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- [00:05]
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Welcome to the observable unknown, where science meets the unexplained.
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I'm Dr. Juan Carlos Rey of crowscubboard.com and after two decades of working at the intersection of comparative religious studies, grief counseling, anthropology, quantum mechanics, and consciousness studies, I've discovered that our most profound human experiences often exist in the space between what we can prove and what we can perceive. In this podcast, we'll explore the measurable influences of immeasurable forces, those hidden factors that shape our reality but often escape our traditional scientific frameworks. From the latest research in consciousness studies to the ancient wisdom that's now finding validation in neuroscience and quantum physics, we're here to bridge the gap between academic rigor and spiritual insight. Whether you're a skeptic, a seeker, or simply curious about the deeper mechanics of human experience, you're in the right place. Together we'll examine the evidence, challenge our assumptions, and explore what happens when we dare to look beyond the obvious. Dr. Robert Atkinson stands at the confluence of myth, developmental psychology, and the perennial.
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Human hunger for wholeness.
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An award winning author, educator and architect of what he calls youth unitive consciousness, Dr. Atkinson writes with the calm authority of one who has spent a lifetime apprenticed to depth, meaning and the evolutionary arc of the human story. His newest work, the Way of Essential Principles and Preconditions for Peace, is a sweeping synthesis of sacred cosmologies, cross cultural wisdom traditions, and the evolutionary sciences. This text proposes that unity is not merely an ethical aspiration, but but a structural principle woven into the fabric of reality itself. Through nine unit of principles and a global tapestry of community models already living these truths, Atkinson offers a roadmap for moving from fracture to coherence, from division to planetary flourishing. His oeuvre spans 11 other books, including the Story of Our Time, A New Story of Wholeness, and the Nautilus Award, winning our moment of choice. With a doctorate in cross Cultural Human Development from the University of Pennsylvania and a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Chicago, Dr. Atkinson has been a pioneering voice in storytelling research, personal myth making, and the evolution of consciousness. He is founder of the One Planet Peace Forum and a member of the Evolutionary Leaders Circle.
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It is my honor to welcome to.
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The observable unknown a thinker who writes at the scale of civilizations while keeping his hand gently on the human heart.
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A
Doctor Atkinson, it's wonderful to have a chance to sit with you. I recognize that the scale and scope of your writing, particularly with the Way of Unity, is remarkable and downright intoxicating. To that end, I'd like To ask a pretty particular question. You were born the day Hiroshima was bombed and you came of age during the Vietnam War. How have these historic hinge points shaped your personal understanding of humanity's moral and spiritual trajectory?
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Thank you, Juan Carlos. It's great to be with you. That's a good place to start, I guess. Yeah. I think that all of us are influenced in one way or another to some degree or other by the moment that we're born. And so what, what was happening in the world at the moment of, of my birth was very influential. And. But the thing was, I didn't really know how influential it was, how much of an impact it had on my life until I was really well into my, into my adult life. But just, but in, in general, I do think it's a moment of our birth has a influence on all of us in a, in it can go a long way in determining who we become, what we think. And. But of course, that's the moment of our birth. And what happens culturally, socially, throughout our lifetime is not the only thing. Of course, there's a lot of other important influence as well. Just wanted to add that there's a number of very relevant impacts and influences, but in this case, yeah.
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It really was well into my adulthood before I realized that my entire life had been a subtle quest to find an elusive peace, both inner and outer. And I didn't remember the story my mother told about my birth until, until there came a time in my own life experience that could explain it. And so the, what I came to realize gradually over my years was that the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima had, as we know now, and just thinking about that had really turned a world at war into a nuclear village and as we all had hoped then, and into a world of peace. But that was a very conflicted moment that I was born into. A moment of devastation, destruction, pain and loss really as never before experienced. And that also led to protests of nuclear weapons that at the same time prompted spontaneous celebrations in the streets for the promise of world peace. And so that really did create a deep yet hidden thread in my life which has only gradually become apparent from the inner and outer contradictions that it presented me. I was, I was unaware of how, how much until I started my own process of self reflection and discovery of what was true for me during college. And then years later when I was a college professor, knowing that my life deeply linked to Hiroshima, I was a teacher on an around the world semester sea voyage in 2002. And I came full circle, visiting that sacred Spot and sharing a moving moment of connection with our tour guide at Hiroshima whose family had survived that fateful day. I was bor. But as all of that gradually became clear what that meant to me, that that really influenced what ultimately has led to my founding of One Planet Peace Forum and also the writing of my latest book, the Way of Essential Principles and Preconditions for Peace. But I really think that all, no matter what our own moment of birth is and whatever social, cultural things are going on during our life, all 8 billion of us on this planet are needed to really to take our place in the local community initiatives and global causes and movements that are really all working so hard to. To bring about a. A peaceful world. So we, we all, we all have our own unique role to play and story to tell at this critical juncture in the ever unfolding process of bringing about a peaceful world.
- [07:10]
A
How do you personally distinguish the psychological imprint of those historical events from the spir.
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C
Yeah, that's interesting. So for me, the larger picture that has become my guiding star sort of is the, is the world of spirituality. And, and that for me, and I think for many others really has the function of contributing to a, to not only a belief system but to a worldview of how we see the world. And so that's what happened for me. My, along with my own, you know, as everyone. Along with my psychological social development, there was also my spiritual development unfolded throughout my, my early years in one way and through my college years in another way and post college years and still another way. But throughout all that process, it's really always been the spiritual perspective that not only guides my understanding of what I'm. What I'm experiencing, but also guides how I see other things in world. Even even throughout my academic career I've had a number of. Studied a number of different academic disciplines, but they've all kind of in a way taken a backseat to. To my spiritual understanding and perspective. And, and so that's how. Because how I grew spiritually really determined, you know, who I am at a deeper core and how I see things that has informed. Been informed by the, by the bigger pict. All things. And so I. My, my spiritual perspective has always given me more meaning.
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To bring to other fields of study. And it's just. It means that if we. I think it's true in most cases for anyone who does have a personal spiritual perspective, that really is what determines how they see things in the world. And so, so for me as a developmental psychologist, I. I also see the human life cycle as including the journey of the soul. And I see cultural variations in development as contributing to a larger unity in the diversity of the human family. So they're both of those realms, and all of those ways of knowing are interconnected, but some give us a broader and deeper perspective on others.
- [09:43]
A
To that end, your academic training spans American folk culture and cross cultural human development. How does that dual lineage shape your understanding of a life story and our collective story?
- [09:56]
C
Yeah, so as I mentioned, my. For me personally, my particular spiritual perspective has. Has been the overall overarching way that I see things, including academic disciplines or ways of knowing, like folk culture, like psychology. And because of that, my spiritual perspective has given me really a broader and deeper understanding of each of those other ways of knowing. So as, as I said, for me, developmental psychology includes and really ultimately is about the journey of the soul in this world. And, and that way of perceiving the world and our place in it also has an impact on. On our collective story. It's interesting to think of that in terms of our collective evolution as well, because what that perspective really means is that since the earliest times, when indigenous cultures held spiritual beliefs of an overarching interconnectedness that were not separate from any of their actions and behaviors, that's what guided them very clearly. But over the millennia, as we know, cultures spread out and interacted and a consciousness of duality became pervasive. So what that means for us now is that we need to really be more aware of how and why indigenous cultures may hold a missing link to knowing how to live with a consciousness of oneness, as the world's peoples are now clearly attempting and struggling to regain a sense of harmony and unity.
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A
Then do certain cultures, in your experience, preserve story as a sacred technology more effectively than others?
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C
Yeah, there have been cultures that tend to be more. That tend to have been able to maintain their traditional values and ways of life more, they've been able to maintain the everyday relevance and use of their stories that have become known as myth in the purest sense. Myth is not something that's untrue in that traditional sense of myth and mythology. It's really stories that are the most true about how we need to live our lives in this. In this world relative to the. The patterns of nature and the laws of nature that we see unfolding all around us. So, yeah, it's. It's because most of the world is. I mean, you know, the. The way of describing the world today in terms of first world, second world is very misleading and can be greatly misunderstood. But the Way that relates to your question is that what we may typically think of as third world countries, they've been the ones that have been able to maintain their closeness to their traditional values and traditional stories that have guided them throughout, while at the same time those nations, countries, peoples in the so called first world have been pretty much forced away from those stories that were meant to guide us through challenges and difficulties. And we've been adopting all other, so many other forms of stories over the last few centuries now. From what we get in newspapers to what we get in the radio, to TV to the Internet. You know, all of that, all of those technological developments in the first second world have, have taken us further away from the traditional stor that were meant to maintain our, our wholeness and our unity and our connection to the world around us.
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A
That leads me to wonder what do you think happens to a society when its mythic imagination collapses?
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C
It loses its rudder. Society becomes rudderless or directionless or could be seen as going in many directions at the same time, all of which are not obviously compatible because that is one of the main functions of traditional stor is, is to provide a, a compass and a rudder by which we remain knowledgeable of the way to, to direct our lives individually and collectively in a way that is in harmony with, with nature around us. So yeah, it's a. The world we're in today is lacking of a clear direction and a clear universal means to, to provide that direction.
- [14:51]
As my book points out. We may get to this later. There is, there is a direction out there that has been given to the earliest peoples and all of the spiritual traditions that has, that is also at the same time guiding us toward that, that vision of peace on Earth. So we're in a process, we're in a, we're in a very long term process of evolution that will be, that is taking us through some very difficult times now and will also be taking us, guiding us to a time when we'll be back to recognizing what, what the original peoples understood way back. So, so what we're really talking about is cycles that are, that take place on all, in all realms, at all levels. And they're also very long cycles and, and they're in the length of those cycles of, of. I mean, you know, one way to think of those cycles just for now is that.
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Relative to our individual growth as well, we all personally and collectively go through cycles of growth, maturity and decline. And then the, but we, we tend to lose sight of the, the cyclical nature of that process because after the Decline comes the renewal, and then that same cycle is repeated over again. So that's. It's a big process that we're in the midst of right now through seeing, having all that play out with us in the middle of it.
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A
You've actually described our moment as a spiritual springtime with regards to these cycles. What, in your view are the unmistakable signs that something new is germinating in human consciousness?
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C
Yeah, that's a. It's a good one. I do think of our time as a spiritual springtime because. And. And again, this, this concept of a spiritual springtime is, is part and parcel of the cyclical nature of things that I was just referring. So as we know, as we can observe in nature, everything happens in cycles and patterns, and these are repeated over time. And the thing that we're not as aware of is that the same process, the same cycle is true in religion as well, because both are governed by the same natural law. So if we think of creation itself and its entirety as an indivisible, indivisible oneness, then all of the other cycles that we can think of are part of that indivisible oneness, including solar cycles, lunar cycles, seasonal cycles, and spiritual cycles. They all have their times of growth, decline, and renewal. But when it comes to spiritual cycles, they can take centuries before they reach their peak growth time or their, their period of maturity. And so the reason that I'm using the concept of a spiritual springtime for our time is our collective evolution is marked by periods or ages that begin with a leap in consciousness, and they take centuries to unfold. So if we go back to, to try to identify the most recent leap of consciousness, we could go back to the mid 19th century, when many human rights advances began to occur. And then from there we saw the, the end of slavery, and then we saw the, the coming of women's rights, and then following that, the, the ongoing civil rights movement and beyond. So these have all spawned a growing awareness of the need for unitive principle to heal the ills of a divided humanity. And so I say right now we're. We're in a spiritual springtime because it has been a century and three quarters that we're into the most recent spiritual cycle, what, what I understand as the. The Baha' I era. So, and, and we're still in the springtime phase of its growth period. If creation is a unified whole and everything in it is interconnected, then the world's religions reflect this unity as well. And therefore we can see religion, spirituality as one tree with Many branches, just as the entire tree of life. So. So spirituality is the story of one creator guiding humanity chapter by chapter toward its oneness.
