Evolutionary Power: The light cracking through

Apocalypse: “One of the Jewish and Christian writings of 200 b.c. to a.d. 150 marked by…the expectation of an imminent cosmic cataclysm in which God destroys the ruling powers of evil and raises the righteous to life…; something viewed as a revelation. (Merriam-Webster, online)

Just over a week post-election, and people are still in the throes of fear, rage, grief and disbelief. Since election night, I’ve heard about: uncontrollable shaking; nausea; inability to get warm; “a great sense of heaviness.” And more: “I don’t know what it is. I feel crazy.” A close friend said, “I’ve awakened into someone else’s dream.” And another, close to panic: “I feel like I’m hallucinating, like I’ve suddenly joined an alternate universe. How could this be happening??” A third person described their terrible vision, one of blackness, like the whole world was cracking open. Breathless, they worried, “I think it’s the apocalypse.”

This sense of cataclysm could be about the president-elect—how he’s been able to lie and insult and manipulate his way into office, casting a spell of authoritarianism. Or it might from our witnessing how he’s surrounding himself with white supremacists, right-wing extremists, and people who seemingly have little regard for integrity. Or maybe it’s about the extreme split in our country, between rural folks and “liberal elitists,” between whites and people of color, between classes and religions and belief systems.

I think there is something much deeper going on. I believe that my friend’s vision of the apocalypse was accurate–but that it’s “apocalypse” as revelation. Something has been uncovered that has broken us out of a deep sleep and thrown us face-to-face with a new reality. I think we’ve fallen through some cosmic crack, right into the new age of Evolutionary Power.*

People throw the word power around without defining it. It’s usually used in a sense of “power over,” where billionaires, generals, autocrats, bosses, parents get to dictate the behavior of others, their “subordinates.” Millennia of hierarchical structures have cemented how some people lead and others follow. We readily embrace the “chain of command” that is used in the military, assuming that it’s the most effective way for humans to interact. When we’re in Reactive Brain, where survival is the sole goal, hierarchy reigns supreme. The urgency of immediate threat makes following the “alpha” quick and efficient.

Unfortunately, when humans are in Reactive Brain we’re actually somewhat cognitively impaired. The focus on survival means blood flow moves to areas of brain designed to react to threat and to parts of the body that support mobilization (fight or flight) or immobilization (freeze). Immediate reactions increase chances of survival but decrease our creativity, connection, and collaboration.

Evolutionary power, on the other hand, is real power. It is a free-flowing stream of life energy that all humans feel when they are in alignment with their essential selves. Evolutionary power is what is waiting beyond the contraction of Reactive Brain in the expanded states of Creative Brain, where moving from neutrality to acceptance to appreciation to love to joy to peace** leads to exponentially increasing one’s access to truly powerful experiences of innovation, discovery, co-creativity and flow. Instead of struggling through the resistance and energy drain of power struggle that outdated paradigms of power lead to, evolutionary power generates energy and unleashes each individual’s ability to express their full potential. Evolutionary power means each person is their own authority, where they live from the integrity of thoughts, words and deeds all lining up. Far from the contraction of Reactive Brain, where competition is king, rigid thinking takes over, and the drive to rid oneself of the threat from enemies is a preoccupation, Creative Brain’s expanded perceptual field leads to experiences of the world as full of abundance, connection, safety, and possibility.

If the results of this election weren’t so frightening, they might seem farcical. Trump’s absence of integrity is so extreme that our populace hasn’t known what to do. Racist? Well, ok. No release of tax returns? Hmmm, maybe it’s not so important to know what his finances are. Bankruptcies, affairs, endless pages of lies, even that little issue with Russia influencing the election?? Oh well, that’s just how life is now.

WHAT??!

It’s as if we’ve entered Bizarro World, the DC comic book “htraE” (“Earth” spelled backwards), “[where] society is ruled by the Bizarro Code which states ‘Us do opposite of all Earthly things! Us hate beauty! Us love ugliness!” (Wikipedia) Try as we might, there really is no way to apply our old rules to this strange land. That’s why we’ve felt so sick and disoriented: We’re being spun around in a vortex that is spitting us out. Because–the old rules are crumbling. Our planet is sick; climate change is impossible to ignore. Our economic systems are sick: 62 billionaires have as much money as half the entire world combined. We’ve relied on our “power over” leaders to solve these issues, and they have failed. We know it. We can feel it. Life has shifted inexorably.

We are, indeed, experiencing an apocalypse. There has been an unveiling, a revelation. We’re finally seeing behind the curtain, and facing into our own childlike illusion of wanting the Great Father/Hero to make it all better. We are experiencing a shift to the very core of how we’ve been human, finally assuming our rightful place: as authorities of our own lives.

The darkness has cracked open.

And there is light shining through.

It is the light of evolutionary power.

*Thank you to Dr. Kathryn Kucsan for coining the term “evolutionary power.”

**Find these states “Above the Line” on the Inner Map: