A wide range of expertise is reflected in this volume–scientists, futurists, mystics, indigenous elders, social innovators, and spiritual healers and teachers share their perspectives on the rapid, transformational change that is underway and will peak in the next few years.

As I read through this book I was struck by how we all took a positive, hopeful stance on the outcomes of this planetary shift, despite our different takes on how difficult life may become for many during the transition.  The book reflects strong agreement that humanity has an unprecedented opportunity to envision and co-create a peaceful, sustainable future.  Below are some of the insights offered.

“We are privileged to be on the planet at this time, positioned to witness and experience the outer (planetary and cultural) and inner (personal and spiritual) effects of this shift.”

–Debra Giusti

“Many interpret this Grand Alignment [in 2012] as the crossover point from a dark age into an age of accelerated evolution for mankind.  Such an evolutionary shift is not without its challenges.  People will be faced with the need to release old models and embrace entirely new ways of thinking, feeling, and relating.”

–Georgy Noory

“We have seen a series of jumps in the past, but probably never one as radical and far-reaching as the jump we are experiencing today.”

–Jean Houston

“Seems to me that flexibility and permeability (allowing new ideas to get through) are of critical importance here.”

–John L. Petersen

“What is forming right now is a worldwide community of pioneering souls, a communion of people attracted to expressing and giving their gifts to the world….The connectivity of such evolving humans is rapidly creating a resonant field, and a new critical mass of coherence and creativity that can shift the direction of human history.”

–Barbara Marx Hubbard

“Let us consciously begin a de-urbanization of the human experience, returning to more natural, rural, environmentally friendly settings and living areas to experience our place in nature in relationship to the environment and more closely akin to our ancestors.”

–M. Kalani Souza

“When you make the shift and start living in the quantum energy field, you naturally start to activate amazing quantum biological processes, connecting you to the universe and what is, ultimately, beyond the universe.”

–Paul and Lillie Weisbart

“…everywhere, human imaginal cells are awakening to a new possibility.  They are clustering, communicating and tuning into a new, coherent signal of love.  We are now between ‘two worlds’–the caterpillar world where our future is limited by our creepy-crawly past, and the butterfly world where humanity can soar to reach its highest potential….the transformation of humanity requires our participation.”

–Bruce H. Lipton and Steven Bhaerman

“If the human species wants to survive, the civilization that replaces this one is going to have a different set of values and a revamped operating system.”

–Daniel Pinchbeck

“If we can learn to ride this wave of creativity, celebrating pluralism and all that our confluences of difference have to offer, then we will develop cognitively for what comes next, building up our resilience for managing change, rathern than succumbing to fundamentalism or co-option.”

–Marilyn Mandala Schlitz

There is much more in this volume, including my own piece, “Spiritual Wisdom for 2012.”  I encourage you to explore and share this insightful collection by wise leaders who will help guide us through uncertain times into a bright future for humanity and our planet.

“Transforming Through 2012″ is available through this website and Amazon.com.  Email info@healingandwisdom.com for more information.

Two years ago I hosted a similar group on Epiphany weekend to discuss and discern the likely scenarios out of all the prophecies and possibilities about the Earth changes and consciousness shifts humanity would encounter in the next few years.  I wrote about that conversation in my book, Spiritual Wisdom for a Planet in Peril:  Preparing for 2012 and Beyond.

The first Epiphany conversation resulted in group discernment of five possible scenarios on the path to 2012 and following.  These ranged from massive Earth- and human-caused changes resulting in significant death and destruction to minimal changes.  We also considered the possibility that each person would experience the next few years in very different ways, depending on their locations, circumstances, and levels of understanding.  The group concluded that if all seeking enlightenment became the change they were awaiting, the outcome would help create a soft landing for the Earth and her inhabitants through the shifts.

Two years later, five of the original group and seven others had a somewhat different take on the near future of humanity and Planet Earth.  This group was more of the opinion that it wasn’t necessary to speculate about what might happen and choose the most likely scenario, as things are constantly shifting.  While there will be significant Earth-changes, like the Haiti earthquake that just occurred, and continued conflicts at all levels, the consensus was to do our work, go where we are guided, and release fear about the outcome.

This conversation felt more confident and grounded than the last and reflected the growth we have each experienced in ourselves and our work as healers and teachers.  We also recognized that we are not immune to loss, injury, and death just because we’re dedicated to the highest good of all.  As Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, “[God] sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” alike.  While we still experience fear and limited beliefs, we are more likely because of our experience and trust that all is in Divine order to shift from lower vibration thoughts and feelings to a higher vibration loving energy that serves the whole.

