Chapter 9:10 Humanity’s overall situation now that we have understanding

I have drawn this picture to illustrate the situation the human race is now in.

Humanity’s Situation: the Sunshine Highway to Freedom, the Abyss of Depression,
our Cave-like Dead Existence and the Spiralling Pit of Terminal Alienation

At the top of the picture, humans are depicted revelling in the sun-drenched ‘FREEDOM’ of the Transformed Lifeforce Way of Living. In the middle of the picture, however, lies a terrible abyss with the word ‘DEPRESSION’ written prominently across the bottom of it, representing the deep, dark depression humans suffered when they tried to confront the issue of the human condition while the reconciling understanding of it was yet to be found. You can see that the abyss consumes two-thirds of the whole picture, which is an accurate reflection of how big a part depression has played in human life—basically, all our activities have been ruled by our fear of it. Yes, the human condition has essentially been our fear of the depressing implications of our non-ideal behaviour, of are we good or bad; are we actually worthwhile creatures or evil beings—and, although the human condition has finally been compassionately explained, the fact remains that it will still take a few generations to completely heal, so current generations will still be faced with that depression if they try to fully confront all the truth about themselves and the world. As has been explained, the arrival of truth ‘day’ or honesty ‘day’ is also exposure or ‘judgment’ ‘day’, the time when we are faced with too much truth to have to suddenly confront. The lower side of the abyss features a narrow strip of land that is coloured the grey-green of dead flesh. Featuring the words ‘CAVE-LIKE DEAD EXISTENCE’, it is populated by a throng of people walking around like zombies. This is a truthful depiction of the state of extreme block-out or denial and resulting alienation from our true selves or soul that humans currently live in. The bottom corner of the picture also contains a big black spiralling pit that has written beside it, ‘Extinction of the human species from terminal levels of alienation’—which was the destiny of the human race if understanding of the human condition was not found.

In this situation that the human race is now in we obviously can’t continue living a ‘CAVE-LIKE DEAD EXISTENCE’. The amount of suffering is way beyond obscene and unconscionable. What’s more, if we each remain where we are the human race will very soon go ‘down the gurgler’, into ‘THE SPIRALLING PIT OF TERMINAL ALIENATION’. There can be no doubt that our species has already reached the end play or end game point where it is about to plunge into that pit of perpetual darkness and extinction—indeed, the descriptions that were given in chapters 8:16B and 8:16C of what is occurring at the forefront of human progress, namely in the Western world, and in particular in the USA, spell out how serious our species’ plight is: ‘today’s children are probably the least loved generation of all’, ‘96 percent of American families are now dysfunctional’; ‘someone born since 1945 [is] likely to be up to 10 times more depressed than their grandparents’; ‘Autism…now occurs at epidemic rates…​According to California records, autism has increased 1,000% in the past 20 years!’; there has been a ‘41% increase in ADHD in US children during the past decade’; ‘there are more and more cases of ADD among children [in the US], one in five to be exact…​So what is going on?…​The brain [of the ADHD child] is busy, busy, dealing with the pain’ from ‘childhood’, ‘where there was no [real] love…​[so] the kid is agitated out of his mind, driven by agony inside…drowning in misery’; ‘while only two years ago students were able to sit through a half hour art documentary, I now know I lose them after only eight minutes’; ‘Alone and adrift in…our “psychic saunas” of superficial sensory stimulation, members of my [Y] generation lock and load our custom iTunes playlists, craft our Facebook profiles to self-satisfied perfection, and…bravely venture forth into life within glossy, opaque bubbles that reflect ourselves back to ourselves’; ‘The youth of today are living their lives one mile wide and one inch deep’; ‘the wisdom of the ages is…buried like lost treasure beneath a fathomless ocean of online ignorance and trivia that makes what is worthy and timeless more inaccessible than ever…​[The] digital revolution…[is] decapitating our culture, trading in the ideas of some 3000 years of civilization for BuzzFeed’; ‘We have a lot of competing noise for our attention these days, and it would be criminal to let that overwhelm our true potential, by masking [the] useful information [in Griffith’s books] with hideous noise’; ‘Generation Y is being ravaged by depression, anxiety and stress disorders.’ Young people now feel that ‘Our innocence is lost…​It scares me to death to think of what I have become…​I feel so lost in this world…​I scream to the sky but my words get lost along the way. I can’t express all the hate that’s led me here and all the filth that swallows us whole. I don’t want to be part of all this insanity. Famine and death. Pestilence and war. [Famine, death, pestilence and war are the ‘Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse’, the state of terminal alienation, described in Revelation 6 in the Bible.] A world shrouded in darkness…​Fear is driven into our minds everywhere we look…​How do we save ourselves from this misery…​So desperate for the answers…​No one hears our cries. And no one sees us screaming…​This is the end.’ The aforementioned TIME magazine story titled ‘The Me Me Me Generation’ about the ‘narcissism epidemic’ in the present Y-generation was essentially about how this ‘80 million strong…​biggest age group in American history’ exists in a state of terminal alienation. And the frightening question that the very existence of a Y-generation—and the X-and-Z generations that flank it—poses is what exactly do we mean when we say the X, Y, Z generations? The answer is the end play state of terminal alienation. After all, what comes after Z?

