[75166,1770]
MEGATR.ND                 08-Mar-86 6220               8

    Keywords: MEGATREND TECHNO NEW AGE HUMAN POTENTIAL THIRD WAVE
    
    This article discusses the relationship between high technology,
    computers, etc. and the human potential movement.  An interesting
    expansion of the ideas of John Naisbitt in his book "Megatrends".  From
    THE HEART & WINGS JOURNAL, P.O. Box 574 Lebanon Springs, NY, 12114 
    6/issues yr. $12.00 - a publication of the Sufi Order of the West

(R D T): R

HIGH TECHNOLOGY MEETS THE ANCIENT WISDOM By Kenneth Reese

Taken from "THE HEART AND WINGS JOURNAL"
P.O. BOX 574, LEBANON SPRINGS, NY  12114
6 Issues per year - $12

       If you're like me, you've probably succumbed to some
level of consumer electronics mania. Maybe it started innocently
with a digital watch or calculator and then worked its way up to
a VCR and then to a personal computer. You might even have felt
some twinge of guilt when you suddenly realized these gadgets had
become indispensable (when one of them breaks!). Perhaps you've
felt all this runs counter to your commitment to humanistic
values. However, as I see it, new age values and technology are
inextricably bound together.
     The fact that many people first involved with the human
potential movement were later drawn into the world of high-tech
(and vice versa) is a measure of the affinity the two worlds have
for one another. Futurist John Naisbitt identifies it as a "high-
tech/high touch" polarity. For the majority of people who have
feet planted in both the worlds of advanced technology and human
potential the affinity has long been obvious, but perhaps not
well articulated.
    Exactly how the interests of the technology enthusiast and
the person "on the path" merge is not in any way readily obvious.
The relationship between the two can be better revealed by
considering the various tools of high technology as
artificial devices which magnify the human senses and human
experience. With such a comparison several observations
easily follow.
     A classic example of this magnification of the human senses
can be seen in the home video revolution. Technology is used in a
straightforward fashion as an extension of the human senses of
sight and hearing. This results in a thousand-fold increase in an
individual's power to receive impressions. This has been made
possible by television combined with more recent inventions --
the communication satellite, back-yard dishes, cable,
videocassette recorders, laser discs, and other breakthroughs in
video and audio technology. In short, for the person in front of
the enormous increase in video and audio choices, there has, in
effect, been an amplification of that individual's capacity to
experience reality through the medium of sight and sound. And, of
course, all this choice is delivered by the exploding global
network created by the news, communications, and entertainment
industries.
     Similarly, with the personal computer revolution there has
been an amplification of the mind. An individual using a personal
computer has a level of "technological power" that rivals that
once available only to large corporations and governments. This
magnification of power may be used to accomplish a variety of
directed tasks or in more playful and creative ways. The net
result is that the individual may greatly increase personal
productivity and expand mental and creative powers by using an
electronic tool.
     All this potential amplification of the power of a single
individual by use of these human-made artifacts greatly increases
the need for a "center" or "focus" around which unprocessed
information can be organized in a meaningful fashion. In other
words, the individual requires more than ever a "sense of
purpose" simply because the personal capacity for experience and
action has been greatly enhanced by these new technologies. At
this point, the tie-in to the new age becomes more obvious. There
is no more exact a science for the processing of impressions and
the discovery of purpose than the ancient spiritual traditions
and their modern expressions in transpersonal psychology and the
human potential movement.
     It is no accident that new age people often find themselves
thickly involved with new technologies. There is a real void in
the midst of the silicon chip revolution for knowledge which can
balance one of the effects of the "information age" -- a
communications explosion which threatens individual and cultural
stability with an overload of raw, unprocessed information. This
overload confuses both individuals and, more dangerously, nations
and their political and military institutions. Spiritual
traditions have long taught ways for maintaining a center in the
face of chaos and offered time-tested techniques for controlling
the senses, disciplining the mind, and discovering purpose and
right action.
     This knowledge is now applicable at both an individual and
global level. Ancient wisdom has never been more relevant than it
is today, to help guide and focus the tremendous power unleashed
by the "electronic awakening" of the planet. Esoteric knowledge
has been sought throughout the ages by a select few as a response
to an inner call to discover personal meaning in life.
Today, the growth of a planet-wide communications network both
generates the need and provides the means for the "spiritual
quest" to become of vital global importance.
   The enthusiasm of some futurists (such as John Naisbitt who
ends his international best-seller Megatrends with the line "My
God, what a fantastic time to be alive!) is a reflection of the
tremendous Power for Good inherent in technological advances. But
high technology is without a mind or a soul unless it is guided
by an intelligence more powerful and compassionate than simple
human cleverness. Ancient wisdom provides the vehicle for such an
Intelligence.
     Three decades after the threat of planetary annihilation was
delivered to humanity on a silver platter of scientific
achievement, it is gratifying that at least the instruments for
planetary salvation and evolution have been delivered by the same
means. However, this possible "salvation" is a process which can
only be achieved by each one of us using the power of our lives
and all the tools at our disposal in positive, creative, and
purposeful ways. The myth of technology saving us from ourselves
was long ago proven false. Salvation for humanity is not a
scientific formula but a very human one -- the individual heart
in its search for God multiplied by the number of people on this
planet.