Books.

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