Michelangelo’s and Blake’s horrifying pictures of the torment and agony of the state of terminal alienation that were included at the beginning of chapter 2 reveal what life would be like for all humans if the human condition was not resolved; and indeed, will be like if this understanding is not supported, because, as the quotes above indicate, this horrifying state of terminal alienation is upon us. And indicative of the world being ‘so desperate for the answers’ that can ‘save ourselves from this misery’ is the panic we’ve seen in the corridors of power, with, as mentioned, the President of the United States announcing in 2013 a ‘Brain Initiative’, giving ‘$100 million initial funding’ to mechanistic science to find ‘the underlying causes of…​neurological and psychiatric conditions’ afflicting humans; and in 2012, an American billionaire pledging $200 million to ‘accomplished scholars whose collective mission is…​greater understanding of the human condition’; and in 2013, the European Commission announcing the launch of the ‘Human Brain Project with a 2013 budget of €54 million (US$69 million)’ with a ‘projected billion-euro funding over the next ten years’ with the goal of providing ‘a new understanding of the human brain and its diseases’ to ‘offer solutions to tackling conditions such as depression’; and similar initiatives are taking place at Oxford and Cambridge universities—this despite the mechanistic scientists in these institutions being committed to living and practising their craft in complete denial of the human condition!

Clearly humanity can’t stay living on the ‘narrow strip of land that is coloured the grey-green of dead flesh’ a moment longer. The pain of our tortured condition HAS TO STOP!! So thank goodness we have ‘the answers’ that we are ‘so desperate for’ to ‘save ourselves from this misery’ and don’t need to rely on these failure-trapped initiatives. However, as I have emphasised, trying to confront all these now terminal levels of upset inside us humans is also not something that should be attempted. As Enrico, a reader of my books, described the difficulty of trying to face down the terrible Abyss of Depression—‘Diving into a sea of truth where everything is completely transparent one can’t but ask, “how will anybody cope with this; how in the world can anybody cross such darkness to reach light?!”’ (Email to the WTM, 24 Feb. 2011). Yes, one of the people I have drawn looking down into the Abyss of Depression, holding their head in horror, could be the mother of an autistic child trying to fully confront the truth that the main reason for autism is a lack of alienation-free, unconditional, true love. As emphasised in chapter 7:16C, that mother is now able to understand that autism is not the fault of parents, but of the ever-increasing upset in the human race as a whole, which in turn is due to our species’ heroic search for knowledge. The difficulty, however, is that while she can access some relief from that guilt through that fully compassionate understanding, if she dwells at all on the truth of how much upset exists within her and all the pain that upset has inadvertently caused her child, she will still experience unbearable feelings of depression. Clearly she is going to have to maintain a degree of block-out or denial of such deeper thinking. And virtually every human is in a similar situation, where it will be impossible for them to fully immerse themselves in and confront the truth about their corrupted condition and the suffering and destruction it has caused. So virtually all humans will have to take the ‘SUNSHINE HIGHWAY’ bridge over the Abyss of Depression; adopt the Transformed Lifeforce Way of Living, where they support the truth while avoiding overly confronting it. Incidentally, the only reason I made the bridge over the abyss in the drawing so narrow was to make sure that all the letters of the word ‘depression’ were visible. The bridge should really be a mile wide because it is, in truth, a wide open and easy path to take. But the point is that there is a way ‘to cross such darkness to reach light’, as evidenced by all the people who have already crossed that darkness to reach the light-filled existence that understanding of ourselves allows. People are already managing the problem of exposure, and doing so in an extremely relieved and joyous way, through having adopted the Transformed Lifeforce Way of Living.

