Aquarian conspiracy

THE Aquarian Conspiracy is a global reality that has no "plot". You may already be an Aquarian conspirator and not know it. This phenomenon is spread by all those who strive diligently for even a tiny transformation of the inner self. It draws its energy from individuals who have felt the magic of inner discoveries which free us from old fears and dissolve many of the conflicts which spoil our lives.

This is not a story about facile "new age" self-improvement. "Aquarian conspiracy" is just one possible name for an intangible process that could transform the course of human civilisation. It is a conviction, a dream, about a leap in the level of human consciousness. Mass hunger, wars and ecological destruction are not necessarily our destiny. However brutish history may have been, the human species is poised to forge a different future.

Why is this a "conspiracy" and why is it "Aquarian"? The answers to these questions lie in an amazing variety of contemporary trends. These range from the most facile kind of New Age spirituality to the serious revival of many traditional disciplines of meditation and the changing nature of social movements.

One small example is the vocal presence of S. N. Goenka, founder of over 80 Vipassana Meditation Centres, at the World Economic Forum, in Davos this year. Goenka was invited to address the world leaders about how to overcome anger and conflict. To understand the latent promise of such interventions we need to examine the nature of the Aquarian Conspiracy.

The Age of Aquarius is a concept that finds an echo in most astrological traditions. According to these beliefs the earth is coming out of the dark and violent Piscean age and now entering a millennium of love and light - a time of the mind's true liberation. Thus the famous pop-song of the Sixties about the dawning of the Age Aquarius, when "peace will guide the planets and love will steer the stars". However, the term Aquarian Conspiracy was coined in the late Seventies by an American science journalist, Marilyn Ferguson, who had little interest in astrology. Ferguson was reporting on the latest scientific discoveries about the brain and consciousness. This work made Ferguson aware of an invisible "revolution". The carriers of this subtle process of change, she found, tend to recognise each other through subtle signals and share strategies in quiet collusion - a "conspiracy of love". After all, the literal meaning of conspire is "to breathe together... an intimate joining."

Ferguson's book The Aquarian Conspiracy: Personal and Social Transformation in the 1980s mapped this emerging force. It showed that a wide array of eminently sane and distinguished people believe that the human mind may have reached a new state in its evolution - "an unlocking of potential comparable to the emergence of language." Over the last four decades a burst of scientific work has provided detailed understanding of the transformative dimension of brain functions. Modern science has come to recognise what mystics have always known - a new world is a new mind. This realisation leads more and more people to ask: "If the mind can heal and transform, why can't minds join to heal and transform society?"

This question now preoccupies a wide array of people in all walks of life, from the corridors of power to radical activist groups. These people have a firm conviction about the power of the transformative process. They know from experience that inner transformation brings the joy of a greater creativity, kinship and unity. Thus if enough individuals discover new capacities in themselves they are likely to co-inspire to create a world hospitable to human imagination, growth, cooperation.

This knowledge has been with humankind for millennia. But so far the tools for serious inner exploration have remained limited to a few seekers in every society. It was also assumed that only the blessed few have the capacity to evolve to higher levels of consciousness. But today this capacity is considered inherent to all human beings. The mass access to, at least, information about these paths could be the most pathbreaking achievement of our times.

For many Indians these ideas and developments are only a faint echo of the various ancient traditions of this sub-continent. From the mid 19th century to the middle of the 20th century India was home to a remarkable array of great souls who worked on the potential for higher levels of human consciousness to transform the social and material realm. Sri Aurobindo and Mahatma Gandhi are only two of the most widely acknowledged leaders of this exploration. The significance of works like Aquarian Conspiracy was that it helped people in the West to leap across the artificial boundaries between "science", "philosophy" and "mysticism".

Of course the world is still hurtling rapidly towards collapse of eco-systems and many social-political institutions are putrefying. What is the hope for this Aquarian vision in a world where conflicts like the war in Bosnia can rage on for years and a supposedly tolerant land like India is rife with caste and communal violence? Those who live the "conspiracy of love" are not daunted by these horrors and instead moved to greater intensity of action. And those who see such violence as evidence of the inherently, and hopelessly, brutish nature of humankind may be reluctant to consider any transformative vision. But perhaps this pessimistic attitude is a minority view.

In any case the personal and collective stress of our age is itself propelling processes of creative transformation. Thus the proliferation of meditation centres across the world. Witness, also, the mass following of "new age gurus" like Deepak Chopra. Granted that many people seek such gurus and their techniques for a quick feel-good, palliative effect. But it is just possible that this pain-relief may open windows which show even the causal, tourist-like, traveller the path to a deeper and truly liberating journey.

It is in this spirit that Vipassana master Goenka's address at Davos holds promise. You never know when the strength of conviction behind simple words can trigger a process of self- questioning and inner exploration in the hardest heart and most ruthless mind. Then, as the "self" gets redefined, the notion of competition get diffused. The joy of this quest is not in triumph over others but in seeking the qualities we share with them.

Then, eventually, there are no "enemies". Meanwhile, we can see the futility of trying to storm the citadels of the "other side". Brute force is a crude instrument from our distant past. What we need, Ferguson now urges, is a "Trojan heart". That is, the ability to "put our heart inside the gates of the walled city."

RAJNI BAKSHI

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