The time has come to make a decision, because humanity as a collective is nearing the end of its ability to continue on as it has been. We are heading into a box canyon.

From the effects of global warming (Harvey is clearly one of them) to the threat of nuclear catastrophe (the standoff between North Korea and the rest of the world), from the global economic uncertainties created by Brexit and other spreading tribal nationalistic tendencies to the global migration crisis created by millions of refugees fleeing war-torn and terrorist-dominated countries, from the deadly fallout of religious fanaticism to the social fallout of racist fanaticism, it is clear that our species is headed in the wrong direction on virtually every front.

The problem is, we don’t know how to change course. That is, our leaders don’t.

That isn’t meant to be a Doomsday Warning, just a Word to The Wise. We have to change course here, and the fastest way we can do it is to change our understandings about Who We Are. As a species, I mean.

That’s the decision we’re now being invited to make. Are we ready to change our mind about our identity, and make a firm and final decision about it?

I’m sure I don’t have to point out that countless lives would be saved if our species simply dropped all behaviors that arose from the notion that we are separate from each other. (And, for that matter, from that aspect of life in the universe that some of us call “God”.)

I often imagine how life would be on this planet if we all simply acted as if there is no separation between us—that it really is true that what I do for you, I do for me, and what I fail to do for you, I fail to do for me. The political, economic, and social ramifications of that single idea are staggering. With the on-the-ground implementation of such a thought, all of the systems we have created to produce a better life for everyone could actually work.

Finally.

Starvation could end. Oppression could end. Domination could end. Terrorism could end. Despoiling of the environment could end. Abject poverty could end. Worldwide self-inflicted human suffering could end.

Sadly, our dysfunctional behaviors can’t end now because they are based upon, and emerge from, a tightly held Tribal Population Configuration and a Survival of The Fittest Mentality that only a belief in Separation as a fundamental condition and aspect of life could produce.

I have mentioned this (perhaps “harped on this” would be a better term) before. We have seen that, within the human experience, where the highest value is survival of the Whole rather than survival of its Parts (as seen most often in familial groupings, racial and religious groupings, political and economic groupings, etc.), a sudden transformation takes place. So we know behavioral shift — adaptations that pull us away from our self-destructive Separation pathology — is possible.

This adaptation can now spread to include everyone on Earth.

Not overnight. No. Not in a week or a month or a year. No. But sooner rather than later? Yes. In decades rather than centuries? Yes. Because a collective consciousness of what I refer to as “Oneness” can now develop and emerge rapidly among our species, the result of adaptation by non-genetic means. That is what Conversations with God-Book 4: Awaken the Species, the most recent entry in the 9-book CWG series (released just 20 weeks ago), is all about.

A simple change in our species-wide decision about Who We Are can rapidly override and render undesirable all of our previous unconscionable behaviors.

And this is not a matter of purely and only global consequence. Changing your mind about your oneness with each other (and yes, with God) can have immediate and remarkable implications in your own life.

Trust me.

More peace can be yours. More joy can be yours. Greater sufficiency can be yours. More love and companionship can be yours. And not just temporarily. Not just once in while. Not just now and then, but all through the rest of your life. And all from a simple shift in your thinking.

Not just the most recent entry, but the entire Conversations with God body of work — the 9 dialogue books and the 24 supplemental texts that comprise the CWG oeuvre — are intended to inspire and encourage humanity to move in this direction. In the end, they all boil down to a simple invitation. They challenge us to make a simple choice. That choice has to do with how we see ourselves in the Universe.

Proposition: You (and all of us) have two choices when it comes to how you think of yourself.

Choice #1: You could conceive of yourself as a chemical creature, a “logical biological incident.” That is, the logical outcome of a biological process engaged in by two older biological processes called your mother and your father.

Choice #2: You could conceive of yourself as a spiritual being inhabiting a biological cellular mass—what we call a “body.”

I’ve outlined the implications of these two choices previously here. I’m going to do so again in the days ahead. And I will not apologize for the repetition. The time has come for us to make a decision. And so I shall place the choices before us again.