With regard to the extremely self-confronting situation I’ve just described of the mother of an autistic child, I might include this comment by WTM Founding Member Tony Gowing, which shows the extraordinary honesty, compassion and power of the TLS (Transformed Lifeforce State). Tony said: ‘If she [the mother of an autistic child] was in the TLS it would actually be easy for her to cope. If you look at Ned Flanders’ born-again Christian situation, Ned, like every human, would have done terrible things in his life—he would have been self-obsessed finding relief from the insecurity of his condition and, as a result, uncaring towards others, then dishonestly defensive about that insecure inability to truly care and so even more determined to prove his worth, then even more self-preoccupied and uncaring towards others, then angry and retaliatory for being so condemned, and so on—a vicious cycle of ever-increasing self-preoccupation, anger and fury, committing every kind of outrage. But, having become a Christian, Ned’s just whistling with relief all day long now—he’s no longer self-preoccupied, guilt-ridden and destructive—and I just love Ned in that sense because if you are in that liberated state, in our case, living in the TLS, the frustration and guilt no longer burdens you. That mother, and every human now, can cope because they are now able to know that what they have done, and how they have been, is not their fault. They are released from the crippling and deadening cycle of struggle they have been living in. The truth is all mothers now are massively upset, soul-dead humans (as R.D. Laing truthfully described our concrete-encased lives under the duress of the human condition [see par. 123]) and, as a result, have been extremely inadequate in their ability to give their children unconditional love, but so have we all—we have all been soul-dead, committing all manner of hideous obscenities and atrocities. That’s the human condition, which we can fully understand now, and so we don’t have to harbour that guilt anymore. We can just understand it and leave it be; it is all now dealt with, explained and now just obsolete baggage. Everyone has suffered from the human condition, but we have been relieved of it now. We are all horribly messed up but we are free now. Some races of humans are more upset than other races, that’s the truth, but so what, we’re all massively upset—all our upset and the degrees of differences in upset between humans and races of humans is meaningless now. The world of upset, all aspects of it, has no meaning now. That world has gone forever, disappeared, vanished. Another world has opened up that is free of all of that. We are FREE and TRANSFORMED, and free to transform and repair the world’ (WTM records, 30 Nov. 2014). You can view people like Tony talking like this about the marvel of the Transformed Lifeforce Way of Living at <www.humancondition.com/​affirmations>.

Yes, so much is going to change now. For instance, with understanding of the human condition and the ability to be truthful that it makes possible, all the books on psychology are going to have to be re-written. What particularly changes the way psychology has been practised is the truth that humans are born with cooperatively-orientated, all-loving instinctive expectations, and, therefore, how compromising of an infant’s healthy development it is when these expectations for unconditional love are not met. It particularly reveals how easily children, in their trusting naivety, blame themselves for any shortfall in love, and how devastatingly hurtful such conclusions that they are a bad, unworthy person are for them, and, therefore, how much children have to block out any thinking about that terrible conclusion, and, therefore, how alienated they become from their true self or soul, and how that lack of access to their true self compromises their ability to nurture the next generation with real love when they in turn became parents. It is our all-loving and thus all-trusting soul that has not been acknowledged in psychology; in fact, it has not been acknowledged in any aspect of human life.

Indeed, the human race has been living in denial of so many truths that are now revealed that nearly all academic books will have to be re-written. Science as a whole will be faced with changing from complying with the practice of denial to having to be honest, which will mean its whole evasive, intellectualism-emphasising-instinctualism-denying structure, including its traditional universities and academic departments and millions of denial-drenched research papers (as has been described and evidenced, the human condition is such that humans have been incapable of being genuinely objective), will be faced with obsolescence. A stark indication of the immense change that comes with the arrival of understanding of the human condition is that with the exception of just a handful of titles (the main ones being the great religious texts), virtually all the world’s books have been deeply denial-compliant in their content and so will be largely obsoleted by the new denial-free paradigm. Basically, it won’t be long before all our libraries and academic institutions become museums; indeed, if it wasn’t for the Transformed Lifeforce Way of Living that allows everyone to fully participate in the human-condition-understood new world, the whole, current, denial-saturated human race itself would become a museum piece! The writer Richard Heinberg accurately anticipated how completely changed the human-condition-resolved new world will be when he wrote, ‘A new Paradise awaits, but humanity must first undergo a cathartic cleansing. Few prophets have looked beyond the day of Purification to describe the events of the restored Golden Age, for the world to come will be inconceivable in terms of the present one. With the return to Paradise, history—as a chronicle of wars and intrigue, of plots and villains—will be finished. Humanity and Nature, Heaven and Earth will once more be joined in peace and harmony as a new Creation-Time begins’ (Memories & Visions of Paradise, 1990, p.129 of 282).

