 Something is happening to us. It is the most important thing that will ever happen to us. Ours is the first generation – and will be the only generation in human history – to experience it. You will experience it directly, if you are ready.
What is happening could be called a birth, for in a very real sense, it is the bringing forth of a new being – what I am calling a Universal Human. This birth is part of the long developmental process of our species and is in some ways similar to our biological growth. First there is the Embryonic stage that marks our earliest development as Universal Humans, and includes the events of our conception, gestation, and birth. From there, we emerge into a second stage, our Infancy.
Infancy! This is the time when the newly born Universal Human emerges from the womb of self-centred consciousness and we begin to realize our new identity as our own higher, Essential Self. We break out of the limits of our egoic identity and, in innocence and humility, make room for something new.
The story...
On my sixty-ninth birthday, I made the choice that started me upon this journey which is now transforming my life. The scene was Marin County, California; it was a cold, rainy January and February 1999. I stayed warm next to my fireplace, while a steady rain came down, giving me a feeling of inwardness and protection. I was alone with a huge project – to write a Consciousness Evolution Curriculum for Universal Humans, an educational framework that begins with the Void and covers the origin of the universe through to the present and beyond.
My dining room table was stacked with neatly piled books for every turn on the spiral of the evolutionary path, written by authors whose work had inspired me for thirty-five years. The room was filled with the noosphere, the collective cosmic mind, the evolutionary impulse of humanity.
Yet, in spite of this rich and supportive environment, I found myself to be driven and compulsive about my work, trapped in a struggle to get the job done. Although I was urging and encouraging others to experience a positive future in their lives, now, I was not at peace, and could find no place of rest within. I realized I had to stop my life, to make way for something new.
To begin, I decided to arise before dawn and to devote three hours every morning to being silent and alone, long enough to allow something new to happen. In my early morning silence, I created an Inner Sanctuary, a safe inner space where I felt protected, secure, empty, uninterrupted by my own demands or anyone else’s. This was a place as profound as the quietest monastery or cave, a place I created within and around myself. I let there be soft music, candlelight, flowers, and above all, peace and quiet.
I set aside time ‘out of time’ to be in the Inner Sanctuary. But even at the thought of doing this, my compulsive, egoic self – local self – was prickling. I was bombarded by its loud complaint: ‘We don’t have time; we'll never get the Curriculum done.’ My driven local self always felt ‘behind’ no matter what time I woke up and began my work.
But I persisted. Every morning, I simply sat in silence, open and empty, listening to the crackling fire and the rain drumming softly on my roof. I offered my burdens and responsibilities as sacrifices at the threshold of the Inner Sanctuary, literally laying them at the entrance before I entered into my meditation. I imagined myself as a pilgrim in front of a temple, purifying myself before entering. When the compulsive local self prodded me with, ‘You forgot to call so-and-so!’ or ‘What are you going to have for lunch?’ I resisted, no matter how magnetic the pull. I felt like the mythological Odysseus, strapped to the mast of his ship to prevent himself from succumbing to the temptation of the Sirens. My egoic need to be working was my temptation. I let it go by.
Within my Inner Sanctuary, I created a special writing space, a quiet time following my meditation to gain more intimate access to the wise and beloved inner voice, the Essential Self, that had guided me all my life. This was a voice I’d heard many times, sometimes coming to me in intuitive flashes, but more often, when writing in my journal, it flowed as a stream of ideas emerging from a deeper awareness than my conscious mind. Whenever I felt this flow of inspiration, I relaxed, listened, felt joy, and received guidance from my higher self. It was a motivating presence that had been with me since my origins as a young girl living with my family in New York City. I had been raised with no religion, no metaphysics, no idea of any kind of greater existence, and so this inner voice became the agent of transformation in my life.
While I had no idea of this then, I know now that all of us have this inner voice. It is the Higher Self, the Essential Self, within each of us – which is each of us – and it is communicating with us all of the time. Sometimes we hear it, and sometimes we don’t but it is never really silent.
