Whether you are part of the Trump resistance or a Trumpeteer, hating or getting angry at the opposition is neither a cultural nor a personal solution.

Here we are, mostly asleep, and in the middle of the fastest and largest of the 6 big extinction events in the long history of our planet. If we don’t wake up en masse and quickly, we as a species will be included in the annihilation.

I have come across a new way of looking at both cultural and personal development, that I want to share as a model that can lead to a transcendence of this dire situation.

This new view is based both in biology and quantum physics, and it doesn’t require a Ph.D to apply the insights.

Let’s start with the biological root. We all know about the amazing transformation of caterpillars becoming butterflies and other flying creatures. Fewer of us know the details. Here are the details in a nutshell:

The caterpillar gets into a groove of eating leaves voraciously. It grows rapidly until it reaches a point where it taps out its capacity to keep it up. It finds a place to attach itself and hangs upside down. Inside the caterpillar is where the magic is brewing. Of the billions of cells inside, there are some cells – that have the same DNA as all the rest, but they vibrate at a different frequency. When the caterpillar identifies these cells, it’s immune system attacks them and kills them off. But these cells (which biologists call ‘imaginal cells’) keep appearing. As the caterpillar gets bloated, these imaginal cells start getting the upper hand. They start connecting and communicating with each other and form ‘imaginal disks’. They transform from single cell organisms to more complex multi-cell tissue. They begin to use the cells of the overstuffed caterpillar as nutritive soup to continue their growth and development. As they develop, they become the body parts of the flying creature that eventually all comes together as a butterfly or moth or whatever.

Now the cultural analogy of this process is pretty obvious. There is an identifiable group of well over 50 million humans who identify as cultural creatives and are busy creating a new world in every way. And just like in the caterpillar, the old society finds all kinds of ways to fire up its ‘immune system’ and thwart these cultural creatives. But they persist.

What, until now, has not been brought to light is this same process taking place inside each of our mind-bodies.

And this brings us to quantum physics. Studying quantum physics is a great way to destroy mercilessly every idea you have about the world you live in. To take just two aspects of this area of study, lets bring up the uncertainty principle and the observer effect. For our simplified needs, the uncertainty principle tells us that at the quantum level, we can not precisely either nail down the location or the momentum of an object. And the observer effect says that the act of observing an object, changes that object.

Ok. Now the question. Do we human beings have imaginal cells? I think the answer lies in these laws of quantum physics. If you have never looked for them and believe they don’t exist, then for practical purposes they do not exist. But, on the other hand, if you look for them and believe they can possibly exist, I believe that you will find them.

When I found them in myself, I found that they were responsible for the moments of awareness and unconditional love and the part of my life that is based on those experiences.

And even though for nearly twenty years I have said every day these words, “I promise to rededicate my life to being loving, kind and present” there are still many, many moments each day where that promise goes unfulfilled. And why is that?

For the answer, we need an expanded understanding of the human immune system. Do you know what would happen if all your or my moments were filled with awareness and unconditional loving kindness? Our ego, that part of us that thinks it knows who we are, that part would end. So our immune system, with our ego as the director in charge of conscious and subconscious patterns, fights these imaginal cells with all of its tools. These tools include: addictions, distractions, disease, confusion, worry, doubt, negative emotions, beliefs and more. A powerful arsenal. Yet imaginal cells persist.

The imaginal cells have some tools of their own. The direct experience of a moment of awareness with loving-kindness brings with it, peace, equanimity, a sense of connectedness and oneness, relaxation, a healthy healing energy, lowered stress and blood pressure levels. When you are in this state and in the presence of someone else in this state of loving awareness, there is a high vibration communication that energizes each of you. The imaginal cells express themselves through ideas in the mind as well. There is a deepening belief in the idea that there is such a thing as a ‘critical mass’ where the imaginal cells within oneself and within humanity can reach a strength such that a rapid and powerful transformation takes place that goes beyond ones’ wildest imagination. Another idea from imaginal cells is a rewrite of the E = MC² equation. The equation simply becomes E=M. Energy or Mass. It’s a choice. Imaginal cells urge us to see the world through the lens of Energy. Another influence from imaginal cells is expressed by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.”

As moments of awareness or presence increase and deepen, the altered states of jhana begin to appear. These states further weaken the ego, which begins to lose the battle of defining reality. I think of some lyrics from Jefferson Starship’s Paul Kanter referring to the Nixon White House. The song is called Mau Mau. The entire song points to this transformation we are describing, so I think it is fitting to leave you with poetry. Here is the last half of the poem/song.

Hey dick
Whatever you think of us is totally irrelevant
Both to us now and to you
We are the present
We are the future
You are the past
Pay your dues and get outta the way
‘Cause we’re not the way you used to be
When you were very young
We’re something new
We don’t quite know what it is
Or particularly care
We just do it – you gotta do it
Let the music do it, take you there
Do it, do it, do it gotta do it
Something new, something new, something new
New, new

Open your eyes there’s a new world a-comin’
Open your eyes there’s a new world today
Open your hearts people are lovin’
Open it all we’ve come to stay
I said, open it all we’ve come to stay
I said, open it all we’ve come to stay
People, hey you people, everybody
Us young people come to stay
I said, people, on relief
We’ve all come to stay
Open your eyes there’s a new world a-comin’
Open it all we’ve come to stay
Yeah, yeah, yeah, open it all
Open it, open it, baby,
Now open that door