The conversation itself was engaging, but the most significiant “epiphanies”–flashes of insight and inspiration–came as a result of the energy work we did together.  Each person received a clearing and release of what no longer served them as well as healing for whatever they needed.  We were all uplifted by the group and the spiritual energy that surrounded us, and by the end of the weekend, we felt so much love and gratitude for each other and for all that had shifted for us that we agreed to stay connected and work together on group distance healing for people, places, situations, and the planet.

Epiphany II weekend was an amazing journey full of epiphanies of all kinds.  We’ll be reflecting on these in the coming weeks and months.  We cannot yet fathom all that will change for us and for the world as the result of our coming together, but we trust that it will be significant.  Our group may have been small, but the power and love of each of us was magnified by the power and love of this spiritually aligned group that became, at least for weekend, one.

In many cultures, ancient and modern,  the Winter Solstice is a day to celebrate the Festival of Light, that out of darkness the light again emerges, bringing new life.  It is no coincidence that this week Christmas is also celebrated, the birth of the Christ Consciousness which brought new life and light to the world.

As the world turns toward the light and celebrates its birth and rebirth, it is a time to enter profound silence, the still point within where we connect with the Divine Light from which all that is radiates forth.  Out of that still point emerges our own love and light, which we express in our own ways.

One of my favorite Christmas hymns is Cristina Rossetti’s “Love Came Down at Christmas.”  It goes:  “Love came down at Christmas/Love all lovely, love divine/Love was born at Christmas/Stars and angels gave the sign.”

The signs of love and light are all around us.   As we move toward the tipping point of Winter Solstice of 2012, now only three years away, we will need to recognize and become these signs for the world.  Think of them as the gifts of the Spirit:  love, joy, hope, generosity, forgiveness, and peace.   Where these are found, light is coming into the world. 

It’s time to turn toward the light.  May your season of light bring you all the gifts of the Spirit!

Where can viewers turn for answers and hope for the future?  Unfortunately, most programs about 2012 shed little light on a complex, confusing subject and have less to offer when it comes to how to prepare for what is possible or probable as 2012 approaches.  Predictably, they feature several “experts” on the Mayan calendar, an ancient prophecy or two, a few visits to Mayan temples, and a couple of contrarians who dispute the experts’ conclusions.

Last night’s SyFy special, “2012:  Startling New Secrets,” did include one extreme form of preparing for what may lie ahead:  a survivalist community in Kansas was shown investigating the rehabbing of an old missile silo with the intention of living underground for at least ten years after whatever happens on the surface lays waste to the land.  That’s not my idea of how to prepare for 2012 and beyond.

When I wrote “Spiritual Wisdom for a Planet in Peril:  Preparing for 2012 and Beyond” for the widest possible audience, it was for the purpose of not only informing people but helping them prepare in practical, positive ways for a world in transition.  The message above all is about hope and taking responsibility for shifting one’s own consciousness away from such projections of fear as the film “2012″ projects by strengthening your spiritual connections, envisioning a new way of being, learning to thrive in a new, sustainable economy, creating intentional community, and developing an action plan.  When people feel informed and prepared, they move beyond fear and work together for the good of the whole.  That is one of the primary lessons we must learn as we approach 2012.

No one knows precisely what will happen when.  No one can say for sure that the galactic alignment on the winter solstice of 2012 will produce a burst of solar flares or how they will affect the planet.  And neither can anyone say for sure that 2012 is nothing more than the year that comes after 2011.  Because everything is interconnected, fear can spread.  So can peace and a more hopeful outlook for the future.  It is time that we all work to become the change we are seeking and transform the world into a peaceful, sustainable global society.

If you want to be scared, go see the movie “2012″.  If you want to contribute to a better world, read my book and then co-create the kind of future you want for yourself and the planet.

Many of those angriest at the proposed health care reforms have been fed misinformation to fuel their dissent. Ironically, as the more conservative in the mix call for a return to the constitutional principles of individual rights and freedoms, those who push for reform hold up communal values of justice and equality for all, reflecting two sets of perspectives based on the same constitution.