It is true. When understanding of the human condition arrives, as it has, every denial-based aspect of the whole world becomes redundant. The world as we know it comes to an end, and virtually overnight—well, within a few generations, which is still very fast. For teachers at schools or universities, all the truth-avoiding, immensely superficial, basically dishonest, mechanistic ways of viewing the world will soon no longer be taught. The arrival of the actual understanding of the reason why humans are good and not bad will mean that materialistic goods that have been designed to make ourselves feel superficially better about our corrupted condition will, before long, be seen as meaningless and worthless. The whole basis of materialism has been undermined, made pointless and unnecessary. All our posturing and promenading and pretending will eventually lose its power to impress. Our whole artificial and superficial existence has been exposed and made redundant. Going to church will, in time, be superseded by this reconciling understanding of our previously God-fearing existence. The business of politics, of having left and right-wing factions, is similarly made redundant by the reconciling understanding of the human condition. Basically, all our denials are exposed, made transparent; they no longer work. So yes, before long, within a few generations, that whole denial-based existence will come to an end. Life as we have known it will be over—and, most relievingly for humankind, with its passing all the suffering and destruction that went with it will also go. A whole new world now begins to open up across the world based on reconciling understanding and the Transformed Lifeforce Way of Living it makes possible. As I’ve said in every major document I have written since I started writing about the human condition over 40 years ago, ‘soon from one end of the horizon to the other will appear an army in its millions to do battle with human suffering and its weapon will be understanding’.

Humanity’s situation now is actually perfectly depicted by Hans Christian Andersen’s 1837 fable, The Emperor’s New Clothes, in which a child breaks the spell of deception that the emperor is beautifully clothed when he discloses the truth of the Emperor’s nakedness. The first reaction of the Emperor and his entourage is to try even harder to maintain the charade, maintain the denial, but it is futile. To quote from the fable: ‘“But he has got nothing on,” said a little child. “Oh, listen to the innocent,” said its father. And one person whispered to the other what the child had said. “He has nothing on—a child says he has nothing on!” “But he has nothing on!” at last cried all the people. The Emperor writhed, for he knew it was true. But he thought “The procession must go on now.” So he held himself stiffer than ever, and the chamberlains held up the invisible train’ (Andersen’s Fairy Tales, tr. E.V. Lucas & H.B. Paull, 1963, p.243 of 311). Yes, with the truth revealed, the spell is broken; our delusions and pretences have been stripped of their power.

It is true that humans are afraid of change almost as much as we are of self-confrontation, and this information does bring about phenomenal change, a massive paradigm shift, but it is entirely manageable, most especially because the change is a positive paradigm shift, not a negative one—humanity is going from an extremely negative, absolutely awful paradigm, to an extremely positive, fabulously wonderful paradigm. So we can procrastinate and try to stay in the old, essentially dead, hell-on-earth world—stay in the egocentric castles we have built, or are trying to build, for ourselves based on our pursuit of power, fame, fortune and glory; think ‘But…​The procession must go on…​[and hold up our ‘invisible train[s]’] stiffer than ever’—or we can join the new all-exciting world that will be opening up right across the planet. There is now so much that needs to be done in support of the liberated new world that the range of new opportunities, needs, positions, industries, services, etc, etc, will be endless—and the best part of it all is that this new world for humans will be filled with immense excitement, happiness, meaning and fellowship. With understanding of the human condition found there is no longer any justification for staying in the old, lonely, effectively dead world. Before long everyone will be rolling their sleeves up and excitedly going to work for the absolutely fabulous, human-condition-understood, peaceful, reconciled, all-loving new world for humans.

At this point I might address the concern that in ‘a thoroughly transparent world’, which understanding of the human condition does produce, our ‘species would…​suffer spiritual anemia and perhaps terminal boredom’ (Frank Tippett, ‘Essay’, TIME, 17 Jan. 1983). This often-stated perception that ‘the price of paradise will be boredom’, and even that we should, therefore, stay living in our alienated state of denial of the human condition, is what I call ‘black speak’, blindness preaching blindness, because the alienated state is such a numb, seared and exhausted state that to argue we should stay alienated is effectively arguing that we should stay dead! If a bucket of water represents the depth of sensitivity humans are capable of then our alienated state is equivalent to living life on the thin surface meniscus of that water. So to maintain that we should remain in an empty, insecure, immensely unhappy and deeply, deeply distressed, effectively dead state that can hardly feel or know anything when we can finally, at last, savour the magnificence of our world is simply alienation trying to build a positive out of a negative. It is an understandable defensive reaction that people have had to make themselves feel better about their human-condition-afflicted, empty lives, but it is clearly an absurd betrayal of all that the human race has worked towards. While our world will, for example, lose some of its variety or ‘colour’ when the different states of alienation disappear and everyone has superficially similar personalities, the incredible sensitivity and happiness that will come to humans from being able to access the world of our soul again will mean our lives have a depth and potential that we have hardly dared to dream of. For example, each person will be able to immerse themselves in whatever aspect of sensitivity they choose, with the number of different aspects of sensitivity available in our world to savour being innumerable. Some people might spend a whole lifetime perfecting, and sharing with others, what it’s like to feel what a certain mood feels like, or what a certain animal or plant feels like, or what a certain time of the day truly feels like. There are awarenesses and feelings and knowledge and thoughts and imaginings that we haven’t even begun to tap into in our human-condition-preoccupied, virtually dead state. The reason I said above that people in the human-condition-free new world will be ‘superficially’ similar is because once we access the immense sensitivities our soul has we will become aware of so many wonderful differences that will still exist between humans. So once people allow themselves to appreciate what life will be like free of the human condition they will never make such sad, blind, defensive comments as suggesting a human-condition-understood future will be ‘boring’.