- [19:21]
A
Then tell me, does this spring require human participation or is it an evolutionary inevitability?
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C
Yeah, great question. It definitely does. I mean, the short answer is yes, it definitely does involve human participation. Not only in this case right now, because of the situation that the world is in right now. It involves universal human participation to be able to get us out of this.
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The many interconnected crises that. That we're experiencing right now. So it's very much a process that involves the entire human family participating in the renewal process.
- [19:58]
A
If springtime is here, then what winter patterns must we consciously relinquish as a species?
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C
Well, that's a good one too, because then we have to think of what. What is it that has characterized the most recent winter that we're. And in some ways, I mean, this is the interesting thing, the cycles work. They don't. Each phase doesn't necessarily begin one day and then the next one begins the next day. There is an overlap in the seasons. We can think of, probably think of many times in our lives when it's been. It's been. The season has been winter, but we experience a sign of spring coming, you know, in whatever way, a warm day that happens to come along or whatever. And. But then it gets back to winter for a while and winter plays out its cyclical part, the process. And so in that sense there are. It's a. It's really a twofold process. And we can think in terms of the. The transformation from one phase of the cycle to another as, as a. A cycle that moves from one clear thing that's happening to something else that's in a different way, very clear as well. But. But it's a. It's a process that includes ups and downs. To put it in a simple context, cycles are not. These cycles that we're talking about are not linear. They are. They're not only cyclical, but being cyclical by nature. They include moments and periods of ups and downs that, that make it feel like when we're in one of those down phases, it makes it feel like it's. How. How are we ever going to get out of this? This whatever way the down phase is, is manife.
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But one of the reasons we get frustrated and, and even have a. Maybe have a sense of despair when we're in the midst of a. One of those down periods is that we lose sight of the cycle as a whole and we forget that what comes after the crisis or multiple crises that we're in in the moment that they're going to be followed by an up phase. So there's over the. From a big picture perspective, they balance.
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May appear to even out from a very big picture perspective. But being being in them in the moment, it becomes really difficult to. To see how we're ever going to move out of a period of difficult.
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A
You propose that timeless stories move not just from beginning to end, but from beginning to muddle to resolution. What does the muddle teach us that the myths here hero often overlooks?
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C
Yeah, that's another important way of getting at what I was, what I was starting to say. One of the ways of characterizing this cycle that I was referring to is that of beginning muddle and resolution. Muddle being the time where we are faced with a difficulty of any kind that is really there for a purpose, the purpose of bringing about a transformation. And then the third final part of that cycle is the resolution, which comes after the muddle has been taken care of or resolved. But so this is an interesting case because stories, like everything else in the creation stories, have a pattern to them as well. And this is what, why I think the story pattern of beginning muddle and resolution is so much, much more relevant and meaningful in trying to understand all sacred stories, from myths to fairy tales to our own personal life stories. Both the muddle and the resolution phases are crucial to understanding the purpose of the pattern which really is to bring about transformation. And it's through the playing out on the collective level as well. And understanding that pattern is even more crucial when we, when we understand that humanity itself is in the muddle phase of our collective story right now too, which is, which is necessary for our collective transformation. All of that, on both the personal level and the collectively level, lead us to the resolution required to pull us out of our ongoing battles of conflict and differentiation. So there's a way that I've described this in another one of my books called A New Story of Whole. And getting back to the part of your question about what does the muddle teach us about the hero's myth that it often overlooks? That's really one of the reasons for my writing that other book, A New Story of Wholeness, to, to try to illustrate how what is overlooked by the heroes myth when it became so popular after, you know, after the Bill Moyer's conversations with Joseph Campbell, everyone started thinking of the hero's journey as a return as a hero. Well, there's another way of really understanding that story and, and that, and I put it in the context of again a three part process of call to wholeness, path of purification and return to wholeness. What the, what the hero's myth by itself often overlooks is the importance of the, I mean in, in that, in that, in Joseph Campbell's work it is that that middle phase is called the road of trials. But that's what's often overlooked on a popular level. That the road of trials, or what I call the path of purification is absolutely necessary for us individually and collectively to experience so that we can move into the resolution which is a return to wholeness both on the individual level and the collectible again. And I go into quite a bit of detail in that book about how that is a universal pattern. And there are many variations or versions on that. Carl Jung identified it as the process of individuation. Others like Evelyn Underhill and mysticism called it the mystic way. Arnold van Gennep looked at the rites of passage in the same way as a process of separation, transition and corporation. So there's all these versions of the same pattern, pattern that, that at their, at their center are about transformation. And, and that's what the, the story pattern of beginning, muddle and resolution gets to is that deeper level where the conflict represents the, the, I mean the muddle represents the conflict or the challenge which, which brings about the transformation needed for the resolution. So that's a, that's one way of understanding a really essential process of transformation that we all go through.