As Ken Burns suggested in his 1994 documentary on baseball, our national pastime is an indicator of mass consciousness. On the same day that anger exploded at the town hall meetings, it exploded on the baseball diamond. As I watched my favorite team, the Detroit Tigers, play the Boston Red Sox, young Tigers’ pitcher Rick Porcello hit the Red Sox’ Kevin Youkilis with a pitch. Youkilis, believing the pitch was intentional, charged the mound, and the two tussled to the ground. Anger broke out on the field, as the two teams gathered around them. It was in the air that day, picked up and acted out by citizens and players under stress. Reactive stress is a condition that occurs when suppressed anger erupts and strikes the nearest target, as in road rage.

Watch for it now as a sign of the times, this explosive anger out of proportion to the events that trigger it. Anger is not an easy emotion to manage. Anger turned inward, women have learned, leads to depression. Turned outward, anger can contribute to systemic breakdown of social order. This is what is happening now. We are witnessing the crumbling of old hierarchical systems of government, education, religion, corporations, and now health care as a necessary part of the transformation of consciousness we are experiencing on the path to 2012 and beyond. Communal anger, a resonance of rage, may be speeding up social change, although, ironically, fear of change is a primary cause of the anger.

Even though this nation elected as its president last fall the man with the greatest capacity to bring people together and heal what divides us since Abraham Lincoln, anger seethes beneath the surface. Action of any kind is a release, yet rarely does it produce wise solutions to common problems.

As a spiritual healer, I have found that energy healing can assist people in converting anger to more positive emotions, as their energy fields are rebalanced for inner peace and harmony. People calm down and become able to use their innate wisdom and natural intelligence to handle situations. We need more of this kind of healing now!

In my book “Spiritual Wisdom for a Planet in Peril: Preparing for 2012 and Beyond”, I pointed out that the worst case scenario on the path to the transformation of Planet Earth that is underway would be for those ruled by low vibration energies like fear and anger to gain control and cause the balance of power to shift toward chaos and anarchy. With these vibrations weighing down the atmosphere around us, there’s a very real danger right now of this phenomenon happening. The kind of explosive anger we are witnessing is also reflected in the natural environment, as earthquake and volcanic activity increases. More severe earth-changes may lie ahead, with angry outbursts a leading indicator of and possibly even a contributor to an unstable planet.

While the old order needs to change to make way for the higher consciousness future many envision, if humanity persists in its path toward division rather than unity, acting out in anger, we may miss out on the cosmic momentum moving us toward an age of peace and harmony on an Earth that offers abundance for all.

It’s time to look at the smoldering anger within ourselves, our culture, and our human race, and convert it to positive action to find solutions to the significant environmental, economic, and social challenges we face. The way through 2012 and beyond, as I said in the book, is together, not separated.

A new initiative I helped found, Power of One 10.10.10 (www.powerofone101010.org), is working to unite people in celebrating our oneness and the power of each and all of us to transform the world in positive ways. Join with us in this exciting new venture to move beyond the anger and fear that divide us to co-create positive solutions to the environmental, economic, social and spiritual challenges we face. Claiming individual and communal power for the higher good of all is the path we must take now.

In the last century, as populations have become more urban than rural, many of us have lost our conscious connection to the natural world.  We may note the change of seasons–warmer or cooler weather, longer days or nights–but have largely forgotten the significance of the Earth’s annual journey around the sun as it tilts on its axis.

This yearly orbit is linked with much larger cosmic movements, as Earth moves counterclockwise through the twelve signs of the Zodiac, each about 2160 years, and completes what is called the Precession of the Equinoxes about every 25, 950 years.  All of these cycles, as well as the shorter lunar and solar cycles, were known to the ancients.  The Mayan calendar gives evidence of this, and many monuments around the Earth similarly indicate that the movements of the heavens were well observed.

According to interpreters of the Mayan calendar’s long count, December 21, 2012 is the date when all of these cycles–short and long–complete, as Earth and Sun align with the dark rift at the center of the Milky Way galaxy.  Some plausibly argue for other dates, but the Winter Solstice of 2012 (Summer in the Southern Hemisphere) is now part of the collective consciousness of our time, as media focus on this date builds. 

What precisely will happen then no one knows, but speculation ranges from Doomsday scenarios to the ushering in of the Aquarian Age of enlightenment and peace, with all species including the human living sustainably on the Earth.  I am firmly in the latter camp, as those who have read my book, Spiritual Wisdom for a Planet in Peril:  Preparing for 2012 and Beyond,” are aware.  Our task is to bring about the most positive outcomes for ourselves and our planet.

