I am going to begin with the Fugu. The Japanese puffer fish, the Fugu, has as many genes as James O’Dea and Dr. Sahtouris and Mr. Saionji. How remarkable that twenty years ago scientists said, "We human beings are so fabulous. We must have 120,000 genes." Now we have the same number of genes as the Fugu. Good, we’re coming down. We’re finding our place. So genetics of course are important, but not as important as we thought they were.

What is much more important is gene regulation. What activates positive genes? What represses the negative possibilities? In the last 30 years the science of psycho-neuro-immunology, now popularly known as mind-body health, tells us that the depth world of our attitudes, states of mind, emotions and even the nature of our beliefs have a pervasive influence on the inner environment. These elements are affecting our genetic possibilities.

And so we talk now about memes—those particles of meaning that cluster together that shape our values systems—as potentially more determinative than genes. We are filled with meaning. We are in a meaning loaded world. These memes, these particles of meaning, swarm around us and sometimes they get like hurricanes. They gain high velocity. We’ve seen them in the world today, and it’s a good idea to step out of the wind sometimes when the winds of our time are blowing belief systems and thought forms and ideas that no longer serve the human race. Meaning, as we saw from these brilliant presentations this morning, is on the move. We have to reshape the meaning systems.

I recommend in times of fundamentalism that you take some medicine. And I recommend that you take two paradoxes a day. This will help you develop a little capacity to step aside from some of these high winds.

We know that these dysfunctional meaning systems can be transformed. We have the capacity to transform. Maslow talked about the transformation of meaning from survival to self-actualization and he said that the stage before self-actualization is self-esteem and respect. Let’s learn some respect. My first day in Japan, I went to Gotoku Shrine and visited the cemetery to pay respect to the honorable ancestors of this land because I knew that I couldn’t face you without first having given honor to them. But our world is seeing a collapse of respect. We must find respect.

Kohlberg talks about the beginning of the meme structure as one that is highly structured and disciplinary. And yet it moves to a place of universal conscience. We saw in the 20th century the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We saw the beginning of the manifestation of a universal consciousness and conscience—a capacity to move beyond our national structures to embrace the rights of all beings on this planet and all life. What is needed now is a Universal Declaration of All Beings that expresses a clear awareness of the interconnectedness of all life in creation.

Don Beck and Chris Cohen in their model of meme spirals talk about the societal and global shift of meaning from mere survival to an inclusive whole systems perspective—a holistic global service awareness. It is a mapping of consciousness evolving and transforming. Transformation itself can come from epiphany, spiritual experience, or insight. Each one of us has that capacity to move from a limited and confining form of identification to a more expanded awareness. This is what we mean by transformation—the shift from something that limits and constricts to that which opens us to more possibilities.

So now here is the real stuff. What are the skills and capacities that we need to move into this global awareness—to this whole systems transition? This is where the big news is and where the work has to be done. We’ve now seen an accumulative scientific research from multiple fields that says human capacity is much greater than we are letting ourselves believe. Why do we dampen those powerful intuitions that constantly remind us that we are spacious cosmic beings, that we are spiritual beings, and endlessly creative beings? Aren’t we embarrassed that we are so easily conned and manipulated into the shallow drama of contemporary politics and kindergarten media? Let’s begin to imagine that the next stage of evolution will truly be based upon what science now affirms are our healthiest capacities for love, gratefulness and forgiveness. Let’s insure that our school-teachers, business leaders and politicians get reminded about the kind of evolution that our scientists think we are capable of. Let’s move into systems transformed by love and generosity and altruism—transformed economic systems, and transformed educational systems. A new integral science is joining hands with humanity’s deepest and most ancient spiritual wisdom to remind us that we have the capacity to rise to new heights. Our power to heal and to affirm a truly positive vision of creative diversity and ecological sustainability is within our reach.

I have been in the presence of a former Nazi, a human being who participated in Nazism, and a former holocaust survivor. And I have seen them share love and community and forgiveness together. So if you are wondering if you should forgive somebody, get on with it. We have this capacity to forgive even the greatest problems. Our own body, this instrument of universal intelligence, tells us to move on. Because when you do not forgive, your body punishes you. When you do not forgive your body gives you cardiovascular constriction. It says, "Not a good idea." Get on. Move on. Release. Open up. Each one of us is so interconnected that when we don’t forgive, we are doing what Einstein once said—we are living in an optical delusion of separateness.

This science that now offers us new insights about our capacities to love, our capacities to heal, our capacities for gratefulness and forgiveness, is showing us that at the roots the universe supports the best in us. Einstein also asked that question, "Is the universe fundamentally hostile?" No. The universe is fundamentally supportive. Every time we release unforgiveness and anger and hatefulness, every time we love and connect, the universe sings in our body. All the scientific research suggests that health comes from loving relationship. Even scientific studies of altruism show us that people who serve others live longer and live healthier lives. What is the universe telling us? Get on with it. Get on with the love and the cooperation and the celebration of life.