Yes, the fact is, having lived in such a dead, alienated, dark, cave-like state of dishonest denial and resulting estrangement from our true soulful self for so long, coming out into the truthful world of liberating sunshine of understanding will be so redeeming and exalting it will be almost more exciting, transfiguring, rapturous and exhilarating than the human body is capable of handling! To finally be free from having to—and we did have to—live such a world-destroying, selfish, mean and egocentric existence for so long is such an immense relief. To be able to now live a life of transformed freedom from the dark, effectively dead state of denial and be able to participate fully in the true, human-condition-liberated, soul-resuscitating, loving world with all its beauty and sensitivity is something so exciting that appreciating just how exciting it will be is almost beyond our present powers of imagination. So let me paint the picture as starkly as I possibly can. Firstly, the following is a re-inclusion of a powerful description that was given in par. 1052 of the situation the materialism-driven world has arrived at. It was explained that with communication technology—especially television and the internet—showing everyone in the world what is going on elsewhere in the world, everyone is now acutely aware of the financial wealth and material luxury that some people and cultures have created, and those on the poorer side of the scale envy it; they ask themselves, ‘Why shouldn’t I have all this?’ As the psychiatrist Clancy McKenzie observed, ‘While visiting Machu Picchu in Peru in 1979 I noted very poor persons, living in the mountains, who had only the clothes they wore and perhaps a lama or two, but had beautiful, warm smiles and seemed content and happy. Days later I was in Bogota in Colombia. It was a very hot day and we asked the driver to stop at an outdoor tavern to buy cold beer. The people were very impoverished, but there was a TV playing and they were able to view the “outside world” where everyone seemed to have more, and luxury was abundant. I offered to go in with the driver and he urged me to wait in the car. I soon learned why. The absolute hatred was so intense that it was palpable. These people did not have less than those in Machu Picchu but they saw others who had more, and their needs were intensified.’ Yes, the result of this awareness of what materialism offers is that there is now rampant greed everywhere; all those populations who haven’t had the material luxury that is so prevalent in the Western world see themselves as being on catch-up—they want a big house, a car, a fridge, a suit, a gown, a fancy watch, Nikes, Coca-Cola and Big Macs, a beach holiday, etc. The effect is that our original instinctive self or soul’s natural inclination to be selfless and loving has been thrown by the wayside and everywhere cynicism reigns—a ‘cynic’ being ‘one who doubts or denies the goodness of human motives’. The following is an account of the situation in Kenya, but it very much applies to what is happening throughout Africa, South America, China, India, south-east Asia and in parts of the Middle East. Written by Mirella Ricciardi, the aforementioned Kenyan photographer, it describes Kenya’s current ‘chaos and confusion, the crime and lawlessness, the greed, the bribery and corruption at all levels, the senseless wildlife killings, the environmental destruction, the mindless power games, the hopeless destitution and hunger, the lack of concern and forward thinking…The outrageous greed and disregard for anything and anyone other than themselves and their immediate families in the top ranks of governments, have created a financial drain on the country that filters down and affects whole populations in varying degrees, threatening the fragile infrastructure of the land. All those, without exception, who have somehow attained a position of command and authority, however humble, have but one idea in mind, to emulate the example set by the head of state – to milk their positions for all they are worth, for as long as it lasts. Because finances are siphoned off to Swiss bank accounts, salaries are so low they need topping up by whatever means. As a consequence bribery and corruption at every level is the only option. The police force and judiciary, the ministers, the administrators, the teachers, the doctors and the heads of government divisions, extract whatever they can, by fair means or foul, under the guise of their uniforms and titles, while the country collapses and the masses starve.’

