EnlightenNext

Boulder, Berkeley, Burlington, Portland, the West Village, Asheville, Santa Cruz, Seattle, Eugene. For any self-respecting grandchild of the 60s, growing up in America as a “neo-hippie” during the final decades of the twentieth century and first decade of the next, these postmodern Xanadus are as magnetic as Paris might have been to an 18th-century revolutionary or New York might have been to a 1920s jazz enthusiast. Famous for being the most evolved expression of the counterculture that emerged during the 60s, these LOHAS (short for Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability) centers with their organic food stores, biodiesel bumper stickers, vegan literacy, and yoga classes–oh so many yoga classes–are enclaves for young idealists amidst a sea of American modern conservatism, where nothing is left unrecycled, all voices are given a chance to speak, and every coffee shop serves soymilk.

As a card-carrying member of this neo-hippie culture, born in 1978 to politically liberal parents who prided themselves as leaders in the Voluntary Simplicity movement of the 80s, I can remember being entranced by these iconic places…and their lifestyle, seeing them as examples of what a perfect culture might look like.

That was, of course, until I actually moved there. Working on an organic farm just outside the beautiful city of Eugene, Oregon, with a fulfilling marriage, a daily meditation practice, and access to thousands of acres of wilderness only a bike-ride away, it seemed, at least on the surface, as if I had achieved some kind of neo-hippie enlightenment–the perfect merger of my values and my life. But after the initial organic glow wore off, I discovered that underneath the perfectly greened facade, I was lacking something significant: a deeper engagement with life at the most fundamental level, a full embrace of why I am actually here, and–God forbid–a reckoning with what I might actually owe this incredible life process that bore me.

As it turns out, my story is by no means unique. In fact there are hundreds of thousands just like me, each living with a particular twist on this cultural outlook. Some are more into music, for others it’s outdoor adventure sports, for some it’s sustainability, and for others it’s all about social activism. But each has found an almost religiously postmodern orientation around which to build their life. And all share something in common…the deep and often unrecognized yearning for something more.

And that’s the good news. Growing out of this postmodern cultural stage is a new orientation toward the world. Some call it integral. Some call it evolutionary or Kosmocentric. This orientation is based on the recognition that the aspiration for spiritual development and cultural change in the most advanced pockets of human culture on the planet today, are the most recent expression of deep-time process of cosmic evolution that is waking up to itself through us. And for anyone who dares to engage with them, these new perspectives shine an objective light on our current predicament–global, spiritual, culture–and open new doors for what’s possible in the future.

My introduction to this evolutionary worldview came from the American spiritual teacher Andrew Cohen, his teachings of Evolutionary Enlightenment, and his publication, EnlightenNext magazine (formerly What Is Enlightenment?). Andrew’s message was just radical enough to actually snap me out of this postmodern haze long enough to start to consider the possibility of something much bigger than I had started to settle for. He was asking questions that I always wanted to ask, but never really had words for, like, “What does Enlightenment look like in our postmodern world, particularly in light of all the insights into the cosmic evolutionary process that has led us to this particular moment in history?” and “What does it mean to cultivate true spiritual, moral, and philosophical integrity in a cultural landscape that has never really demanded it from us?” and “How do we create a truly Enlightened culture here on earth?”

I was so compelled by Andrew’s vision that I eventually became his spiritual student–a concept that was previously quite foreign to me–moving to his spiritual community in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts, and joining the editorial staff ofEnlightenNext magazine. But in spite of my hope that by leaving my old life behind I would also leave behind the old cultural assumptions that had caused me to seek out something new, I’ve discovered that it isn’t quite that simple. Every day, I’m amazed at how much my ideas, reactions, opinions, and aspirations are shaped by deeply ingrained cultural structures. And I’ve learned that to truly create something new in culture—something fresh, creative, and unbound by history—what is required is a deeper, ongoing grappling with these cultural strands that weave us…which I’ve found to be a very challenging—and enlightening—process.

In order to take this on, earlier this year I teamed up with several of my EnlightenNext colleagues, Diane Bensel, Tom Huston, and my wife, Christiana Briddell–themselves products of a similar time and place as I am–to explore how this new evolutionary perspective has emerged from and conflicts with the neo-hippie consciousness that resides deeply within our cultural DNA. The primary venue for this exploration is a Friday morning community radio show out of Burlington, Vermont—one of the supremest of the supreme neo-hippie incubators.

Each week we explore, with our host, FP Cassini–himself an aficionado of Evolutionary Enlightenment–a different topic relating to the yeasty border between this new emerging evolutionary perspective and the postmodern worldview that it is trying to move beyond, including “Is Wal-Mart really that bad?,” “Meditation as a foundation for a creative life,” “What is the purpose of a romantic relationship if you don’t believe in soulmates?,” and “What if the Universe actually doesn’t exist for your own personal happiness and well-being?” This blog was born out of our inquiry, in an effort to broaden our conversation beyond the small listening audience of the show, where we can expand on the questions and inquiries pursued on the show, post audio recordings of the show itself, and hopefully start a lively dialogue among other postmodern souls who also feel a deep yearning for something…more.

We hope that the inquiry will be a fruitful one for neo-hippies and their close cousins the world over who are interested in understanding the cultural landscape in which we all live in order to open new doors for what’s possible. It’s time for at least a few of us to step forward, stretch our legs, and boldly leap out of the swamp of the postmodern status quo.