Is the Universe Good?

The way that we see the world, our worldview, is evolving. There has been over a hundred years of study in the field of developmental psychology. If you are interested in particular researchers look into Jean Gebser, Lawrence Kohlberg, Carol Gilligan, Jean Piaget, Abraham Maslow, or Ken Wilber. The overarching agreement is that on a personal level and a cultural level we are developing.

In simple language, here’s how development works. When we are born we start at square one. We have a small undeveloped sense of self. But as we are exposed to more things in life, and if we are open to them, we grow through stages or waves of cognitive development.

One simple model of this development goes like this:

Egocentric Stage – Sense of care for self and immediate family (culturally this stage was dominant 10000 – 5000 years ago with tribes and small villages).

Ethnocentric Stage- Sense of care for my country, my religion, etc. (culturally this stage emerged around 5000 – 500 years ago. Think of organized religion up to the renaissance. “Good people go to heaven, bad people go to hell”).

Worldcentric Stage- Sense of care for all people regardless of what country they are in or what religion the have. Care for all animals, belief in equal rights for minorities, etc. (Culturally this emerged around 300 years ago with the scientific revolution but exploded in the last century with woman’s rights, the eco movement, PETA, etc. i.e.: “Give peace a chance”)

Cosmocentic Stage- Care for everything including the process of life itself. This stage is currently the leading edge of awareness and it only just started to emerge 50 years ago.

Notice how each stage is more loving, more good. We are progressively evolving to embrace more. Evolution is not a chaotic, random, uncaring process. It is moving in a clear and obvious direction….expanding in love.

From this new stage we see the answer to the worldcentric question of why people don’t give peace a chance? The answer is that because people in our culture are not all at the highest stage. 70% of the world’s population is at the ethnocentric stage or lower! So, although we culturally have access to these higher, more loving, more good stages, most people haven’t got there yet on a personal level, but they can.

The world is genuinely a good place and only getting better (we don’t have ritual sacrifice anymore, or slavery, thank God). In fact, a lot of the major atrocities of our time are from lower level people getting their hands on higher level technology. This is why it is really, really up to us, people operating at these higher levels, to spread the good. We are creating the future and the evolution of our cultural consciousness is up to us, quite literally.

I feel empowered that the positive difference I can make in people’s lives, even if it is just one person, makes an impact on the future of all mankind. Helping people to evolve their perspective will literally make the world a better place…and that makes me feel really, really good about the world and my place in it.