My childhood having passed, and my experience with this beloved inner voice having deepened through the years, I’d come to realize that it was a part of my life that I wanted to expand, to experience more of. Then, I made the decision to create my own Inner Sanctuary. And, after my morning meditation, I went to my writing table and allowed the inner voice to write. One morning, shortly after I began this practice, these words flowed from my pen:
There are no demands on you now but to rest in my arms – the Inner Beloved – who is one with God. Rest in me. Release all cares. Your work is over as a local self... I am now preparing the way for you to enter into the world as who you really are. Rest in peace. Do your yoga and your journal as you rise at dawn each day for the next twenty-one days. Be still. This is your time of communion. Do not hesitate now. By remaining still for long enough with me during these twenty-one days, the alchemical process will be set at the next stage of your evolution as a Universal Human.
I want you to rest in the arms of all others who are also transcending now. You are not alone. Feel their strength and know that you are part of them, they are part of you, and that your function is to be an expression of them. You are part of all who are transcending. Patterned within all of you is a new humanity. This is the purpose of the Curriculum you are writing. It evokes the emergence of students into their own Universal Humanhood.
Follow precisely the path I dictate to you for the next twenty-one days. That is what it takes. Everything has been prepared for you to take this final step alone. Then you may join other co-creators as an expression of the new human. But you must take this time now to secure the incorruptible connection.
Now is the greatest leap of faith for you. Have utter faith in me. Achieve deep peace. Be prepared for a great force to enter your life to do this work. It cannot enter till you have achieved deep peace. Your reward for peace that can only be achieved by faith is contact with the force and the forces waiting in the wings.
I was thrilled with this guidance. An electric excitement awakened a deep sense of expectancy in me.
The guidance...
Your own inner voice, as you access it through your meditation and writing in the Inner Sanctuary, will offer you guidance, inspirations, and practices as well. That guidance will create for you a unique manual for the emergence of the Universal Human you are now becoming.
I strongly advocate cultivating an inner receptivity, an inner listening and attunement to the signals of the Essential Self guidance or inspiration as a practice at this time. These intuitions are the way the deeper self informs us and guides us.
Create an inner sanctuary
To begin, set aside time to sit quietly every morning for as long as you can with your journal beside you in peaceful contemplation. This may be very familiar if you have meditated before; any practice you are used to will work to quiet the mind and prepare the inner field. The Emergence Process is not a substitute for any basic practices you are already doing but rather an extension or deepening of them.
Set aside a period of time for an at-home spiritual ‘advance’. You can do this simply by arising earlier than usual every morning and using the extra time for this practice. Peter Russell, author of The Global Brain Awakens, Waking Up in Time, and From Science to God, calls his morning hours his ‘daily Sabbath,’ a time for God to come through the whole way. Choose a time in your life to begin this ‘advance' when you will not be distracted or interrupted by any major life crisis or transition, such as a journey, a divorce, a move. Once the Emergence Process is deliberately started, it is preferable not to stop it abruptly. If the early morning hours don’t work for you, choose another time. The Dalai Lama meditates at least four hours a day and travels all over the world. We don’t have to be in a cloister to begin this process, but some kind of intensification of focus is essential. Remember, you are preparing for a rendezvous with destiny!
Focus attention on the Inner Guide, the Essential Self
In your silent time, recall as much as you can of the guidance or inspiration you've already been in touch with – the actual feeling tone of your intuitive experience – and also any qualities you remember about this evolutionary impulse that has motivated your process of transformation. Remember how warm and safe you felt. Feel the intimacy and compare it to the feeling of anxiety and compulsiveness that characterizes the local self. If you ask for the Essential Self to come into your consciousness, it will signal you in some way or another, not necessarily like mine does, and not necessarily in written words. It may happen in flashes, insights, images, or hunches. Watch for synchronicity to show up in your life. Intuit the meaning of synchronicities, as James Redfield recommends in The Celestine Prophecy . This is critical. Notice everything with a heightened awareness. The signals will come, because it is the very heart’s desire of the Essential Self to communicate with you. When you ask it to communicate more clearly, it will – one way or the other. Expect the unexpected and anticipate the new!
From Emergence, copyright 2001 by Barbara Marx Hubbard, published in the USA by Hampton Roads Inc.
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