A healthy, sustainable society must have as its basis a correct understanding of the world: dysfunctional people create dysfunctional structures. When our experience of the world is fragmented, the result is confusion, fear and personal desire. Misconstruing these drives to be our essential nature, we have created structures to contain them and make use of them to achieve results - but in the process, these structures also perpetuate these drives and suppress the emergence of a truer understanding of who we are – and with it, wellbeing.

Whether through remote State control or profit-driven competition, the sense of separation is enhanced, breeding behavior that is destructive of nature, people and values... whereas a diversity of local, autonomous, cooperative systems, based on relationships as opposed to profit (what some have referred to as the 'Solidarity Economy') might support and enhance an holistic worldview and an expanded experience of who we are. But it is a 'chicken and egg' situation: for more sustainable structures to emerge, spiritual growth needs to occur in a sufficient number of individuals.

Two key factors that stimulate spiritual growth are suffering and understanding. Of the former, 'civilised' humanity has never seen a shortage, whereas, regarding the latter, the knowledge that underpins civilisation is undergoing an unprecedented transformation. In the last few decades – and for the first time in recorded history - science is discovering the truths expounded by ancient spiritual paths: for example, that nothing exists in isolation (Interbeing: Buddhism), that everything is connected through a single unified field (God: mystical Judeao-Christian) and that the nature of phenomena is affected by the perceiving subject (The world is as you see it: Indian scriptures).

The convergence of science and spirituality, in the face of escalating global crises, has the potential to give birth to a revolution in the way humanity views itself and structures its societies. At the very heart of this is our understanding of happiness: no longer will we need to propagate the myth that happiness comes from increasing consumption - a myth that has been necessary for the perpetuation of our growth-driven economic system. Instead, simple living and community-based economies will find themselves supported by individuals who are contented beyond imagination by the experience of wholeness and of their identity with the source of all existence.

Until then, our leaders will remain stuck in old unworkable models. They talk of 'growing' the economy's way out of the financial crisis, with no regard whatsoever for the obvious, plain fact that the resources required for this are inadequate. These are highly intelligent people whose words and actions reveal clearly the limits of a fragmented worldview and the gulf between intelligence and wisdom. However, the harder it becomes to deny reality, the more the momentum will build toward an alternative vision of wellbeing.

Beneath the veils of ignorance, each heart holds its own wisdom, waiting be revealed. When there is a critical mass of awakened individuals, we may see a rapid expansion of understanding (a process described by some as 'morphic resonance') and the emergence of a more holistic collective awareness. Time and space themselves, as we perceive them, may collapse into 'Presence' and our experience of life will have changed forever.

Let us hope that the Earth's ecosystems and biodiversity will remain sufficiently intact to support a smaller, more mindful population of humans in future. Failing that, let us at least hope that Nature, in her wisdom, will find a way to heal the Earth, so that life in some form (albeit non-human) may continue to evolve and prosper.

Written by Andrew McAulay, Chairperson of KFBG