So, the ‘developing’ ‘poor’ parts of the world are fast approaching ‘collapse’ and ‘hopeless destitution’—while the so-called ‘developed’ ‘affluent’ parts of the world are fast approaching a state of terminal alienation with anxiety disorders such as ADHD and autism rampant and the ‘biggest age group in American history’ in the grip of an extremely insecure ‘narcissism epidemic’. After presenting this analysis in par. 1052, I then summarised in chapter 8:16G that it is basically all over for the insecure, human-condition-avoiding, escapist, power-fame-fortune-and-glory-seeking, materialism-driven, greedy, never-satisfied, selfish existence. Yes, that world has reached its calamitous end, SO IT IS FABULOUS NEWS THAT AT THAT BRINK THE WORLD CAN BE SAVED! The God of Mammon and Greed can be replaced by the God of Soul and Love, humanity can have a ‘change of heart’—because the insecurity-ending understanding of the human condition has been found. Humanity can finally come home. While we had no other form of reinforcement other than materialism, we built it up in our mind to be something wonderful, but the truth has always been that materialism really offers nothing; it is a desperately sad, shallow and unsatisfactory way of living—a very poor substitute for our lack of spiritualism. With understanding of the human condition finally found, however, what is on sale now is nothing less than heaven on Earth, a way of living that is incredibly exciting and happy. Between the materialistic way of living and the Transformed Lifeforce life there is just no contest, NONE AT ALL. The way forward now is back to our soul’s true world. The gates have been flung open to paradise. Materialism and greed are old baggage now, discarded rubbish to be left on the garbage tip. No one is going to buy them anymore. Their power to seduce is gone because the most magnificent alternative has arrived to transport everyone to a world of soul, real love, real meaning, real togetherness and real happiness. Everyone, every Peruvian, every Kenyan, every Chinese person, every Indian, every American, every European, all people on Earth, can now join the great exodus from the, in truth, terrible human-condition-afflicted, materialistic, greedy, selfish existence. NO ONE WILL WANT THAT ANYMORE WHEN THE TRUTH GETS OUT ABOUT WHAT IS ON OFFER NOW!

From the perspective of all those individuals who, for whatever reason, haven’t been successful in the materialistic power-fame-fortune-and-glory-seeking world, when they see those who have been more materially fortunate making the great ‘change of heart’ from living selfishly to living selflessly, they will finally be released from feeling the injustice and humiliation of their situation. When selfless love finally comes to Earth, the hearts of humans everywhere will be flooded with enormous relief and incredible joy. (On this point, I might mention that the Founding Members of the WTM have sometimes been accused of being from fortunate backgrounds and therefore not representative of the majority of humanity, but such criticism misses the significance of what is occurring, which is the great change of direction the human race is now able to take. The real interpretation of the situation should acknowledge how exciting it is that those who are able to continue the heroic but corrupting search for knowledge are finally able to abandon that individualistic, materialistic existence that has now been made redundant and instead dedicate their lives to helping the less fortunate—to being part of that aforementioned ‘army in its millions’ that is able ‘to do battle with human suffering and [whose] weapon [is] understanding’. So when a businessman made the comment to me about the WTM that ‘I always thought we would know when we had won when we saw the Gurkhas coming back’ (John Rowntree, WTM records, Dec. 1982), he was recognising this phenomenon. Renowned for their fighting ability, the Gurkhas are the Nepalese soldiers who are employed by the British and Indian armies as front line troops and forward scouts—so when they stop pushing forward it is a sure sign the frontline battle has been won.)

Yes, with the battle to find understanding of the human condition over, relief will spread across the world. In particular, selfless love, concern and help can now come to every person in every corner of the world. To paraphrase U2’s fabulous anticipation of our species’ liberation from the agony of the human condition, ‘love has come to town’ in its absolute purest form, namely as the redeeming and relieving understanding that finally ends the insecure, egocentric, brutal and selfish way of living forever. Everyone in every situation and predicament can now rise up as radiant new beings from their corpse-like state. Everyone can now come back to life—can wake up from their human-condition-afflicted torpor and look outwards and see each other and the world for the first time, and move across and help each other, and do anything and everything that needs to be done to end the suffering and pain that plagues this planet.

When Tony Gowing was once asked to describe the main ‘selling point’ of FREEDOM, he replied, ‘It is the complete 100 percent turn around in any and every dire situation the world is now in—as Jeremy has often said, “one minute the world is hurtling on a one-way track to destruction, the next minute there is so much love and freedom that every problem and difficulty is solved”. If you look at any of the problems in the world with any degree of honesty—anybody’s personal situation, the refugee crisis, the relationship between men and women, the environment, the economy, mental health, etc, etc—they are each in a depressingly dark state, but with this understanding of the human condition that darkness is completely turned around into the most glorious, happy and light-filled situation imaginable. This understanding brings an end to all the pain, all the suffering, all the confusion, insecurity and uncertainty, all the darkness; it turns every single one of those situations into something we can be absolutely wonderfully secure, knowing, excited, relieved and happy—downright incandescent with joy—about, because we can understand and fix it. If I look at my personal situation, I carry a great deal of pain and insecurity from my childhood, such as from my parents separating when I was 10, but really this was just my version of the hideousness of life that every child experienced when they were growing up in this mad, human-condition-suffering world that provided no answers and no explanation whatsoever to all the soul-destroying, crippling madness. And, as much as my mother was and is incredibly special to me, all she could tell me about the world was that it is unfair, that life is just the way it is, but that she loved me. Basically, all we have been able to tell children is that the world is unfair and horrible, and all you can do is get on with life and do the best you can; no one likes a whinger, life is all about being tough, competitive and winning. And if someone started to tell me that we should behave selflessly and lovingly I would say what rubbish, because I know from my experience that the world has never treated me like that and people who speak of those things are just weak-minded.

