Politics and the numinous: evolution, spiritual emergency, and the re-emergence of transpersonal consciousness
October 1, 2008 M. Collins
Modern consumer-based societies have become one-dimensional, fostering uncritical conformity, as philosopher Herbert Marcuse observed in 1964. Overcoming this requires engaging human potential and different dimensions of conscious experience. This article argues that developments in human consciousness have evolved alongside spiritual capacities, and that collective ritual encounters with the numinous have shaped the human brain, mind, and culture. Spiritual emergencies, viewed from an evolutionary perspective, may reveal transformational patterns beyond materialistic existence. Such psycho-spiritual transformation could lead to a resacralized socio-political vision and validate a re-emergent transpersonal consciousness, challenging the one-sided materialism prevalent today.