The Summer Solstice on June 21 offered an opportunity to reconnect with the natural rhythms of Earth and to celebrate the time when the sun at its zenith appears to stand still in the heavens.  Now light wins out once more over darkness, as the longest day of the year marks the beginning of summer. From this day forward to the December solstice, daylight diminishes again until darkness settles in and winter pulls us inward.

Summer is an expansive time, when all things seem possible.  Now through the autumn equinox on September 21 is a time of great abundance, as Earth nourishes her species through growing plants, plentiful waters, and new generations of animals, birds, and insects.   Our home garden produces a rich bounty of lettuces, tomatoes, squash, beans, and herbs, offering us fresh, nutritious meals through September.  Last year one of our pumpkins, harvested in July, lived on our front porch through January, before the frost turned it rotten.  Mocking birds nest in our yard, large bumblebees buzz around our purple ice plants, and the butterfly bushes in our side yard attract many beautiful species.  Wild blackberries turn ripe and disappear quickly as the local deer population gobbles them up.  Visual and edible symbols of Earth’s abundance are one of the great joys of summer.

Since ancient times, people have celebrated the Summer Solstice as the victory of light over darkness.  Monuments like England’s Stonehenge are gigantic calendars marking the Earth’s turning toward the light and have become sites of annual festivals to give thanks to the Divine for the life-giving sun.

On a number of occasions, I have traveled to power points and sacred sites on the planet to participate in solstice or equinox celebrations:  Stonehenge, Chitchen Itza in Mayan Mexico, Egypt’s Giza Plateau, Ireland’s Newgrange, and Chaco Canyon in New Mexico among them.  In these and other locations, ancient astronomers and priests left solid evidence in stone of the path of the sun’s seasonal alignments so that their communities could anticipate and benefit from this knowledge.  Ancient gods were worshipped as bringers and sustainers of life.

 Now science confirms what spiritual people have always known intuitively:  the interconnected web of life throughout the universe that flourishes, dies, and is reborn in new forms and patterns, as the process of creation continues to unfold throughout time.  The evolution of human consciousness that 2012 is about is one significant culmination of a more than 16 billion year old cosmic process, and those alive today may experience this shift.

On last year’s summer solstice, I joined an annual ceremony in northern Michigan led by several generations of Ojibway women at the site of petroglyphs sacred to their people.  The women hauled water in purifying copper buckets from a nearby stream to cleanse the large rock on which the ancient messages were written for our own time.  Barefoot, grandmothers and their daughters and granddaughters scrubbed the rock with brooms, then offered a traditional feast representing Earth’s bounty to guests.  It was a wonderful way to honor Mother Earth and ancestral wisdom.

This year I had intended to join a group of spiritual energy healers at another ancient sacred site, the Serpent Mounds of Ohio, to ground and amplify healing energy through the site, connecting with the Earth’s grids to bring a higher dimension of healing and harmony to the planet.  Instead, I stayed home to be with visiting family.  However, through the power of the internet, you don’t have to travel around the globe to join in a summer solstice celebration.  At 8 p.m. EDT on June 21, I tuned into the Concert for the Living Water at www.liveh2o.org and joined millions around the world in sending love and healing through thought, intention, and chanting to the Earth’s oceans, lakes, rivers, and streams.  I concentrated especially on the Great Lakes because of their importance and my own spiritual connection to these great bodies of water. 

Feeling very aligned with the intention of this experimental gathering held around the planet and virtually through the internet, I was grateful to be able to contribute through this medium to cleansing and healing the waters.  We know from the work of Japanese scientist Dr. Emoto, who was involved in this project, as well as from the science of energy healing, that water holds memory and vibration.  As humans and invasive species have polluted the life-giving waters on which all life depends, their healthy vibrations have shifted and diminished.  Through our collective intention, we can change that, and this concert held, appropriately, on the summer solstice was a way to focus and amplify our energy through the sound frequency of love.  As the www.h2o.org website states, “love is the universal healer and water the universal solvent.”  Bringing these together with amplified power can cleanse and heal us all.

The Concert for the Living Water is a great example of what is possible when each of us joins with others as one voice to raise the vibration of the planet and contribute to the transformation of consciousness that will bring about an era of peace and harmony on Earth.  It was especially appropriate that it should happen on the most enlightened day of the year.

In recent weeks I’ve had the opportunity to speak to hundreds of people in person and through radio interviews and teleconferences about 2012: what may be coming in the way of earth shifts and human-caused changes and how to prepare for the most probable outcomes, while envisioning a new way of being in a transformed world and beginning to live out that vision now.

