The context within which we are viewing the events of our lives and witnessing outrageous phenomenon (for our own scientists are documenting unprecedented natural phenomenon in terms of earth and space alike) looks frightening to many Westerners. As I have traveled through many of the indigenous cultures of the world, Egypt, Bolivia, Peru, Nepal and elsewhere, it is interesting that almost universally these cultures not only allow for the changes which are happening but they expect them and they expect them now.

Quite literally, there is a new species of human that is being birthed within this generation, at the close of this grand cycle of experience that the ancients called the Shift of the Ages. This new species has been predicated, prophesied, and expected through ancient and indigenous cultures. It is only in the West that we've been surprised and mystified because it is in the West that we've lost the texts.

On What Happened:
Seventeen hundred years ago, key elements of our most sacred heritage were taken from the texts that define our history. In 325 AD, the Emperor Constantine put together the Council of Nicea. Essentially, he gathered together the historical and religious texts of his time and told the council that because so many of the texts were redundant, many confusing and some so mystical they weren't understood they were to come up with a condensed version. Twenty-five biblical texts were thus taken out of our references during that time an additional 20 supporting documents, such as the book of the Secrets of Enoch, were also removed. The books that were left were rearranged and condensed, and that's what we're working with today.

I am constantly in awe of how well we have done in our societies, family relationships, and science and technology without really knowing who we are, where we came from, why we're here and what we can expect to happen. The indications of this are that, at best, we were working with an incomplete understanding of the forces of our world and our relationship to those forces. The pieces that were taken out were the ancient sciences of compassion, the highly-sophisticated technology that we call prayer, and the role of emotion and feeling in our bodies. Those were the texts that were removed and those are the pieces that will now complete the wisdom that we're developing in the West today.

On The Missing Texts:
Through mystery schools, sacred orders and elite priesthoods, this information has always been retained and we've always had hints that there was this body of information that might help fill in the gaps of our understanding of the world. The texts point to the fact that now, at the closing of the millennium, something precious, rare and unique is happening to the earth and the people on the earth. It has never happened before. The underlying current has been that something big is going to happen. In the West, it has been feared because the texts describing this have been taken away, whereas in the East and indigenous cultures it has always been a part of their belief system.

On the Essene Mirrors:
From the perspective of the ancient Essenes, every human on the earth is an initiate in the Mystery School that we call Life. Whether they are conscious of it or not, every human will experience in the presence of others mirrors of themselves in that moment. If we have the wisdom to recognize those mirrors, we may accelerate the evolution of emotion and understanding.

What the Essenes said was that for us to know and master ourselves in this world, we will see one or some combination of mirrored patterns in others. The seven mirrors are progressively more and more subtle. Back in the '70s, we heard about the first mirror, of who you are in the moment. The notion was that if you find yourself around individuals who are angry or dishonest, they are showing you your dishonesty or anger. Sometimes the mirrors would apply, but sometimes they wouldn't. We had discovered the first mirror, but had yet to see the other mirrors, such as the second mirror, which reflects what we judge in the moment.

This is tremendously powerful but very subtle. The ancient Essenes had a very sophisticated understanding of interpersonal human relationships and the role of emotion in those relationships. It's the role of emotion that we have carefully sifted out of our Western experience up until very recently. Now, as we go back into these texts, we see that it is emotion that proves the power and, when coupled with logic, true magic and miracles occur.

On Emotions as the "Forgotten Switch":
One of the great mysteries of life sciences is the question of why two-thirds of or genetic code is turned off. Up until discoveries in 1953, science has always believed the genetic code was fixed. Now, within the last three years, Western researchers have found that it appears the human genetic code is a variable code rather than a fixed code, and that it is our responses of feeling and emotions as we go through the challenges of life that determine which one of those codes are switched on and switched off.
In the ancient traditions, there is a quality of emotion and feeling and thought that appears to optimize those genetic codes and "turn them on" thus giving us longevity, vitality and tremendously-enhanced immune systems. That quality is what we today call compassion. That is the common thread of emphasis through these ancient traditions, this science of compassion.

On Light and Dark:
It's like a drop of water. In our Western technologically-oriented world, we try to compartmentalize water into hydrogen and oxygen. The reality is that water can only be water in the presence of both hydrogen and oxygen. If you look at either alone, you don't have water. It's the union of both that allows the miracle that we call water to exist in our world today. It's the same with light and dark.

It is impossible to have the duality of experience that we have in our world today in the presence of only light and dark. This is the irony, the great dichotomy, for the moment an individual draws the line between dark and light, the moment you identify something as light or dark, you have fallen in the ancient trap of judgment. The key to this time in history is transcending that judgement of light or dark and recognizing both as components of the whole, of the single experience.

On Light, Dark and the One:
One of the ancient tenets that may hold the greatest potential for healing of our bodies and bringing peace to our world is the tenet that reminds us that of the 6.5 billion or so people in this world, there is only one of us here. There is a single consciousness experiencing through many bodies, and the breadth of our consciousness and experience ö from the lightest of the light to the darkest of the dark ö are all part of that One.

Seventeen hundred years ago, we began to look at light and dark as opposites; we began to judge one as being better than the other when in reality we live the experience of both, and both are only possible in the presence of one another. Darkness is only possible in the presence of light and light is only possible in the presence of the dark.

On Moving Towards Compassion:
If we believe there is a single source of all that is, then we have opened the door to healing the illusion of separation. We have opened the door to healing the judgment of light and dark. In the presence of that healing, our body responds. I believe this holds our greatest possibility for the healing of our bodies and the healing of nations. By simply embracing the possibility that there is one source of all that we will ever know in this world, and that all we witness and experience is of that source, we are invited to transcend our judgements. As we do so, the polarities fall away.

The key to this time in history is to transcend judgement and allow for the possibility that light and dark are one and the same, and, as the Egyptian Master Thoth said, different only in seeming and part of an even greater force. As we embrace that, we open the door to the possibility of compassion.