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Lives many, many, in many cases multiple times the same pattern over and over. And it's also recognizable that, that humanity as a whole has gone through that pattern many times throughout the evolution of civilization.
- [27:30]
A
So if we think of the model phase as the trial or adversity phase, then how does this phase, adversity properly called so function as a catalyst for transformation in both personal development and the evolution of civilizations?
- [27:45]
C
Yeah. So what is absolutely necessary for transformation to occur? And this is what, this is what Jung talks about in his process of identification. It's that that process is really about the merging of opposites. And so that's why adversity in so many forms comes to us. And it has any form of adversity or opposition that comes to us has the purpose of being the necessary catalyst that will help bring out a transformation. That's what's needed to, to move through and beyond the muddle phase. And, and when, when we've been able to merge the opposites in our life and, and the, the adversity I mean, adversity consists of one thing that we know that we're familiar with and probably pretty comfortable with. Being opposed by something that is not only probably in most cases opposite, opposite of or at least different from what we are familiar and comfortable with. And it's that, it's that adversity when we become aware of the. Of the opposing forces out there, something that we're comfortable with already have been for maybe a long time, and then something new and different comes along that creates the adversity that has to be resolved through the merging of those two opposites. And when that happens, that leads us back to a state of completeness, balance, harmony and unity. And that's. Those are the characteristics that define the quality of wholeness. And that's how and why adversity is necessary for. Is a necessary catalyst for transformation. Because it brings us, when we're able to balance them out and create a unity of those opposites. That's what leads us back to our original state of wholeness.
- [29:45]
A
Then when would you say does, does the muddle phase vis a vis adversity fail to transform?
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C
Well, I guess the short simple answer to that is when we don't learn what they're meant to teach us, it keeps that then they keep repeating happening to us again, you know, over and over until, till we do learn what we're. What is meant to be learned from them. I mean that's the other sort of the un so far has been the unspoken part of the process is that in order for advers to really be a catalyst for transformation, we have to understand its role and be able to know what that any particular adversity that we're experiencing, what it's really there for us for. And so yeah, it's all about learning from the experiences that we have in life. And until we do learn what is meant to be learned, they'll keep repeating themselves.
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A
You suggest that spiritual traditions mirror the evolution of living systems. How do you see religious history echoing biological or cosmological development?
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C
Yeah, interesting. I think what we're talking about there is really how what we might think of as spot as think of as science and spirituality, how they relate to each other. And the way that I do that in my books and my understanding, understanding of evolution as a whole is that science and spirituality are two knowledge systems that seek to understand and explain different aspects of the same whole, the same ultimate reality. So if, if creation is one, then science, spirituality and any other knowledge system that we can think of there they exist to help us understand Some aspects of the whole. And what that means then is that true spirituality and sound science cannot be in opposition to one another. And that's because of a. Of a worldview that understands that the revelation of spiritual truth is continuous and progressive, as are the discoveries of science. So through reason, the scientific approach, and through faith, the basis of a spiritual approach, those. Those may be seen as opposites or contradictory, but they are in fact, two halves of a whole or complementary paths to the same reality. Both are needed just in the same way that two wings are needed to fly. And that's getting back to being able to recognize. That also involves being able to recognize that there are patterns in biology, patterns in cosmology that reflects or mirror each other. There's a. There's a concept in ancient wisdom of as above, so below, that takes in both. I mean, that takes in all living things from a. From a perspective of the individual human being and its. Its makeup, which consists of thousands and thousands of cells and 80 or so organs all in the body, that are. That are different but designed to work together. Just as in the universe, there are galaxies and galaxies of stars and planets that have their own path and pattern that keep them in harmony with all the other galaxies and planets around them. And that's because there's one overriding, overarching system of evolution that has designed. Find it the way it is to be harmonious and unified. And so we could act. We could even say then that the. The innate nature of the universe is wholeness and unity. And with that perspective and that understanding, we. We would have to say that not only is all of creation one interconnected whole, but that all systems within it are tied together and are carried out according to the same process principles. So that. That means then that science and spirituality are ultimately in harmony as well.
