2012 and the Dichotomy of Consciousness

I recall waxing philosophical many years ago with a friend about the prospect of one day seeing a world where extreme opposites will co-exist – where humans will engage in the worst of behavior and the best; apathy will sit side by side with empathy, greed with giving and so on. But then we reasoned, just as the darkest times are usually an indicator of the birth of a brighter day, such will be the case when the dichotomy of consciousness reaches its peak.This seems to be the climate in which we are currently immersed.

From my own purview, as both a businesswoman and a writer within the alternative/consciousness genre, I have seen a steady escalation of cognitive dissonance, ignorance and apathy and yet within the same framework, a movement of awakening, freedom, generosity and love have also tipped the scale.

Take the proliferation of the various occupy movements; groups of fiercely committed citizens, who have roused to the idea that our freedoms have been hijacked and the behavior of our financial institutions will no longer be tolerated. Initially this was seen as a protest in a vacuum, but then it quickly spread, dotting the land, gaining momentum with emotional equity and commitment to the point where it could no longer be ignored. Concurrently, there seems to be an epidemic of people wallowing in the coma of complacency, disconnected from their surroundings, cocooned in a comfort zone of day-to-day life and oblivious to any prospect of anything beyond what they can see and do.

Shortly after the 9/11 events, I published an article called Victims of the Attack – Martyrs for Meaning in which I quoted noted author PMH Atwater. In it she said: “(This event represented) a wake-up call (that) was needed – one horrendous enough to reverberate across our country and the globe, affecting every man, woman, and child and in every nation. Many are those who have grown complacent in life – sloppy of dress, rigid in beliefs, uncaring in the consequences of personal activities, ever needful of another addiction convincing enough to prove we are alive…The people who died sacrificed their lives to make the statement that none of us can continue to live the way we have. It is time to awaken…Our complacency comes from putting ‘things’ ahead of service and investment; a consumerism gone mad, a spirituality deemed little more than new age nonsense.”

It is time to awaken, and perhaps this dichotomy of consciousness is a litmus test to see who will do just that. Within this matrix of messages, it cannot be stated enough: WE HAVE CHOICE – Choice to not conform to status quo ideologies. Choice to see and experience the wonder of life and human potential. Choice to educate ourselves beyond the systematic framework. Choice to question and most importantly, choice to change.

2012, I sense is part of a collection of years, both pre and post, that is nudging us to realize that we are indeed on the precipice of such wonders, but is beckoning our participation with firm conviction. Will you expand or repress consciousness? By committing to divorcing from the cacophony of the current world and joining the new, we will become the change we’ve been so longing to see. Which side of the dichotomy are you going to occupy?