Perhaps you’ve already made your decision about this. If you have, see if you agree with the implications of your choice that I’ll outline once again here.

What are the biggest theological questions of all time? In my opinion they are these: 1. Is there a God? 2. If so, what is God, and what does God need, want, or require? 3. Whether you believe there is a God or there is not a God, what do you believe is the purpose of life — if any? 4. What, if anything, happens after death?

I am curious to know your answer to these questions. If you are readers of Conversations with God you already know my answers, but what are yours? And what role, if any, do your answers play in the living of your life?

As you move through the days and nights of your experience, is there any practical, functional way in which your responses to, and your ideas surrounding, these classic inquiries play an effect on how you think, what you say, and the choices you make?

I would really be very interested in hearing from all of you on this. I think it would make for fascinating reading if you offered us at least four sentences — and, if you feel a bit more ambitious, four paragraphs (or more) revealing “where you’re at” regarding these inquiries.

Some of you have already made that clear in your previous entries here, but a collection of all of your thoughts and ideas, posted here all at once, could make for a marvelous Comment String. What do you say…wanna play?

Just list the four questions and give us your four answers. No argumentation, no “make wrong” of anyone else, no defensiveness…just four straightforward replies, and your reasons for them if you want to elaborate. No one needs to comment on anyone else’s answers. It’s just an exchange of views, in the spirit of respectful, open sharing, needing no one to agree, and challenging no one to debate. Just a sharing. Kind of a survey.

Okay? Here we go then…

Changing our idea about ourselves, changing our way of being in the world, is a big order. But is it impossible?

A reader here posting as “Raphael” makes some interesting observations regarding the North Korean/U.S. standoff. Among them: “Men appear to love war, women appear to admire men who love war, and new generations are always born who, knowing nothing about war, think it is the most exciting and glorious game that there is to be played. The principle source of conflict between individuals or nations is, in my view, a drive to dominate, which seems to be deeply ingrained in all mammals. There cannot be any peace when individuals compete furiously to get on top of one another to determine who will be boss, who will be the alpha male or female, who will have authority and power over others…that’s basically what it comes down to, and it is not very intelligent.”

This leaves us wondering. Can anything be done about this seemingly “ingrained” human behavior? My answer is yes. We are more capable now than ever before of considering, embracing, and sharing ideas and understandings that would have been completely out of reach for our species just a few generations ago, given our our then-limited mental capacities and technological capabilities. But humanity’s collective mind is more mature now, and our technologies have expanded. We carry knowledge of the world in the palm of our hand, and we spread ideas around the world with the touch of a screen.

All we need to do now is change the ideas that we spread. All we need to do today is place into the global slipstream a new and spectacularly beneficial (and therefore, spectacularly attractive) meme for all of humanity to consider.

A “meme” is defined as an element of a culture or system of behavior that is passed from one individual to another by nongenetic means, especially imitation. So what we are talking about here is transforming society by nongenetic means.

If we are not content with waiting for new and more beneficial behaviors to be passed from one generation to the next through the agonizingly slow process of mutation or adaptation, we can now opt for the blindingly fast process of imitation.

That’s where you and I can come in. If enough of us agree to be exemplars, models, embodiments for the rest of humanity of how all of humanity can experience itself peacefully if it chooses to, we could change the world in less than a generation.

What this would take, of course, is leadership. True leadership is not saying “follow me.” True leadership is saying, “I’ll go first.” We would have to be first to put aside our tribalism and our need to be “right” at any cost. We would have to embrace a spiritual understanding that we are not separate from each other at all, but emerge from the same essence and return to the same eternality; that we are part of a never-ending and ever unified energy flow, much as a wave is part of the ocean, rising, expressing, and flowing back to its source.

If enough of us at the grass roots level demonstrated such behaviors, our world leaders sooner or later would follow suit, because they know they need the support of those who follow them to stay in power. So the key question for us on this day is simple: What behaviors are we cheering on, and what behaviors are we displaying, encouraging others to imitate?