The Power of Transmission is an essential trait of this new millennium. In these unexpected and ever changing times, there are powerful and enlightened transformations emanating from this Power of Transmission. No matter who originates change, the impacts are felt instantly everywhere in our planet. We are totally interdependent and inter-connected; thus, everyone and everything affects all human beings, sentient beings and nature.
The Power of Transmission is growing because the planet has no frontiers any longer. This has become so relevant that ‘positive increments’ in this power are advocated as an index of a higher level of human progress. Media refers to it as the communication’s revolution. But, is it really? Today, it might be considered a ‘revolution’ while not all that is transmitted really ends up in human progress. In a situation like this, what should the essential ingredients be, so that such a revolution becomes a net contribution to a meaningful human transformation and progress?
The Power of Transmission has led to an instantaneous way of life. “It is now or never.” As a child, I had to wait for months before receiving a book purchased in another country. Today, many companies offer a ‘one-day delivery’ anywhere on the planet. To this instantaneous way of life, we must add a deep inner feeling that “the pace of change is going much faster than in the past” or that “we hear the clock ticking!” Whether or not time is going faster, it all depends on our understanding of, and how we experience, reality. Today, it is very easy to transmit everything: “the good, the bad and the ugly”.
The Power of Transmission has a key spatial dimension. In the past, conflicts were fought with sticks and stones. None of them reached our homes. There was little or no Power of Transmission. Today, conflicts are fought with weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear and biological weapons. Every possible consequence from the use of these weapons reaches everyone’s home. Similarly, diseases used to spread slowly but, today, people witness how we are paralyzed by COVID-19. This major spread of the health pandemic surges, in part, from destroying the planet’s essential ecological buffer zones (natural forests) through urban encroachment. Similarly, we witness the impacts of global warming, water shortages, progressive desertification, economic crises, violations of rights, weak global governance, sub-standard multilateral system, disempowerment of communities, etc. ‘What’ drives these transmissions? ‘How’ do we position ourselves in the face of those transmissions –e.g., as victims or architects? ‘Where’ do we move our individual and collective awareness, and focus our efforts, to avoid the perils of negative transmissions?
The Power of Transmission influenced the path of my profession as a “Natural Resources Economist.” Earliest in my career, I spent lots of time on the “WHAT” of an environmental phenomenon (e.g., pollution, soil erosion, biodiversity depletion, desertification, and climate change). I aimed at ‘transmitting widely’ the nature, scope and implications of those phenomena, to raise awareness and modify human behavior. The ‘WHAT” demanded me the best possible understanding of nature, environmental challenges, and their potential impacts (e.g., human physical, emotional and mental imbalances). The aim was to understand fully nature’s driven causes responsible for those negative outcomes (e.g., water shortages, soil erosion, low crop yields). After almost two decades focusing on nature as a cause of environmental change, I realized I was not having the types of impacts on human-collective-behavior indispensable to attain environmental sustainability. Nor, was I getting closer to address the true reasons of environmental deterioration. I tried to strengthen my efforts by bringing to the fore the relationships between “the state of the environment” and economics (money, expenditures), politics (power seeking), institutions (laws, rules, and rights), and social (individual and collective incentives and behaviors). In sum, just transmitting the potential implications of pollution on human welfare was not a powerful driver in changing human behavior. Pursuing just the ‘WHAT’ did not give a complete picture of different transmissions. There was a need to go beyond that.
The Power of Transmission was enhanced by moving from the ‘WHAT’ to the ‘WHO’ (e.g., “who pollutes”). This shift rested on the belief that transmission will be more effective by showing that nature was not the only driver of what we observed. It was essential to bring-in “the human factor”. Today, this may sound as a trivial shift, long overdue. However, my experience showed that a shift to the ‘WHO’ required a transcendental alteration in the inquiry, as it opened a space for the assignment of ultimate responsibilities. The paradigm shift demanded to make explicit ‘who drove change.’ Who polluted. Holistically speaking, was nature or us who drove change and its consequences? The ‘rubber hit the road’ when I began to put “a face” and “a name” behind the ‘WHO’: the person or company responsible for a given environmental outcome (e.g., pollution). Getting into the ‘WHO’ was not trivial because it was considered “politically incorrect.” The complexities associated to a shift to the ‘WHO’ were clearly shown in the debate about the causes of global warming and climate change. In 1978, I stated that global warming was a human-driven phenomenon. I was told by the establishment that “global warming was a nature-driven phenomenon”; “we are just experiencing another nature’s climate cycle”. This part of my career lasted a couple of years. As I gained experience, I realized why the ‘WHO’ caused so much trouble; i.e., it would lead to (i) formal assignment of responsibilities and obligations demanding concrete compensation, (ii) change the existing property rights system, (iii) redesign production processes, (iv) curve down over-consumption, (v) shift comparative advantage, (vi) stop the concentration of wealth and power, (vii) question our style of life… I found no political commitment to address the ‘WHO”.
The Power of Transmission was shifted from the ‘WHO pollutes’ to the ‘WHY do people pollute?’ It is here, addressing this question, where I want to remain for the rest of my material and spiritual life. The ‘WHY’ enables us to learn much more about the fundamentals of transmission; opens spaces to a totally new paradigm embracing a humane, spiritual, compassionate and sustainable planet; unfolds what truly drives transmission and change; and focuses on many different planes of human reality (gross and subtle mindset) going far beyond the material plane of life.
The Power of Transmission, and its potential effectiveness, must not be treated as a ‘marketing strategy’, without going deeper into the foundations of the mind, the formation of mindsets, and the subtle dynamics of ‘being’ and ‘becoming’. Otherwise, this power will become a major source of inner pollution. It is not just about messages, or bombarding our minds and emotions. It is about attaining the highest levels of unity between our collective consciousness and the consciousness of all expressions of life. This I call the Metta Consciousness, which enables unity (oneness) of all consciousness.
Metta Consciousness must become the foundation of The Power of Transmission. The ultimate foundation of transmission is the uprising of both human consciousness and nature consciousness. This means to embrace all meaningful interactions between human consciousness and nature consciousness. Nature as a live entity. Transmission must not be separated from nature. When we self-realize that human and nature consciousness (Metta) are the drivers of transmission, we would be able to address the outer and inner nature of change–the outer and inner ecology of life.
The Law of Correspondence—i.e., the outer is like the inner and the inner is like the outer upholds the fundamental framework. The outer mirrors the inner: ‘outer’ pollution is born from ‘inner’ pollution (e.g., fear, stress, toxicity, greed, anger, attachment). Thus, “global warming is the outcome of our inner warming as a human race.” And, we transmit this pollution. A polluted ‘inner ecology’ enhances transmission through negative incentives rather than through positive ones. Social Media knows how negative news travel faster!
Metta Consciousness is the essence of a new paradigm of consciousness. It is the road to the new future of all forms of transmission. This is not trivial in an individualistic and materialistic world. This paradigm transcends the immediate material dimensions of all forms of life and addresses the real drivers of human transformation. Also, it enables us to recognize the path towards the ultimate causes of transmission and human change and transformation: human consciousness (the inner) and nature consciousness (the outer). Meaningful interactions between these consciousness nurture “Metta Consciousness.” The consciousness of Oneness.
Metta Consciousness establishes new cognitive experiences and constructs the type of mindsets needed to heal the planet and ourselves, and to attain the highest levels of material and spiritual welfare. Metta Consciousness as the union of human consciousness and nature consciousness will become the determinant factor defining the content and quality of all processes of human transformation. The fundamental grounds for sustainable planetary prosperity rest on Metta Consciousness.
