“The image a society has of itself can play a crucial role in the shaping of its future.”

Peter Russell is a fellow of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, the World Business Academy, the Findhorn Foundation and an Honorary Member of the Club of Budapest.

He studied mathematics and theoretical physics at the University of Cambridge – supervised for a while by Stephen Hawking. His growing fascination with the mysteries of the human mind led him to India to study meditation and eastern philosophy. On his return to the UK, he took up the first research post ever offered in Britain on the psychology of meditation.

An experimental psychologist, he also has a post-graduate degree in computer science from the University of Cambridge. His early work at Cambridge presaged by some twenty years the advent of virtual reality and three-dimensional displays.

In the mid-seventies, Peter joined forces with Tony Buzan and helped teach mind maps and learning methods to a variety of international organisations and educational institutions. Since then his corporate programmes have focused increasingly on self-development, creativity, stress management, mind sets and environmental strategies.

His principle interest is the deeper, spiritual significance of the times we are passing through. He has written several books in this area, including The TM Technique, The Upanishads, The Brain Book, The Global Brain Awakens, The Creative Manager, The Consciousness Revolution, Waking Up in Time and From Science to God.

As one of the more revolutionary futurists, Peter has been a keynote speaker at many international conferences, in Europe, Japan and the USA. The Global Brain Awakens and The White Hole in Time have earned him wide acclaim and in 1993, Buzzworm, voted him Eco-Philosopher Extraordinaire of the year.

Peter believes that humanity has reached a crossroads in its evolutionary path. Technology, combined with the rapidly growing human potential movement, is helping to create a collective consciousness that is humanity’s only hope of saving it from itself. He warns that if we continue on our current path of greed and destruction, humanity will serve only as a planetary cancer.

He advises that the image a society has of itself can play a crucial role in the shaping of its future. A positive vision is like the light at the end of the tunnel, which, even though dimly glimpsed, encourages us to step in that direction.

In The Great Awakening, Peter describes his vision of humanity’s next evolutionary leap and how we’re being called to put into practice the perennial wisdom of the ages: to change our thinking and assume a greater mastery of our own minds. Peter’s site, The Spirit of Now, is offered as a stepping stone in that direction.

We are living through the most exciting times in human history. Breakthroughs in every area of science are opening our minds to the beauty and mystery of the material world. At the same time technology is giving us the power to make many of our dreams come true.

But what makes these times more exciting is that we stand on the threshold of the greatest changes in human consciousness ever. Whether it is our relationships with our loved ones, our attitude to money, the ever-increasing pace of life, the environmental crisis, everything is pushing us to wake up to our full mental potential. We are being called to rediscover for ourselves the profound truths of which the great saints and teachers have spoken for thousands of years.

At their core, they all have been urging us to become wiser, more compassionate, more psychologically healthy human beings. To let go of our attachments to having things be a certain way, to be less materialistic, less egocentric, less greedy and hungry for power or status. And through this shift in consciousness to find peace in the moment – the inner peace we have been yearning for all along but fruitlessly seeking in the world around.

This is the next great frontier, not outer space but inner space. The exploration and development of human spirit. This is not an exploration to be conducted by some scientists in a laboratory; it is an exploration in which we are all personally engaged and it is taking place in the laboratory of life. And it is an exploration that is already underway.

Look at the bookseller lists. Hardly a week goes by without at least half of the top ten being about some form of personal development. Look at television, the specials on healing and the success of Oprah. Look at the Internet, the plethora of sites devoted to spiritual growth of one form or another. This is what people are hungry for today; this is the direction the collective consciousness is moving in.

And look at kids today. I know many in their teens and early twenties whose values and wisdom far outshine the liberated thinking of a couple of decades ago. Those of us who lived through the heydays of the sixties might have thought our philosophy of life was pretty cool; and by the standards of the time it probably was. But place some of the wiser kids of today back in that world and they would stand out as beacons of enlightenment.

Spiritual exploration is not just some lofty work, to be undertaken by some select few who have renounced the worldly life. Every day we have the opportunity to learn a little more about ourselves, to let go a little more of attitudes that no longer serve us, to step back and be a little less attached to desire. In every unexpected situation when the world fails to match our expectations, when what is happening is not what we think should be happening, we can remind ourselves that we have a choice. We can either see the situation through the eyes of fear – all the ways in which it could lead us to suffer. Or we can choose to see it through the eyes of love – as an opportunity for learning, growth and greater understanding.

This shift in perception is a foundation stone of spiritual work. If we practice this in every situation in which we find ourselves, with every person we meet, then we can move from being the victim of our thoughts and feelings to being the master of them. And through that help us and each other to become happier, healthier, and more caring people.


More about Peter’s work can be found at his home page on the web at:
http://www.peterussell.com