Can humanity hope for an evolutionary leap in the deep valley of the Corona crisis?

by Martin Haeusler
Do you know the principle of the hundredth monkey? It’s based on a legend that’s not entirely clear whether it’s true or not. It goes like this: In the 1950’s, scientists observed a group of macaques on the Japanese island of Koshima. They fed them sweet potatoes and noticed that first one, then more and more monkeys cleaned the vegetables from the sand in water before eating them. Over the years this ritual has been adopted by almost all members of the group. A special moment is said to have led to a groundbreaking discovery: When a certain number of learned monkeys had reached the symbolic step of going from the 99th to the 100th monkey, the new ability virtually automatically spread to all individuals in the population, not only on this one isolated island, but also to all populations on other islands and the mainland.
Whether it happened exactly the same way or not, more and more people, including scientists, associate this story with the hope that the same effect will be felt all over the world, by us humans, of course. In concrete terms: If only a sufficient number of people live in the consciousness of charity, this consciousness could spread to the whole of humanity. The old dream of world peace would be fulfilled in one fell swoop.
But why has this point in the evolutionary leap of human consciousness quite obviously not yet come, although so many people wish for peace? Or are there still too few? Some researchers speak of a critical mass of five to ten percent of a population that must be reached before the collective develops further. In terms of the world population, that would currently be around 75 million people, while others believe that one percent would be enough.
Many see the great opportunity for this right now – in one of the darkest hours of modern human history. Because Corona throws us back on ourselves. In the isolation caused by politically imposed quarantines and curfews, we are forced to deal with our lives, our behavior, our values, our responsibilities, our untapped potentials, our untraveled territories and dimensions. Or, say: We should ideally do that – because Netflix & Co. still act as the great obstructors of introspection. But if we turn to the spiritual essence of life in regular rituals and in this way actively work on our longings – we can do this through meditation, which sends clearly formulated intentions into the cosmos from a pure heart – this huge crisis can be the humus for the long awaited resurrection of mankind.
Such a leap in evolution would feel as if one had awakened from a bad dream: humanity is suddenly living like in paradise on earth. The spiritual ideas of the Garden of Eden, Nirvana or the eternal hunting grounds have manifested. One does not have to die first to be able to be in fullness. Freedom, justice, truth, peaceableness, public spirit, lust and moderate prosperity can be enjoyed even during one’s lifetime. Under the influence of the new consciousness, a selfish, misanthropic behavior is simply no longer possible.
Scientists such as the British biologist Dr. Rupert Sheldrake offer explanatory models for the conditions under which a leap in consciousness can become possible at all. Sheldrake assumes so-called morphogenetic fields that span the globe and link all those individuals who are of the same kind. “For the first time I was convinced that living organisms are organized by fields when I was doing research on the development of plants at the University of Cambridge,” he explains and asks: “How do leaves, flowers and fruits take on their characteristic shapes? Through genetics? Not enough. They merely enable the cells to produce the right proteins at the right time as the organism develops. But how does the form come about? Where do the instincts come from? A hitherto unsolved problem in biology.” The morphogenetic fields from which Sheldrake starts “contain invisible plans or blueprints for the various organs and for the organism as a whole”. The biologist is not of the opinion that these fields can be explained at some point by classical physics. “I think it’s a kind of field that physics doesn’t know yet.” For they had an “immanent memory” in which the experience of their development is stored. Sheldrake calls this process of development, “morphic resonance”. This resonance takes place between activity patterns in self-organizing systems because of their similarity, regardless of how far apart they are. “Through morphic resonance, each individual of a species accesses and contributes to the collective memory.” Morphogenetic fields are able to order and coordinate social groups. The prerequisites for the evolutionary leap?
The American cell biologist Bruce Lipton jumps to Sheldrake’s side and poses the rhetorical question for him: “In view of the inevitable transformation of our world, will we be able to avoid the trauma of a revolution and instead opt for global healing through evolution?” Lipton believes that a “spontaneous evolution” is quite possible, since life on planet Earth has never developed at a steady slowness – then we would never be where we are today. There have been proven evolutionary leaps. And this always occurred when the so-called ecological pressure in the environment of living beings had increased. And this is undoubtedly the case again now …
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1 Comment
Somehow this has to do with Mandelbrot sets.