In the world before this explanation there were no answers, there was no meaning, no direction, no real understanding—I had no real idea what to do in the world, no framework of reference, no idea about the meaning of existence at all, in fact. I had my own talents of playing sport and striving for financial success or ‘doing well’ in my chosen career, but underneath all of that I knew and know that my life was a desperate, pain and stress-filled, dysfunctional mess. But now I have complete understanding of the world. I know what the meaning of life is; I know that there is, in fact, tremendous purpose and meaning underlying everything in the world; that every little spec of dust follows a fantastic path of order, integration and love. I know now about humans and that they have been on this most wonderful journey of love and courage, which has taken such a toll on our species and our planet. I know now why we are the way we are, and why the world has been so mean and full of pain, and why there can now be a wondrous change of heart in every single human—that I and every human can right now make the change from being completely consumed by an incredibly insecure, mad, terrified and obsessively egocentric and selfish mindset, to a completely 100 percent secure person living out an all-meaningful, wildly exciting existence dedicated to helping make this change from darkness and pain to brilliant light and an all-understanding state of freedom from the human condition. When I say I am 100 percent secure, I am not secure in myself as such (as Jeremy explains, the complete psychological rehabilitation of the human race will take a few generations), but all the insecurity that came from my childhood is now completely covered, explained and looked after by the larger umbrella of the understanding of the human condition that I now have. I am 100 percent secure in what I am doing and how I am leading my life and what I am trying to help achieve with all my efforts. All day, every day, I am totally consumed with fulfilling the 2 million years of human endeavour it took to reach this place where we can understand ourselves. And the wonderful thing is that the meaning of life is to actually be integrative, loving, cooperative and caring, not disintegrative, and, what is more, we now know the capacity for unconditional selflessness is already deeply inside us, running through our whole being because we humans once lived in a completely cooperative state, and so we are just coming home to that true and original state. We can finally live out the love inside ourselves that we so deeply, unquenchably crave to do. And not only are we deeply, deeply cooperative and loving beings inside ourselves and can live that way now that the human condition is explained away, but the whole world and everything in it works through the very same integration, cooperation and love that we have within us. Best of all, we are able to understand that we aren’t the outcasts, the baddies, the horrors, the downright monsters of planet Earth—we are connected with everything and everyone on Earth. The wonder and relief is endless. Where everything was just so desperate, disappointing, meaningless, hopeless, depressing, tiring, hurtful and false—everything, every situation, every person, everything now is just enthusiasm, love, peace, relief, happiness and excitement. With the human condition at last resolved and our existence made sense of, everything can now be fixed and brought back to life.’

We humans have, in truth, all been asleep, owned by so much pain and suffering. And, certainly, we are going to be in shock for a little while absorbing the realisation that we have finally won our freedom from the agony of the human condition—but it’s on, the great awakening, the rising up of the human race from its deep slumber. From the festering, stalled state it has been in for far too long, waiting for these liberating understandings of the human condition, the human race is finally on its way! As Doug Lobban says in his aforementioned affirmation, ‘I am just so excited, I can’t sleep, I am about to burst. I was in the shower and a hook on the curtain had fallen off so I put it back on and got an amazing feeling of meaning and I got out of the shower and just looked around for something else I could fix because that is what we get to do now, fix the world, and I just can’t believe that after eons of generations we are the ones who actually get to participate in fixing the world up. It’s just unbelievable, there is so much to do I can’t wait to get into it…​I’ve got this image of marching straight forward with incredible purpose, straight out of a massive swamp into long green grass with flowers and butterflies and sunshine, and never ever looking back, just keep marching forward. Everyone together, we are going to have so much fun.’ Yes, the gateway is wide open and sunlight is now streaming into our world. We can all break out of our chrysalis, our human-condition-afflicted straitjacket, where we have been constrained, letting the wings of our great potential unfold in the sunshine of relieving understanding to reveal the fabulously beautiful creatures we really are.

