How Soon is Now? Sampler: From Personal Initiation to Global Transformation

By Daniel Pinchbeck

Drawing on a huge range of resources and references Daniel Pinchbeck presents a compelling argument for the need for change on a global basis - it is only when we see ourselves as one planetary tribe that this change can occur. The central thesis is that humanity has self-willed the ecological crisis in order to bring about the necessary conditions for transcendence of our current state of being, by undergoing an initiatory ordeal on a planetary scale. This collective ordeal is necessary for us to evolve from one state of being - our current level of consciousness - to the next. By passing through this initiation we realize ourselves as one unified being, a planetary super-organism in a symbiotic relationship with the Earth's ecology and the entire web of life. Covering everything from energy and agriculture, to culture, politics, media and ideology, Pinchbeck's book is ultimately about the nature of the human soul and the future of our current world. He calls for an intentional and consciously designed metamorphosis of our current systems. which transform capitalist and exclusive structures into participatory, democratic, and inclusive ones, based on an integration of Eastern metaphysics, social ecology, and radical political thought. "How Soon is Now? gives us the context we need to understand the chaos and turbulence of our times." – Sting

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Mar 7, 2017
• ISBN: 9781786781055

Daniel Pinchbeck

Daniel Pinchbeck is an author and journalist whose feature articles have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone,and Esquire, among others. His first book,Breaking Open the Head, was heralded as the most significant work on psychedelic experimentation since Terence McKenna. His second book, the bestselling 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl, links indigenous prophecy, the environmental crisis, and modern technology in a new paradigm www.2012thebook.com. Pinchbeck is a monthly columnist for Conscious Choice magazine and the editorial director of RealitySandwich.com.

Book preview

Preface

by Sting

Our distant ancestors would never have the left the sea if there hadn’t been some sort of ecological crisis that forced them over generations onto dry land. In fact, when we review the history of our species, it seems apparent that we only evolve through crisis. Individually as well as collectively, we only make progress when we find ourselves out of our comfort zone. The evolutionary record is full of short-lived species that could not adapt to change.

Because of our impact upon the planet, humanity is in imminent danger of joining this list. Earth may need a rest from its pathological guests. Daniel Pinchbeck’s How Soon Is Now? seeks to address the enormous disconnect between our current activities as a species and the Earth’s ecology. Deep down, we all know that the current status quo can’t continue much longer, since there are many signs that it is already starting to crumble.

As I write this, Britain reels in shock from Brexit at the very time that global unity is needed; a fear-mongering, climate change-denying billionaire may become the next US president; and summer has come to northern Alaska earlier than it ever has before. Whatever the eventual consequences of such events, they suggest that we can no longer operate on the principle of ‘business as usual’, or believe that ‘normality’ will persist, or rely on our unravelling institutions.

How Soon Is Now? gives us the context we need to understand the chaos and turbulence of our times. For me, the take-home idea is that the biospheric emergency facing us is somehow wired into our DNA, forcing us to make an evolutionary leap as a species. I find this a compelling way of looking at our perilous situation, one that takes us beyond the stale rhetoric of political parties. It may be that many, if not most, of our problems are due to a poor level of understanding about the realities we face.

According to many scientists who study global warming, we are quickly approaching the point of no return. Although most of us don’t want to face the evidence, we need to find the courage to confront it now – not just for our own sake, but because climate change will impact the lives of our children and their children. One thing I appreciate about this book is Daniel’s no-blame stance, which could be more strategically effective for bringing about change than calling out the usual scapegoats. While we can’t let our more egregious corporate offenders off the hook, the more important point is that we and they are all part of the same system – a system that itself needs a redesign. Likewise, Daniel’s even-handed overview of revolution and its often disastrous results points to a new wisdom.

As Daniel points out in How Soon Is Now?, despite the very real dangers we face, the potential during this time is enormous. But we can only realize it by finding the courage to face the threats to our existence on this planet and come together to act as one.

Introduction

by Russell Brand

Ifirst encountered Daniel through his 2010 documentary, 2012: Time for Change. I was interested in the ideas swirling around back then that saw the year 2012 – the end of the 5,125-year-long Mayan calendar – as some sort of apocalyptic threshold. Daniel instead envisioned the prophetic due-date as an opportunity offered to humanity for a great awakening of consciousness and a global reboot – one that would depend on our actions.

In Daniel’s film, I found all sorts of mind-changing information about alternative social systems, economic models and ways of thinking. I encountered the prophetic ideas of the freethinking social architect Buckminster Fuller, who in 1969 said humanity now faces a choice: oblivion or utopia. The film resonated with me on many levels. I reached out to Daniel after I saw it.

Like Daniel, I have come to understand that we first of all need something like a revolution of consciousness and a profound transformation of our social systems if we want to avert short-term regression into the primitive authoritarianism with which we are now threatened, as well as long-term ecological meltdown. I agree with him that this revolution is not simply a matter of changing our political or economic system; the solution has to be primarily spiritual and secondarily political.

This is something that the traditional left still doesn’t get. The natural tribal leaders of the left are atheists, and they see the socialist or post-capitalist future as inescapably godless. Since the last century there has been a belief that religion, devotion and any idea of God must be discarded. However, once we have abandoned any sense of a sacred relation to the earth or the cosmos, we are left with nothing but a flat, depressing reality. The nihilism inherent in this worldview inexorably leads to addictions, egotism and other manias.

Through a new embrace of spirituality we must prioritize our connection to one another and the planet over other, lesser goals. Buckminster Fuller succinctly outlined what ought be our collective objectives: ‘to make the world work for 100 per cent of humanity in the shortest possible time through spontaneous co-operation without ecological offense or the disadvantage of anyone’. Isn’t that simply sensible, considering the ever-increasing power of our technologies, and the new communications networks that link humanity together instantly?

As Daniel explores in How Soon Is Now?, most of us in the postindustrial West have become prisoners of comfort in the absence of meaning.