400 years ago, newly arrived settlers came to this continent and met with a virgin land consisting of endless forests and lush valleys. And yet, the waves of immigrants who came were able to quickly tame the land. Seeking to replicate Europe in the new homeland, the settlers knew what had to be done. They also they had the life skills of a hundred European generations. The only challenge was how fast and efficiently they could do it.

And so, the immigrant population developed the means to make that happen -- later known as mass production. The people were not only able to organize and develop all of the necessities for life on the new continent, but within 100 years were able to produce them for nearly everyone in the bourgeoning population. This centuries-long movement peaked with Henry Ford’s production line facilities used to build the Model T automobile for the common man.

Waves of immigrant population from a variety of lands, the knowledge of the European homeland in the minds of the settlers, and taking to mass production and organization are several of the keys to the enormous prosperity that came to America. So was the drive and energy of the people motivated by new freedoms unavailable in their previous homelands. Individuality arose in place of the oppression, the greater conformity, and the hierarchical structure of Europe. By the 20^th century, America, once ridiculed by Europeans as an outpost of savages, had matched and then surpassed economically and materially all of Europe. The old world’s cynicism and arrogance was left behind in the dust by a new pioneer society that continues to thrive until this day.

Then there is the other side of the coin. Somewhere along the line, mostly in the last 100 years, a negative conservative strain has entered the body politic and the population of the United States. Where it issues from and what harmful purpose it serves remains to be determined. But its negative affect on the society is well known -- from the Civil War support of slavery in the South; to a reluctance amongst the hinterland peoples to fight German and Japanese fascism that put the nation at great risk; to the support of a war against the Vietnamese people, who were seeking independence from their colonial masters. Worse still, is their antagonism towards virtually every positive value that has come into society, from the rise of woman, to the rise of new, more sophisticated cultural values. 

It has its roots mostly in non-urban areas, on the fringes of suburbia where it meets the countryside -- where issues forth an endless stream of ignorance and false knowledge. It originates in a barely-educated ignorant, superstitious rural white population, which in turn creates a blowback to a conservative middle class. Though the rural areas express reasonable concerns about safety and security, and demonstrate kindliness toward one another, it is a veneer, which breaks down quickly when these simple people are confronted by the realities of a changing world. This conservative element then reemerges, seeking by-gone eras, unable to embrace the challenges of a modern world. As a result, they become reactionary and anachronistic. Even their religion turns from providing spiritual sustenance and moral direction to a certain narrow-mindedness, a conformity of belief, and eventually radical reactionary political and social points of view.

There is another problem in American society, perhaps more ominous. It can be stated as its “physical consciousness of violence.” Consider the facts in 2006: 200 million guns held amongst the population; $400 billion a year in military spending, when the next largest nation is spending barely $40 billion per annum; and thousands of nuclear warheads remaining deployed and ready -- even though the Cold War has now long passed. Add to that the glorification of violence in the culture at nearly every level, and you have ominous incendiary disaster waiting to happen. How has this great country that once sought to avoid persecution and nurtured extreme individuality of the Common Man developed this physical consciousness of violence -- a negative power that can easily, and most dangerously, turn on itself at any time?

Some would say that it is the result of another US problem: a view of life that only sees the physical/material as real; with all other planes -- i.e. the psychological, the societal, the spiritual -- relegated to a secondary or even non-status.  One sage has commented that “Americans think with their bodies.” This means that they tend to relate to life only through what they see, to what is materially visible; i.e. to what their five senses are absorbing from the environment. Their center of perception is thus in a lower sense-orientation of the mind, instead of the clear thinking, higher functioning or logical and rational mind, where one can more readily perceive the wider and deeper truths and conditions of life.

This obsession with the outer physical realities of life occurs in many ways -- in their obsession with their physical bodies; through a wild, mindless fascination with all things physical; and in their unbound glorification of technology and scientific advancement at the expense of deeper appreciation of human values. Watch any newscast and you will see a childlike fascination with the physically visible. Little seems to be understood by the American viewer unless there is a video or a graph or some other physical object to engage him. Also, the American cannot sit still for a minute, nor take to several moments of silence. He needs to rush off and accomplish, never to consider and be. Too many American finds it difficult to seriously and sincerely address the deeper meaning of things. Except, of course, when Nature forces them to do so; when She pulls them out of their shallow existence through a variety of tragedies.

The nation is thus divided between its positive and negative attributes. Among the positive are the continuous waves of immigrant who bring fresh energies and ideas, an overwhelming capacity for physical organization and mass production, and the enormous power of freedom and individuality in the society. Balanced against these are the virulent strains of anachronistic conservatism, a physical consciousness of violence, and an obsession with the materially visible at the expense of the deeper perceptions of the truths of life.

