DECOLONISATION AS CONSCIOUS EVOLUTION
by dr keith beasley
Conscious Evolution, being an ongoing process affecting all aspects of life on Earth, reveals itself all around us. The equality movements, spanning rights for women and gays (later all non-binary sexualities) and the resulting decolonisation agenda are examples of shifts in consciousness across society.
In recent years the Black Lives Matter movement, for example, has highlighted that human society still has a long way to go towards true Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI). But to even recognise this shows that we, as a species, are becoming far more aware, more conscious, of how unequal many aspects of society are.
In this context, Conscious Evolution can be considered as recognising this particular aspect of our evolving consciousness and how we, individually and collectively, relate to those who are different to ourselves.
How each of us personally responds to this inner calling to evolve into new ways of being human, will depend, of course, on our own backgrounds and positions. I have found, for example, after many years experiencing life from many different perspectives, that I am now able to pass some of my less conventional perspectives on to those within mainstream education. In my job as a university Safety Officer, as part of both our EDI (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion) and Mental Health agendas, I’m raising awareness that “it’s OK to feel”, that acknowledging our need to belong is important both to our individual wellbeing and to a thriving higher education organisation.
This is not down to any career plan, but through being open to opportunities and taking them when they occurred, i.e. to consciously evolve my working life. And whilst I’ve been able to raise awareness of EDI issues within my workplace, others feel guided to work for equity within their communities.
In addition to this ‘outer work’, most of us will also need to do some inner work as we become more conscious and more self-aware of our own inner discriminations and subconscious biases. Are we really as accepting of all others, irrespective of their race, beliefs, sexual orientation and so on? The process of Conscious Evolution is about practising what we preach and being more compassionate in our daily lives. As my eyesight and hearing have deteriorated, for example, so I have grown far more appreciative of these senses and far more understanding of anyone with any disability.
But the decolonisation process goes much deeper than awareness of differences and enhanced respect for them.
Take your mind back to the very early days of humans: homo sapiens as hunter-gatherers. Just to survive, let alone prosper, we had to be in tune with our surroundings, we had to be in the flow of the seasons and the weather.
The moment we began to settle, to set up communities, we became colonising powers: we colonised the land and it became "ours". As we began to measure and try to control time, so time was colonised too. With every invasion, with every missionary campaign, the process of colonisation became the evolutionary norm. And, as Descartes declared "I think therefore I am", so colonisation spread not just outwardly in the physical world, but inwardly: we had colonised the very way we think.
Colonisation is not just about the physical dominance by white, European males, it is about the associated mindset: the belief that rationality is the only way of thinking and that any other does not exist, is not real. This began whenever a white colonial power laid claim to a piece of land and, in so doing, imposed the ideas of possession and ownership onto indigenous peoples. For the original inhabitants, ‘land’, if they had a word at all, was synonymous with the sense of personal connection with their home, the visceral feeling of bare foot on soil. Such conscious association with the immediacy of home-ground was totally lost in the concept of land-ownership; the innate connection between humans and their location subsumed in abstraction and separation.
Colonisation has swept away the deep association between human beings, space and time. Instead of being intimately aware of it and conscious of it, linear rational cognition has separated itself from the planet on which we live and the time in which we live. Thus, when walking around a garden with an abundance of colours and scents to savour, our minds, more likely than not, will be reading the label: “and this is Ranunculus bulbosus” etc. while remaining ignorant of the depth of natural, energetic wonder it represents.
Seen in this light, the current process of decolonisation becomes a much more significant activity. Not only are we seeking equity between every human being and respect for every creature, we are seeking to re-engage a natural association with the consciousness of all things. Decolonisation also needs to be about reconnecting into the flow, The Tao.
I like to talk not just about Conscious Evolution but about an Evolutionary Consciousness. By this I mean the consciousness that is life itself, the underlying essence and energy from which the universe evolved and is continually evolving.
It is useful to see Conscious Evolution as an alignment to this evolutionary consciousness, to an immersion in the cosmic evolutionary flow. As we practise whichever spiritual practices we find work for us, so we become ever more present, ever more deeply intertwined with evolutionary consciousness and thus find ourselves, intuitively, doing the right thing at the right time. I am finding, after many years of self practice with Reiki healing, that when, even in a work scenario, I let go of the need to control everything, so much more seems to get done in a day! And, that is the example I try to set to others.
Instead of being part of the old colonial process, those of us committed to Conscious Evolution now find ourselves, in one way or another, very much an integral part of the decolonisation process. Some, for example, will be instrumental in promoting neurodiversity; highlighting how individuals on the Autistic spectrum are not so much disabled as have a different skill set which can, very much, be of benefit to those they live and work amongst. And perhaps neurodiversity goes even further: it could mean accepting that the whole way that all of us think is also diverse, from head-focused to heart-focussed, with everything in-between. A compassionate society, and effective caring workplaces need a combination of linear rational cognition alongside a more intuitive or Taoist state-of-mind . . . with an evolutionary consciousness guiding the integration of the two moment-by-moment.
Decolonisation is not a return to a time before rational consciousness was the norm, but a progression to a time when it is integrated with a natural flowing consciousness that is life itself.
Dr Keith Beasley spent 17 years as a Quality & Reliability expert in the electronics industry before retraining and spending 16 years in holistic health and personal development including running retreats in the Algarve. He then completed a PhD in consciousness beyond the rational at Bangor University, and currently works at Bristol University.