The following compilation of quotes from the Bible perfectly describe the transforming ‘change of heart’ from living selfishly to living selflessly that the great prophets of the past knew would one day occur when Integrative-Meaning/​God-acknowledging, truthful thinking finally delivered the reconciling understanding of the human condition. Firstly, from the prophet Joel: ‘Like dawn spreading across the mountains a large and mighty army comes, such as never was of old nor ever will be in ages to come…​Before them the land is like the garden of Eden, behind them, a desert waste—nothing escapes them. They have the appearance of horses; they gallop along like cavalry. With a noise like that of chariots…​like a mighty army drawn up for battle. At the sight of them, nations are in anguish; every face turns pale. [The reconciling truth is shockingly confronting and exposing at first, but those who have progressed past the shock stage are overwhelmed with excitement about being transformed and having the capacity to end human suffering and the devastation happening on Earth.] They charge like warriors; they scale walls like soldiers. They all march in line, not swerving from their course. They do not jostle each other [Joel 2] …​[and] In that day the mountains will drip new wine, and the hills will flow with milk; all the ravines…​will run with water…​Their bloodguilt, which I [Integrative Meaning] have not pardoned, I will pardon [3].’ And from the prophet Hosea: ‘on the day of reckoning…let us return to the Lord [the integrated state]. He [Integrative Meaning] has torn us to pieces [has horribly condemned us] but [now] he will heal us…​As surely as the sun rises, he [the redeeming and relieving truth] will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth [Hosea 5-6].’

And from the prophet Isaiah: ‘He [reconciling understanding] lifts up a banner for the distant nations, he whistles for those at the ends of the earth. Here they [transformed humans] come, swiftly and speedily! Not one of them grows tired or stumbles, not one slumbers or sleeps; not a belt is loosened at the waist, not a sandal thong is broken. Their arrows are sharp [the reconciling truth is undeniable], all their bows are strung; their horses’ hoofs seem like flint, their chariot wheels like a whirlwind. Their roar is like that of the lion [Isaiah 5] …​[Everyone] from the four quarters of the earth…​[will recognise the redeeming truth about humans and] jealousy will vanish, and…​hostility will be cut off [11] …​In a surge of anger I [Integrative Meaning/​God] hid my face from you [because humans became upset sufferers of the human condition and had to live in denial of Integrative Meaning]…​but with everlasting kindness [reconciling understanding] I will have compassion on you…​O afflicted city [the world of humans], lashed by storms and not comforted, I [reconciling understanding] will build you with stones of turquoise, your foundations with sapphires…​your gates of sparkling jewels…​All your sons will be taught by the Lord [truth], and great will be your children’s peace…​righteousness…​will be established…​no weapon forged against you will prevail and you will refute every tongue that accuses you [denial will lose its power] [54] …​Your sun will never set again…​[you will live in] everlasting light, and your days of sorrow will end…​The least of you will become a thousand [everyone will be understood to be equally good and worthwhile]…​I will do this swiftly [this transformation of the world will be fast] [60] …​[reconciling understanding] will bring forth justice…​to free…​from the dungeon those who sit in darkness…​[and] lead the blind…​along unfamiliar paths…​[and] turn the darkness into light…​and make the rough places smooth’ [42] …​the eyes of the blind [will] be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert [35] …​Awake, awake…​rise up…​Free yourself from the chains on your neck…​Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices; together they shout for joy [52] …​[Integrative Meaning/​God/​the Lord] will look with compassion on all her ruins; he will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the Lord [51] …​[The reconciling understanding will] make straight in the wilderness a highway…​And the glory of the Lord [truth] will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it [40] …​[and this understanding of the human condition] will…​cut through bars of iron [entrenched dishonest denial, and]…​will give you…​riches [previously] stored in secret places [45] …​[and] light will break forth like the dawn, and…​healing will quickly appear [58] …​creat[ing] new heavens and a new earth…​Never again will there be in it an infant that lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years; he who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere youth [65] …​[like] the rising of the sun [the reconciling truth]…​will come like a pent-up flood…​The Redeemer [understanding] will come [59] …​Arise, shine, for your light has come…​you will look and be radiant, your heart will throb and swell with joy’ [60] …​[this understanding] will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples…​[and] will wipe away the tears from all faces…​[and] will remove the disgrace of his people [25] …​[and on this] day of salvation I will help you…​and…​restore the land and…​say to the captives, “Come out,” and to those in darkness, “Be free!” [49] …​[The reconciling understanding] will settle disputes…​They will beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war any more [2] …​[The reconciling understanding] will put an end to the arrogance of the haughty and will humble the pride of the ruthless [13] …​The oppressor will come to an end and destruction will cease; the aggressor will vanish from the land. In love a throne will be established’ [16] …​[The reconciling understanding] gives you relief from suffering and turmoil and cruel bondage…​[It] has broken…​the sceptre of the rulers, which in anger struck down peoples with unceasing blows, and in fury subdued nations with relentless aggression [humanity’s heroic but competitive and aggressive search for knowledge will end]. [Now] All the lands are at rest and at peace; they break into singing. Even the pine trees and the cedars of Lebanon exult…​and say, “Now that you have been laid low, no woodsman comes to cut us down.”…​The poorest of the poor will find pasture, and the needy will lie down in safety [14].’