Futurology is now emerging as a new and fledgling field of knowledge. Modern futurology tries to plot the future trends in the external life of man – in economics, society, politics, business, technology. We will be presenting here an alternative scenario with an emphasis on the future of the Human Potential, especially the potentials of the inner being of man, his psychological and spiritual potentials. For, we believe that it is in this inner realm that the future of human evolution lies.
In this series we will try to do what is called in modern futurology “scenario building”, sketching a line of future possibilities in the light of Sri Aurobindo and Mother’s vision of the future, with an emphasis on the brighter and more luminous possibilities. Many of the themes or terms discussed here have become familiar clichés of the ever-growing New Age literature. But the deeper spiritual significance of these themes of the future is not yet well-understood. We will try to clarify the deeper and broader significance of some of these New Age clichés like holism or globalism or global consciousness.
To an overly pragmatic mind most of these future verities may appear dreamy or utopian. But what else is human progress than a progressive realisation of our utopias? And as Sri Aurobindo says in his epic Savitri, “Earth’s winged chimeras are Truth’s steeds in Heaven.” The Truth’s steeds may sometimes use our winged chimeras to descend into earth carrying their heavenly possibilities.
The Subjective Age
The transitional phase from the present to the future is likely to be mediated or governed by two factors: subjectivism and intuition.
The history of the past (and the present) was governed predominantly by what we may call as objectivism or the objective view of the world. To understand, master and enjoy the objective world which we can see, touch and feel was the main occupation of the men and women of the past. Except for a few spirituality inclined individuals and communities which tried to explore the inner subjective world of the self and the knower, most of the creative energies of the past were directed towards the objective world of the known. And the result is the funny paradox of our present age: we send rockets all over the cosmos to know the nature of the sun, moon and mars but we know very little of our own self.
This objectivism is one of the major causes behind the many aberrations and defects of our present society and its values. For example, in the mind and its work like science and philosophy, we tend to explain everything including inner realities, in terms of the external, visible or material circumstances and we ignore or deny the invisible, supraphysical, psychological and spiritual forces and principles hidden and acting behind the outer phenomena. In life and society, we give higher importance and value to external appearance, position, status, power, wealth, achievement or success and much less importance to inner achievements in the moral, psychological, aesthetic or spiritual realms. In ethics and religions, we tend to judge people and institutions by the goodness and nobility of the outer act, behaviour and achievement and ignore the purity, goodness, selflessness and the quality of the inner motive, feeling and realization behind the outer act. This is because we lack the true and complete knowledge of our subjective self.
In the future when the deeper and higher ranges of consciousness manifests, there will be an increasing inner awakening to the knowledge of our subjective being, its inner realities and their influence on the outer life. This will bring about a reversal in values. In science, philosophy, and other works of knowledge, there will be an increasing emphasis on understanding the occult, psychological and spiritual principles (and forces) of the self and the world, not only in psychology, but also in other fields of world-knowledge like sociology, politics and economics. In life and society there will be a greater emphasis on qualities like self-knowledge, self-mastery, integration of the personality, character, integrity, sensitivity to higher values for leadership positions. More and more people will value inner well-being or inner satisfaction and fulfilment as something much more precious than power, wealth, success or achievement in the outer life. In ethics and religion, there will be a greater awareness and sensitivity to the purity and quality of the inner motive, feeling, state of consciousness and the realization. There will be more or less similar awakening in other fields like literature or art.
In a nutshell the human consciousness and life as a whole will turn inward. And with this inward turn there will be a shift in the governing faculty of human consciousness from reason to intuition.