The question that keeps coming up is this: what do we need to know and do now to make it through the coming shift and transition to a higher consciousness?

The first part of the answer is, emphatically, not to go into fear. Fear is a lower-vibration energy that can spread as quickly as a pandemic and cause as much damage energetically. Since 2001, we’ve gotten so used to fear-based interpretations of the world through media, politics, and conspiracy theories that we either panic at the first sign of trouble, giving energy to the worst case outcomes, or sink into denial, ignoring the signs of the times that tell us the world is transforming in many ways at once.

Giving in to fear clouds our judgment and vision, snatching away our sense of security and control of our own lives. It also saps our ability to choose to participate in bringing about the best possible outcome for the highest good of all life on this planet.

Witness the so-called swine flu pandemic. Conspiracy theorists tell us the swine flu virus was concocted in secret labs and released on the public by dark forces hoping to kill off millions of excess humans on this planet or just to create massive panic. The Egyptian government ordered that country’s 300,000 pig population slaughtered out of sheer ignorance and fear, which it multiplied exponentially with this worst possible response to a perceived threat. Even the National Institutes of Health, by recommending that school systems with possible cases close down for days or weeks until the virus is contained, amped up the fear by giving it probable cause and threw a wrench into the end of school year plans of hundreds of thousands of students, teachers, and parents left without child care options. Individuals who can afford to get Tamiflu prescriptions from their doctors are doing so to protect themselves. Spiritual healers are recommending natural products like essential oils to ward off the virus and restore the physical and energy bodies to full health.

It seems that each institution or individual is demonstrating its own level of consciousness in its reaction to this virus.

What is the truth about swine flu? Is the threat overblown, considering the number of cases worldwide? It appears so. And yet, as I point out in “Spiritual Wisdom for a Planet in Peril: Preparing for 2012 and Beyond,” pandemics are one kind of natural- or human-caused disaster we may experience in this time of great change for which we can prepare on both physical and energetic levels.

While science works on understanding the virus and and governments on containing it, we, from a higher consciousness perspective, can deal with swine flu and other potential disasters by recognizing that through directing positive intention and energy to the threat we can influence the outcome. By consciously choosing not to participate in fear but rather to surround the virus, the people and animals touched by it, and the medicines and personnel prepared to counteract it with the energy of love, we can help convert a potential disaster into a soft landing. The more of us who practice sending the high vibration of universal love into the world in place of the lower vibration of fear, the less likely a potential disaster is to become a real one.

This is a huge lesson to be learned as we move forward through this cosmic shift marked by 2012. Knowing how to heal the body, mind, and spirit is essential. Choosing not to participate in fear and to offer love in its place will make all the difference.

As the vernal equinox on March 20 approaches, a time when darkness and light are in balance, the natural order gives visible signs of rebirth. Birds build nests, flowering trees begin to bud, and streams swell with snow-melt. If we look closely, we will also find signs that the Great Shift in consciousness I wrote about in <em>Spiritual Wisdom for a Planet in Peril: Preparing for 2012 and</em> <em>Beyond</em> is well underway, balancing light against the darkness of war, conflict, and financial collapse.

One positive sign is the increase in home gardening. Just this morning a news article confirmed that more of us are planting gardens to grow our own produce. Burpee Seeds, one of the largest seed companies, is experiencing an unprecedented surge in demand. People have figured out that growing their own vegetables and fruit can not only save substantial money but also provide them with nutritious food and valuable lessons about connecting with the Earth and her cycles.

My husband recently found his sixth-grade report on Victory Gardens, illustrating the importance of home gardening during World War II that provided up to 40% of the nation’s fresh produce. We can do so again and enjoy gardening as a family and community activity.

In my hometown, Detroit, urban blight is being transformed into community gardens. Young people work in the dirt on vacant lots and see the results, renewing their bonds with Mother Nature. Neighbors work together and share the produce.  Everyone benefits. This is the new consciousness in action.

Last week my husband and son roto-tilled our garden area, adding home-grown compost to enrich the soil. We’ve already had our annual garden planning meeting with our neighbors and will go together to the local garden supply store this weekend to pick out plants and seeds and begin by planting those that can take hold in an early North Carolina spring. Remembering the lucious tomatoes, zucchini, pesto made from fresh basil, and Arugula last year’s garden yielded makes us eager to get started. Although the local deer ate most of our young blueberry plants, we’ll try again. We don’t mind sharing with the deer. They are part of our ecosystem, and our home took part of their habitat. We enjoy seeing them thrive on the local plant life also.