But the universe as Richard Tarnas has said is very wise. It will not open its secrets to those who disrespect it. It will not open its capacities to those who do not love. For the universe in its infinite wisdom says love, connect, and all of the doors of health and wisdom will open. Science is now affirming that. But if you play the mental game, make it sound good but live differently, trash the planet and abuse people, you will not experience what the universe has in store for us.

I say that at this time a whole new configuration of science, spirituality and health is really in movement. We see some glorious insights from quantum physics. How extraordinary that in all the great things that we do, when we looked down into the smallest manifestations of existence, we found a world that said, "You are not separate from me. You, the observer, are a part of the story." From the quantum physicist’s point of view, you cannot isolate and separate the observer from the observed. Wow! We are in this together. What a teaching from the microscopic up!

And I say that we are more than observers. If we are talking about human capacities and a new science, I say that each one of us here today is also a witness. Now, the difference between an observer and a witness is that the observer thinks that he or she can stand back and let things go along—that we are separate from that which is observed. But think of the witness in a situation of great turmoil. The witness stands together, inside, with those who are hurt. You see we are sacred witnesses of this life and this momentum. We are not outside observers. We are inside the very transformation that needs to happen. Isn’t that wonderful news? We ourselves—each one of us—is a part of the wholeness of consciousness. Each one of us has our work cut out.

Now scientists sometimes enjoy funny metaphors. As you can tell I am not a scientist. I’m somebody who interprets and works with science. A senior scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences said, "James, you get the whole fact that every electron in the universe is interconnected? That it’s inseparable? Look, think of it as jelly. Think of the whole universe as jelly. We are in an inseparable jelly together. We can actually wiggle the entire universe." The science of consciousness tells us that the jelly is porous, that our thoughts vibrate into the whole. The old idea that we can keep the intelligence within, as something very distinct from our operational life in the world, is over in some senses. It is beginning at least to die. We see the interconnectedness in this resonant whole of all that we think and all that we believe.

The science of consciousness tells us that belief is central. But as we know today from terrorism and war and exploitation, belief needs also to be transformed. Belief cannot be stuck in one place. It has to move with the jelly. We have to transform our belief. Belief influences and conditions our perception. As we believe, so we behave and so we perceive. This is a time to begin to cleanse our perceptions, to begin to shift our perceptions of our interconnectedness. This is not a time when we can simply think these things without connecting them to our being. So here we are in one wholeness of being that is interconnected. That’s a profound thought and a deep insight from quantum science.

My remaining points are that we have to obviously address violence, and that competition itself is not, I believe, the root of the problem. We can compete to serve the planet. We can compete to heal the planet. We can compete to do the very best for this world. But the competition that destroys the planet and does harm to other beings is a meme, a form of thought, which we must now dissolve and dissolve collectively through our capacity to imagine a world that is so much better than the world we live today.

When we use this word "science" we refer to many sciences that we need to bring together. Einstein said, "Not one of my scientific achievements came from using my rational mind." That’s a big one. He also said, "Knowledge itself is limited but imagination encircles our planet." So it is an embodied imagination, a living belief, a self-actualized belief that each one of us can participate in. It is not an observation show. It is not a Hollywood movie. It is a great drama of becoming. Every evidence in this new science about psychic abilities, about subtle energies, about connectivity suggests that consciousness is always shared in that great notion that God is a circle whose center is everywhere, whose circumference cannot be found.

And so I say leave the violence behind. The only modality I know for ending violence is healing and forgiveness. I have seen war. I have seen a lot of torture and destruction. In one place I was in a conflict where the general said we have the enemy surrounded like cockroaches in a jar. But you see we all know that there are no human beings who are lesser. Even the cockroach is exquisite and perfect in its own way. The healing we must do is the healing of a philosophy, of an awareness that reduces—reduces to objective matter, reduces to lesser forms of being, reduces to lesser structures of humanity. And if we can heal, we truly can recover from this great evolutionary struggle. We must respect the past, honor it, transform our belief and in that healing spirit do the work of our time.

My friend, Roger Walsh, says, "Our world is in grave danger, but it is in good hands, because it is in your hands."
Thank you.

James O'Dea , is the President of the Institute of Noetic Sciences and a native of Ireland. He was previously director of the Washington DC office of Amnesty International and executive director of Seva. He created and currently co-leads a series of dialogues on social healing bringing together leaders and activists from a variety of fields. His emphasis is on the use of our own consciousness to heal and transform oneself and the world.