- [34:04]
A
Then which tradition most clearly, in your opinion, expresses the unitive impulse?
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C
Yeah, so that is what the book the Way of Unity is really all about. And the basis for that is a. For the book is a system of nine unitive principles that all come from the. The writings of the Baha' I faith, which, as I referred to earlier, came into existence around the mid 19th century when all of those social changes started happening too, that I mentioned. And so that's the latest. That's what the book presents and offers as the latest version of a spiritual revelation that is founded upon the principle of unity.
- [34:55]
A
You put forward the nine units, unitive principles as reflections of the natural order. Which principle is most frequently misunderstood, in your opinion, and why?
- [35:03]
C
Yeah, that's an interesting one. So the nine unitive principles really cannot be separated from one another. They're all interdependent. So when I talk about the unitive principles in the book, like unit of consciousness, unit of justice, unit of economics, unitive narratives, unitive education, unit of relationships, unitive global governance, they're all principles of, that bring about unity. And because of the, because of how complicated, complex and complicated our world is today, they are all so interdependent that it's hard to pick out one, separate it from the others. But one of the ones that is so fundamental to the way the world as well as every local community needs to approach the way things are carried out in their community or their nation or the world, I would think would be unitive justice. And that includes justice in the social and economic realms. Without justice that brings about unity, we really can't have anything else. I mean, that's how tied together they are. Similarly with the other principle of unitive relationships, without, without relationships that maintain the inherent harmony and balance between all things, we, we won't be able to get very far with anything else either because so unity of relationships includes relationships that bring about gender equality, that brings about and that nurtures the. The innate potential of children and youth, that honors the. Honors humanity's inherent diversity and relationships that are harmonious with nature and all living things. But to get to your part of the question about what may be the most misunderstood, I think part of what all of these, how what all of these unitive principles are saying and, and how they're all misunderstood in a. In a way is that they're all about our collective inherent and innate unity and diversity. And I think that might be the most understood just the nature of the universe, the way the universe is created with all things in harmony. Like I referred to the, to the example of the human body, there's so many different elements to it that all function as one and the, and the galaxies and the planets that all funct as one. That the entire universe is a unity in diversity. So that's probably what I would if I had to single out one of the most misunderstood principles. It would be what comes down to the principle of the underlying principle of the. The unity and diversity of all things. Because if we understood that we would, we would be much more conscious of trying to achieve unitive justice and trying to achieve unitive economics and unitive education and so on, as well as unitive relationships. So I think we have a long way to go to really understand the inherent nature of not only the unity of the universe, but the unity of the human family and how the diversity of the human family is really its strength rather than any other way of looking at it.
- [38:20]
A
Considering that you've written previously that humanity is already a mycelial network of unity building communities, what examples have moved you most profoundly?
