THE CALL TO (R)EVOLUTION

By Robert Rensing

Revolution causes chaos, many deaths, and immense suffering. It is not an acceptable way to try and force change in a faltering society.

Evolution offers opportunities for peaceful change, but it is a terribly slow process. Which do we choose when change is needed?

That slow process of evolution can be accelerated. The tool is awareness, not of what is happening in society but why things are happening.

This book deals with practical but peaceful aspects of accelerating evolution, changes that each person can adopt regardless of personal values, convictions, social status, education, and religious beliefs.

It is the result of the author living in virtual seclusion for several years, which allows him time to reflect on how change can be achieved in a respectful manner.

The book contains observations about why and what is going on, followed by a series of clear topics and objective suggestions for reflection, private and public conversation.

This is not intended to be a manual for change. The goal is to gain objective understanding of the challenges of today with the expectation that those insights may result in changes on a purely personal level that in turn will stimulate changes in the national and international communities.

Hornby Island, BC

September 1, 2021

• Language: English
• Publisher: Fulton Books, Inc.
• Release date: Nov 30, 2022
• ISBN: 9781639854998

Book preview

Title Page

Copyright © 2022 Robert Rensing

All rights reserved

First Edition

Fulton Books

Meadville, PA

Published by Fulton Books 2022

ISBN 978-1-63985-498-1 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-63985-499-8 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Disclaimer

This book contains a description of the thoughts, dreams, insights, and perceptions of the author. It does not claim to present scientific or medical information. The author, publishers, distributors, and sellers of this book do not accept liability of any kind in connection with the explicit or implicit contents of this book.

If you require psychological and/or medical information, support, or treatment, we urge you to contact an appropriate and qualified health-care practitioner.

Dedication

This book is dedicated to Jescar and Emmanuel. Their lives have not been easy, but what moved me to dedicate this book to them is their enormous resilience and courage, from their tremendously difficult and painful childhood to dedicating themselves to a commitment to care for so many orphans who now live in the orphanage that Emmanuel and Jescar started several years ago.

When I asked them about their background, I received the following email. I will let it speak for itself:

This centre was founded by Emmanuel and I being the co-founders because we were sharing the same dream and the same experience…that’s why we started this together.

Our dream was not to see children passing the same challenges we did…being without help from our parents and even the community. So we saw it is good to support these children who are the future and also the community, so as they can learn that it is important for all for the future generation.

So our mission is to have a self-reliant community. Thank you so much, Rob! Big hug, love you!!

The Oyster

Life is like a juicy oyster:

A soft inside,

Surrounded by a hard protective shell.

To nourish it,

That shell will have to open;

If not,

Humanity will starve and die.

Contents

Introduction

The Phoenix Has Risen

1. Setting the Stage

Part 1: True Stories

2. The Orphan

3. Mto Takatifu

4. Mwisho

5. Mpimaji

6. The Party

Part 2: About Realities

7. Why?

8. Consciousness and Conscience

9. What You Experience Is the Reality You Create

10. Why Did the Great Whale Breach?

11. Realities

12. Instincts

13. Human Potential

14. The Olympic Revolt

15. A Council of…What?

Part 3: Evolution

16. Fireflies

17. Toward a Contemporary Spirituality

18. The Perfect Tree

19. Changing Your Mindset

20. The Earth Still Circles ’Round the Sun as It Has Always Done

21. What Is Happiness?

22. Polarity

23. Emotional Disability

24. Personal Trauma

25. Community Trauma

Part 4: Cooperation or Confrontation? Compassion or Competition?

26. A Brief History of Freedom

27. The Old Way

28. How Does This Apply to Today?

29. A True Story

30. The Human Thinking Machine

31. What Is Hiding under the Carpet?

32. Senerawa?

33. Realities

Part 5: After All This Talk, to Do or Not to Do

34. The Population Explosion

35. Standards of Living

36. Government

37. The Magna Carta

38. Government and Society

39. Corporocracy

40. Can Those Changes Be Made and How?

41. Reevaluate Education

42. Change Individualism to Community

43. Cooperatives

44. International Entities

45. Implementation

46. The Dilemma

47. The Future

48. The Call to Evolution

49. Unifying Principles

50. The Search for Peace

51. Epilogue

52. Bird Song

Appendices:

A The Coffee Maker 

B The Plight of Migrants 

C Consciousness and Conscience 

D Religions of the World 

E Tips for Community Building 

F Examples of Evolution 

G What Is Buddhism? 

H Psychosocial Oncology 

I Reincarnation 

J What Is Meditation? 

K Progressive Muscle Relaxation 

L New Potential Energy Resources 

M Vasectomy 

N Childhood Education Suggestions 

O War Casualties 

P Forgiveness 

Q Evidence of Stone-Tool Making 

R This Tiny Country Feeds the World 

Introduction

I am alive.

Why?

And what am I going to do with it?

