Can we generate a critical mass of people for transformations of mankind for its better future? Attempts are being made globally through mass meditation and prayers, which can affect the global consciousness.

As explained in my previous article, the materialistic world is at crucial juncture in our history because of the problems and challenges the mankind is facing on various fronts right from international terrorism and disastrous climatic changes to increasing inequality and persisting world hunger despite amazing progress in the field of science and technology. The strong and narrow sense of identity and the feeling of separateness right from individual level to nations, this worldview to poses an extreme threat because this is the very root cause of all maladies and illnesses behind every conflict, struggle and violence whether we see at the level of individual, or society, religious groups or the nations. Hence mankind has to transform itself in order to evolve spiritually for better livable future otherwise sooner or later we may face breakdown of various institutions and even whole civilization. For this, humanity while making serious attempts to mitigate these threats must transform spiritually for peaceful co-existence of all individuals, religious and ethnic groups/societies and the nations around the globe.

In my earlier article posted on Feb 9, 09 on this blog entitle “there is a growing realization on the direct link between collective consciousness and the physical world around us during extraordinary events”. I had explained in detail as to how from subatomic particles to individual brains to groups of brains emerge global consciousness and we all can potentially affect collective mindset of mankind or we may say the global consciousness. Experiments have shown that human consciousness can make the string of random numbers slightly non-random or rather more orderly when people hold common intentions to do so, or when there is a special state of coherent group consciousness. This suggests a direct relationship between collective consciousness and the physical world around us during extraordinary human events. The nature of global consciousness suggests that we all have direct communication links with each other and our intentions can collectively have effects in the world despite physical barriers.

With this background in mind, it’s worth knowing that an extraordinary event took place on May 20, 2007 in which over one million people in more than 60 countries all over the world participated. The event was celebrated in a number of ways in countries such as Argentina, Germany, Japan, India, Australia and the U.S. This event focused first of all on large gatherings with several hundreds or thousands of people practiced meditating or praying at one location, this time, the organizers asked the participants to join the global prayer and meditation link individually or in smaller groups, creating a light-filled, harmonious and peaceful circle in their homes or outside in nature, to pray or meditate for the peace of the world. Following this mega-event, on December 22, 07 thousands of friends of peace again gathered in all continents, this time in order to greet the New Dawn of human consciousness, following the Winter Solstice, which is the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.

The above events of massive gathering were jointly organized by the Global Peace Society and the Club of Budapest in order to promote the global mind-shift, the culture of peace and to help create a new era of humanity. The purpose was to create a world based on love and harmony, a world in which all different races, ethnic groups, religions, cultures, traditions and customs are respected, and in which every individual and every nation can freely express their individual qualities, while living in harmony with one another and with all life on Earth (for further details may see: www.globalpeacemeditationprayerday.org ). After seeing the overwhelming response of Global Peace Days organized so far, the club of Budapest in partnership with the World Prayer Society is making efforts to create periodic Global Peace Meditation/Prayer Days to bring together many millions of dedicated people and focus the power of their consciousness on peace in the world. Such a “critical mass” of human will, the club of Budapest believes, make a major and possibly crucial contribution towards achieving a world that is peaceful, humane and sustainable (Ervin Laszlo in Global Shift in the World Mind, 2009).

Not exactly on the similar lines, the New Age Movement or New Age spirituality is another social and spiritual movement especially in the western world that seeks “Universal Truth" and the attainment of the highest individual human potential. New Age spirituality is characterized by an individual approach to spiritual practices and philosophies, and the rejection of religious doctrine and dogma. The modern New Age Movement emerged in a distinct form in the late 1960s and early 1970s, although its roots can be traced back to the 19th and early 20th centuries. It gained momentum in the 1980s and strengthened with the Harmonic Convergence event in 1987. Large number of individuals from around the world practice New Age spirituality. This movement also includes elements of older spiritual and religious traditions and philosophy of “All Is One” and “Mind Body Spirit”.
  Likewise there are many such movements or platforms around the globe which are rigorously spreading awareness about the urgent need of transformation of collective mindset to tackle the crisis we all are facing. No doubt there are large number of people believing in spiritual way of life and are genuinely trying for welfare of citizens and the state but their numbers are not adequate for making an impact on the society as a whole. On the other hand, hardly 3 to 5% of general population constituting corrupt politician and bureaucrats, social offenders and criminals are holding the whole society, especially in countries like India, on ransom. However I feel even if the same percentage of population believing in high morals and ethics and engaged in spiritual practices and are united then collectively they have potential to transform the humanity for a better course of life. Many studies have proved that when a small percentage of population achieved peace within themselves, it was reflected in the world around them. The problem is that most of these people are isolated  and their influence is limited to themselves while the people indulged in  crime, violence and corruption  have far wider influence over others. However, peace loving and spiritual people when become a critical mass of  the entire population, we can soon witness a tipping point (the levels at which the momentum for change becomes unstoppable) from where we may start seeing the fundamental change in our collective mindset/ consciousness of the world.