- [38:31]
C
Yeah, let me just say, explain a little bit first about why and how humanity is its own mycelial network. On a deep biological and spiritual level. Humanity is organically connected and interdependent, but it doesn't acknowledge this yet. So we've been told an old story. We've been living by an old story for so long that we've been led to believe that we are a separate family, separate communities, separate nations. So much so that we've nearly annihilated ourselves thinking that we're different, distinct and disconnected. But there is a new story of wholeness emerging as well. That's the exact opposite. And that is humanity is in the process now of discovering that it is its own mycelial network in the sense of being similar to the root system that is invisible under the ground, underground in the forest that connects all the trees of the forest together. So when humanity realizes this, we'll be in a much better position to, to replicate and carry out the natural growth and development as the living organism that humanity is. And what that means on the social level is that we will become agents of change for an organic renewal of society. It'll mean that we can assist in the natural flow happening and, and become part of that. The thing that organic renewal is, what spreads through that are self sustaining and growth producing. And so whether we realize it or not, humanity is such a mycelial network and we have a long way to go to realize that as a human family. But at the same time, there are many examples of how communities around the world are trying to become that source of organic renewal. And one of those, the examples that I use in the book, and to me really is the most profound example, is the Baha' I world community. It's, it's remarkable really in these, in this, these divisive times that thousands of communities worldwide have been nurturing patterns of coherence to build strong, vibrant, inclusive communities by applying these unitive principles in their everyday, in their everyday lives. For over a century, the Baha' I world community has carried out a systematic social action initiative to advance society toward the world, toward the world consciousness, which will underlie an eventual world civilization with, with their friends and neighbors. Baha' I communities have applied a unique model of unity in action to achieve a common goal and purpose, to bring about harmony, balance and unity, which happen to be the preconditions for peace within their communities. By undertaking a collaborative learning process that leads to strong, vibrant and thriving communities, they are adding to an infrastructure of local communities linked by a common set of principles and common administrative structure that is growing and expanding in the manner of a dynamic organic process that at the same time ties them to a regional, national and international system of renewal that exists to build cultures of coherence and peace worldwide, making the whole process globally scalable.
- [41:47]
A
So where do you believe our current global turbulence is leading us? And what emerges after such a collective dark night?
- [41:54]
C
So that comes back to the Way of Unity, the book, which provides a contextual basis for understanding. First, that unity and peace are the natural state of the universe. Second, that there are unitive principles that sustain this wholeness and peace in the world. And third, that there is an emergent process, a systemic, systematic, evidence based model of social action that's already applying these principles to restore the world, a whole wholeness. And so the book invites us to imagine a world where every person feels seen, valued and connected. A world guided by compassion, cooperation and partnerships. So this may sound like a vision of a long promised future, and it is. But to get there, we must walk a very practical path every day of our lives. And the book is a guide to discovering something greater than ourselves. A growing, growing, expanding organic renewal process aligned with evolutionary forces. And that's what the book directly links us to, is building strong, vibrant, inclusive communities right where we are and the outcome from that of world peace. It's about laying out a path to world peace, clarifying what the preconditions are to get there. And it spotlights a process of collaborative learning that is being carried out on all social levels to achieve this long sought after promise of world peace.
- [43:17]
A
What a beautiful, optimistic note to finish on. Thank you so much, Dr. Atkinson, for your enlightening views and absolute pristine care and attention to the human condition. I applaud you for that and thank you very much for sitting with me today.
- [43:33]
C
Thank you. One Carlos. Pleasure being with you.
- [43:35]
A
Thank you so much.
- [43:39]
B
My friends, if Robert Atkinson has shown us anything today, it is that unity is not an abstraction hovering above history, but a living architecture pulsing beneath every human epoch. His work invites us to consider that the fractures of our moment are not evidence of decline, but the labor pains of emergence. To read the Way of Unity is to feel page by page that the cosmos itself is coaxing us toward coherence. His synthesis of developmental psychology, cosmos, cosmology and sacred tradition reminds us that the story of humanity is not yet finished. It is still being braided, still being dreamed, still being written by each choice we make toward compassion, toward curiosity, toward the recognition that we belong to one another.
- [44:28]
I want to thank Dr. Atkinson for sharing his luminous scholarship, his clarity, and his faith in the evolutionary impulse that binds us. May his work continue to serve as a lantern for anyone searching for direction.
- [44:40]
A
In this collective dusk.
- [44:41]
B
And as always, thank you for listening to the observable unknown, where we explore the mysteries that refuse to sit still.