Deep Truth: Igniting the Memory of Our Origin, History, Destiny, and Fate by Gregg Braden

Braden clearly summarizes our current position in the world and suggests how we can improve our future for 2012 and beyond. He presents Six Deep Truths that solve personal and world problems if we accept them and states Five Major Crises confronting us.

Six Deep Truths

The first two Deep Truths set up the dilemma.

1. Our ability to impact the problems we face depends on our willingness to accept new scientific discoveries.

Many new scientific discoveries are simply not known or, if known, are ignored since they conflict with older beliefs. Braden mentions specific discoveries in Deep Truths 3-6.

2. We must include new discoveries into our education system or else we will remain stuck in old beliefs.

As a teacher, I respond strongly to this concept and agree since we allow mainstream and traditional views to dominate our thinking and beliefs in the classroom as well as in our lives.

The next four Deep Truths discuss the new discoveries that force us to rethink our beliefs and actions.

3. Building partnerships and cooperating, not placing blame, is necessary.

Climate change is not caused by humans, but it does exist. There is scientific evidence of 100,000 year climate cycles during which there is cooling and warming on earth. While this takes the blame off of us for global warming, it does not relieve our blame for harming the environment with our waste and lack of understanding about our connection and responsibility to nature.

We already know about cycles, or circles, in nature on a big and a small scale from Step Five: We Progress discussed in Do It Yourself Guide to Spirituality: Seven Simple Steps:

Think of the death and rebirth cycles of nature and history.

Seasons occur each year...Civilizations flourish and vanish...

planets cycle around the sun. Electrons revolve within atoms.

On a large and small scale in the universe, there are circles.

Now we can add an even larger cycle, that of the warming and cooling of the earth every 100,000 years to our pool of knowledge.

4. Accepting discoveries of previous advanced civilizations near the end of the last ice age provides insights into solving current problems.

Braden mentions research on new civilizations that replace our previously accepted dates of approximately 4000 years old to show that 11,000 years ago advanced peoples existed.

Accepting the existence of older, advanced civilizations might help us evaluate our current problems in light of how others handled theirs. Perhaps the Mayas who understood the existence of larger cycles and other peoples are not showing us disaster but a way to live in harmony and avoid negativity. Are we ready to listen?

5. There is order and design in the universe.

While random evolution does not account for human appearance, neither does creationism. Braden discusses evidence, however, of intelligent design from science that needs to be incorporated into our thinking:

A growing body of scientific data from multiple disciples, gathered using new

technology, provides evidence beyond any reasonable doubt that humankind

reflects a design put into place at once, rather than a life-form emerging randomly

through an evolutionary process over a long period of time.

This reinforces Step Two: Everything Happens for a Reason in Do It Yourself Guide to Spirituality, which is validated in science by the Chaos Theory, showing that while order and chaos both exist in our universe, order prevails. How does this change our thinking about our origins and our religions?

6. Nature, including humans, relies on cooperation, not competition.

Violence is not a necessary component of who we are. New evidence shows the validity of cooperation in nature. Scientific information, specifically that we are not simply separate parts but a unified whole, supports the idea that we are all connected. The implications are far-reaching and affect all levels and areas of our lives.

This deep truth is the same as Step One: Everything is Connected and relates to our interactions with loved ones as well as within our businesses and with other countries, those we consider our allies and those with whom we are at war or see as our enemies. If we accept that we are all connected, would we act differently? We are intended to cooperate, not compete.

Five Crises in our World

• Unsustainable world population
• Climate change
• Growing food and fresh water shortage
• Widening gap between poverty and wealth, health and disease, and illiteracy and education
• Growing threat of war and the renewed threat of atomic war

Most of us are aware of these, and an extended discussion is not necessary. What we need are some solutions as we accept the existence of each. Reread the Six Deep Truths and find the answers. We begin to see where our efforts are needed when we identify where we can make a difference, on a small or large scale.

In what area does your focus belong for 2012? These are broad categories, and there is much room and flexibility within each. Don't limit yourself. Use your passion and strength to discover which of the Five Crises you see yourself helping to address, in whatever way is appropriate for you. Meditation and internal work are also valuable ways to contribute, but remember that 2012 calls us to put into action that which we improved in ourselves in 2011 and previous years. What will you be doing in 2012 and beyond?

Cheryl A. Chatfield, Ph. D. invites you to visit her nonprofit organization at http://NottInstitute.org to view her new novel The Lost Principles, and discover ancient wisdoms lost through the ages and retrieved mysteriously by stockbroker Michele Stone, amidst corporate fraud, assault, murder and romance. The story is fictional. The historical information, however, concerning the Cosmic Principles is factual.