As a crisis line volunteer, I answered many different calls, but one stands out: calls from people fifteen to thirty-five years old that seem to repeat the same questions: Will there still be a safe future? Will there still be a decent job for me? Is it responsible to have children in this chaotic world? Is democracy no more than a power grab by the rich and famous? And then the ultimate question: is there nothing I can do about it? Doubt and uncertainty.

Only the last question can really be answered. Yes, there is something that you can do, not by trying to change people, by getting involved in politics, not by demonstrations and resistance, or even by revolution. And not by giving up.

The realistic answer is you can change yourself. That’s the only one who you can change, nobody else! In a world of some 7.5 billion people, one person’s change would not make much of a difference, but when others are hungry for a decent and caring world, your example may become as contagious as COVID-19.

Why this strange book title with one letter crossed out from its title? It is time for humanity to change from the age old dualism of body and mind to the values of Body, Mind and Spirit—the change from Revolutions to Evolution that includes love, compassion, and the respect for and acceptance of individual differences.

The Phoenix Has Risen

¹

We know this can no longer last,

His murder of our kin,

Destroying our environment.

Our planet has been rend.

Now make a list of all your sins,

The names of all you hurt,

And build a pyramid as high

As all the birds can fly.

Then douse the pile with kerosene

And strike the match of sorrow.

When smoke rise higher than the sun

The world’s rebirth will have begun.

A gentle wind will carry ash

Far over barren fields and trees.

May fertile ash now kiss it all:

The sacred promise of its fall.

And all the world will then rejoice

The Phoenix has arisen.

Humanity has finally beat

The scourge of violence and greed.

1. Setting the Stage

Much of what is written in this book is based on a simple question that I asked myself many years ago. That question was, What is the difference between me and a rock?

The answer is based on the widely accepted theory in physics that states that everything in the universe is an expression, a manifestation, of the Four Fundamental Interactions: electromagnetism, gravity, and the weak and the strong nuclear Interactions.² They are called Fundamental because they have been present in the entire universe from its beginnings of time and cannot be created or destroyed.

Interactions require a flow of energy to occur. The Law of the Conservation of Energy states that the form of energy can change, but the amount of energy remains constant. For example, electrical energy can transform into light. That takes relatively little electricity, but the amount of energy needed to produce a given amount of light is always the same.

There are a number of other Constant, such as for example the Speed of Light, which has a constant value of 1,079,252,849 Km/Hour (about 300,000 Km per second), but as light is a manifestation of the Fundamental Interaction of electromagnetism, that speed of light is a resulting interaction.

To make the concept of those Interactions more accessible to laypersons, we will refer to these as The Four Fundamental Energies.³

The two nuclear interactions act at a minuscule subatomic scale; electromagnetism and gravity produce strong forces in the entire universe. Not being a physicist, I have no argument with all this, and so I must conclude that there is no fundamental difference between me (whether alive or dead) and a rock. Both are made of mostly the same matter although in different proportions.

Remember that famous equation of Albert Einstein: E = Mc² where E stands for energy, M is mass (matter), and c stands for the unvarying speed of light. Thus, there is a direct relationship between energy and mass: E equals M multiplied by a constant number.

Well, some people may suggest that I sometimes act like a rock, but acting like something is not the same as being that. In fact, I would object to any suggestion that I am the same as a rock. But if that indeed is not the case, then what is the difference between a rock and me?

The answer will have to be that a rock is not, or at least does not appear to be, alive whereas I am, I am a living human being and so is every living entity in the world from a virus to an elephant and everything in between despite their varying instincts, thoughts, values, drives, and behaviors.

This train of thought leaves me no choice but to conclude that, in addition to those Four Fundamental Energies, there must be something else that differentiates me from that rock. I have made the assumption that this something else is an additional interacting energy form that, according to the definition of the four fundamental interactions, must also be fundamental and universal. I have taken the liberty to call this the Fundamental Life Energy.⁴

The definition of the Fundamental Life Energy is that it creates and sustains all life on earth and, who knows, elsewhere in the universe where conditions are right for such manifestations to occur.

But let’s never forget that we share that energy in whatever form and wherever that manifestation may occur (even those wonderful but strange little green men and women). We can then also conclude that, at the time of death, it is the Fundamental Life Energy that leaves the body while the manifestations of the other Four Fundamental Energies remain in the now lifeless physical remains of the deceased that has now become an object—like a rock if you wish. What has been presented in this book is based on the assumption that all life-forms are manifestations of the Fundamental Life Energy. We all share that Energy! What we are fighting about is not that Life Energy but how we manage its manifestation.

*    *    *

A few days ago, there was a brief reference in a science program on the radio that an extremely sensitive camera on a science satellite had detected a very faint glow of light in what was known as a completely black area of the universe. Scientists wonder what that is all about.

Perhaps the answer may be simpler than expected. We have talked already about the five Fundamental Universal Interactions (or Energies). If those are indeed Universal, then one can expect that those, being present in the entire universe, may emit a faint glow of light.