If you can create a garden where you live, by all means do so. Get your neighbors together to help. Apartment dwellers can start seeds or seedlings inside, then transfer to patios or balconies.  Ask your landlords and condo associations for a community garden plot.  This kind of contact with the Earth’s cycles and bounty truly is life-giving and enlightening, and returning us to a healthy relationship with the natural environment is part of the Great Shift.

As the economic turndown worsens daily, business as usual is not a viable option. Rather than attempting to fix a broken system based on greed and excess, it’s time to create a new, sustainable system that works for everyone and is earth-friendly.

A cashless economy in which buyers and sellers together determine the value of the products and services exchanged will make a comeback. The new system will be based on relationships and shared values so that the planet and its interdependent inhabitants may survive. Brokers of barter services will do well in the new economy, as they connect and expand markets for their customers.

Local currencies, already in use, could replace a collapsed U.S. and global currency. A step beyond the barter system, local bucks create a recognized medium of exchange.

As big businesses depart from communities that can’t sustain their bottom lines, people will support their local merchants through the downturn so that essential goods and services will continue. Shedding the unnecessary is a part of the new, sustainable lifestyle.

Creativity will be valued in the new economy, with thousands of micro-businesses forming as inspiration and an entrepreneurial spirit join to offer value for a minimal investment of capital. Local lenders will step forward to support such cost-effective endeavors, just as they have in third-world countries like Bangladesh.

Having lost confidence in big banking, community associations are forming to offer loans to their neighbors with reasonable terms that benefit everyone. Other communal efforts to ensure mutual survival and access to the means to own a home and make a living are likely to emerge in the next few years. Grassroots economies will flourish, and businesses will do well by treating their customers as friends.

Community enterprises will be the hallmark of the new economy. Co-housing and community gardens are making a comeback, as generations move in together and neighbors create common areas. The concept of each household owning its own lawnmower will seem archaic, as tools are shared to save valuable resources.

Public transportation will improve in response to demand, and neighbors will carpool for shopping, work, and school. Group home schooling will thrive, as public systems collapse under the weight of crumbling facilities and budgets. In general, people will stay closer to home and adopt simpler lifestyles offering less stressful, more enjoyable lives.

As the world is transformed by crisis, a consciousness shift will cause people to recognize their interdependence and pull together to create new ways not only to survive but thrive in a new economy and a new era of sustainable living.

The good news is we are only a few years away from the anticipated transformation of human consciousness toward harmony, creativity, and peace rather than conflict and fear.

The bad news is there isn’t much time to make significant shifts in our perspectives and behaviors to turn the tide toward positive, life-giving outcomes for ourselves and our planet.

The start of a new year is an opportune time to have a look at how we’re doing.
On the positive side, the election of Barack Obama as U.S. president gives evidence that the consciousness shift is underway. The Obama style and agenda are, for the most part, inspiring, intelligent, and inclusive. If the state of the American psyche is reflected in its leader, then we are gaining ground.

Other signs of the times are less hopeful on the surface, and some are downright scary. The escalating Israeli-Palestinian conflict, unemployment spiking toward 10% in the U.S., extreme winter weather in many regions, and the devasting coal ash spill in Tennessee are all pieces of evidence that we are in the midst of unprecedented global financial and environmental crises. Yet these and other potentially disastrous events and situations are trigger points for transformational change.

As the old paradigms and systems crumble, we will be called upon to create alternative, life-giving, flexible, sustainable systems to replace them. In the new paradigm brought about by the anticipated consciousness shift, creativity and communal enterprise will be valued more than ever and are likely to emerge in surprising ways. When faced with shortages of goods or cash, people will learn to make do with less and share what they have. We’re already seeing that happen in our consumer culture. Necessity helps us become more sustainable in our lifestyles and choices, and that in turn increases harmony and peace on our planet.

In my book, I explored how to thrive in a new economy.  As the monetary and banking systems collapse, for example, I envision that bartering of goods and services will return, micro-businesses will sprout up, local and regional cooperatives will provide basic food and materials, and many varieties of sustainable communities will flourish. If technological advances are directed toward renewable energy rather than weapons and entertainment, the planet conceivably could pull back from the brink of ecological disaster.

When reading the signs of the times, it helps to look at the potentially positive outcomes that transformational change may bring.