The implications of that thought may be far-reaching, and one could then suggest that scientists focus stronger on energies rather than on objects in the sky.

As a very simple analogy: when you are hungry, you eat to fill your stomach. Sensible enough but not true! You eat because your body energy level is low and needs to be replenished. Stomach messages are a mere reminder of low energy levels.

The message is: it are those universal energies that need more and perhaps different scientific attention.

This book does not primarily deal with the universe and all that is in it. It will attempt to deal with humanity, not with what is happening but why things are happening and how we can perhaps begin to make changes based on human energies rather than on human behaviors.⁵

*    *    *

PART 1

True Stories

Note: the following are true stories although names and circumstances have been changed to protect the identity and safety of the people.

2. The Orphan

Mama Hakuna Jina (Nameless Mother) was pregnant again. She was not happy. She had only one boy but four girls, and her husband was not pleased with so many girls.

The day came for her to give birth to her child, and it was a girl again. Hakuna Jina died the day after the delivery. After two days, the father, not knowing how to care for and feed the baby, put it out on the road, hoping that some kind soul would adopt it before it died.

Someone found the baby and brought it to Mama Purple at the orphanage. Mama bottle-fed the little girl with goat’s milk and called it Tamu Msichana⁶ (sweet girl). Everyone soon called her Tamu.

Tamu was the sixty-fourth child to come to Mama Purple’s orphanage. Mama wasn’t sure how to feed yet one more mouth, but somehow there was always something nutritious to eat. Tamu grew up to be a sweet little girl who was loved by everyone.

When Tamu was old enough, she went to the orphanage school like all the other kids. She turned out to be a very smart child who excelled in several subjects. She did so well that her grandmother sold her goats (her only possession) so that Tamu could go on to high school.

Tamu worked in the garden at the orphanage. When she finished high school, she decided she really wanted to become a garden expert so she could help the villagers in her area to start their own gardens, as well as learn about good nutrition, sanitation, and how to stay healthy and treat diseases.

Mama Purple eventually wrote to a woman in a faraway country and told her about Tamu’s dream. The woman organized a group of her friends to sponsor Tamu through college. Tamu is now a community worker in many villages in her area, teaching women how to provide healthy food and a disease-free life for themselves and their families. And as Mama Purple is getting on in years, Tamu may become Mama Tamu and take over the tasks at the orphanage.

*    *    *

3. Mto Takatifu

When the little girl was born, her mother called her Mto⁷ Takatifu (Sacred River). Everyone soon called her Mto. When she was ten years old, she joined the line of women who walked two hours every day down the jungle trail to the river, carrying jugs to get water for the village. It was not very safe for women to walk along the trails, so the older ones were always at the front of the line, leaving the younger women behind them so they would be safe.

One day, when Mto was at the end of the line, two men jumped out of the bushes, grabbed her, and put a hand over her mouth before she could scream. They bound and gagged her and carried her off. The other women had not heard anything and did not miss her until they were back at the village. By then it was too late.

Mto was cruelly abused for several weeks, and one morning, when she could barely walk anymore, she finally collapsed. The men just abandoned her at the side of a trail and marched on, leaving her alone to die.

*    *    *

While she lay nearly unconscious along the trail, she heard a gentle voice speak to her.

"Dear Mto Takatifu, you do not need to be afraid. You are safe here. Your mother named you Sacred River in honor of Mother Earth. She could not have known that your name has a much deeper meaning. Let me tell you.

"Many, many years ago, some say three thousand years, there was a sacred river called Styx in a faraway land called Hellas. Styx was the boundary between the Land of the Living and the Land of the Dead. After people died, their souls would move to the banks of Styx where a boatsman named Charon would ferry them across the river.

"Much has changed since that time. The river is still there, now called the River of Awareness. A curious change in the names of those lands has also happened: the Land of the Dead is now called the Land of the Living, and the Land of the Living is now the Land of the Dead.

"There are now several ferries and ferry persons, both women and men, but they now ferry souls from what is now called the Land of the Dead to the new Land of the Living.

"Why that name change, you might ask? We now know that when a person is living, it is not just his or her body and mind that is functioning. It also needs their spirit to be alive. One whose body and mind are active but whose spirit is dead, whose passions and motivations are empty, are considered to be dead. Those are the people who just want to collect money and power, who just let life slip by, who just want more things and abuse their fellow human beings. They are all dead.

"When their bodies die and their souls congregate on the bank of the River of Awareness, Charon invites them onto his ferry. But the ferry stops twenty meters from the opposite bank, and the souls must swim or wade the rest of the way. Some are too frightened. What if the currents are too strong? What if the water is too deep? What if the crocodiles attack me? Those who do not take the plunge must return again and again to the Land of the Dead: the land of living bodies and minds but dead spirits.

"Those who trust, who jump into the Sacred River of Awareness and swim, are cleansed of their sins and of any remaining bad thoughts and feelings. Some call that the baptism of life. Those souls emerge on the bank of the Land of the