Usually we think of a divided country as a fissure between different segments of the society, or two political parties. Here I am suggesting that the division lies along more fundamental lines. It is between consciousness and unconsciousness that cuts across all strata of the American society.

By overcoming the negative and reinforcing the positive, America can bring about the synthesis that will enable further progress in the nation. Because America is so full of energy, she is ripe for such change. Because she has the physical means and material prosperity, she is ready to move to the next level of consciousness. She is the one country ready to make the decisive evolutionary change.

America has taken on the role as the material leader and pioneer in the world -- despite her known psychological and perceptive limitations. To become the psychological and spiritual leader beyond the material, she must confront her demons and limitations. Otherwise, she will falter. If so, she will be forced to hand over her mantle as Pioneer and Leader to other nations, perhaps those of Asia, such as India. And yet, she is now ready and ripe to make this decisive change. We will watch closely for such developments as the course of events unfold.

At Growth Online, we address many subjects related to personal, spiritual, business, and society’s growth and evolution. We even address the ultimate transformation of humanity through the power of the spirit. Interestingly, however, the most popular articles at the site have been on the topic of “personal values.” We know that in the last 25 years, values have been a recognizable and much appreciated subject that has moved to the forefront of life – whether in the classroom or the boardroom.

And so it was then quite surprising that one of our readers informed us that though he appreciates our articles on personal values, he questions our advocacy of the phenomenon of “Life Response” at the site. After all, the reader posits, personal values are something that has intellectual weight and is worthy of serious consideration, whereas life response is something ethereal and unproven. Implicit in the remark is that we should not mention life response in the same breath as personal values.

100 years ago, virtually no one in the commercial sector had heard of, or even seriously considered the notion of utilizing values in the workplace. To succeed in business, one needed grit, steel, strength, capacity, and plenty of resources. Likewise, workers needed to be hearty, dutiful, and capable of doing the job. Other factors, such as an employee’s honesty, the company’s integrity, the worker’s personal safety, etc. were absent from the dialogues of commerce. Rather, work was organized around goals to be achieved within a time period at a certain cost so that the customer got what he wanted. Adhering to values was considered too subjective -- even effeminate -- to be worthy of management’s attention. And yet, today we are beginning to see that values are well on the way to revolutionizing many areas of society. Of late, it seems to be on the lips of everyone; from every sphere and field of life.

Fortunately, in the last 100 years we have seen a gradual movement away from an empirical-oriented commerce to a more values-oriented approach. What was subjective then -- i.e. values -- has become the objective and concrete now. What was beyond mind’s conception then has now been accepted as a rational and effective method for uplifting all aspects of life. For example, leaders of corporations now engage in strategic planning in which the values of the company -- such as integrity, customer delights, maximum utilization of resources, etc. -- are integrated into its mission statement. No longer are values for the intellectuals or college professors or elites. Values are now lauded as being of great utility throughout society, whether in business, government, education -- even amongst youth. In fact, a good one-half of the readers of our articles on personal, business, and society’s values at Growth Online are college students and teenagers! What was once subjective and “not supported by an intellectual foundation” has now percolated up through society, and has begun to be accepted as part of the new objective reality.

The concept of “Life Response” is undergoing the same process of acceptance. It is admired by a few, not heard of or understood by nearly everyone, and disparaged by several. It is in one sense the new subjective, the new functioning of life that appears to not have that necessary intellectual weight -- a questionable process of life, without logical, rational, or scientific underpinnings. The truth is that the life response phenomenon is simply a more subtle functioning of life than personal values, and therefore escapes the modern intellectual mind. It is more difficult for the average person to fathom because it requires us to go a level deeper in consciousness to perceive its startling workings. Just as we have moved from the empirical to the subtle to perceive the great utility of values, we need to go deeper still to see the overwhelming power of the life response phenomenon. Life response is, in case you didn’t know, the condition where life instantaneously changes with sudden good fortune due to a change in a habit, emotion, or attitude on our part. It is a miraculous-like phenomenon that can shape the way we look at life in 21^st century -- even as we began to appreciate values at the end of the 20^th.

If you consider for a moment the great benefits that values bring us, then you’ll appreciate the even greater power of life response. Values, for one, energizes every act engaged in -- increases its effectivity and efficiency perhaps on an order of ten times. If, for example, I speak with the customer with great respect and a caring attitude, then not only will I more likely get the order, but my firm will develop a positive reputation that will cause many to flock to us, catapulting our firm to the top of its field. How does one measure success in such situations? Is it a factor of 2 or 5 or 10 times? We do not really know the full effect of implementing values in our lives because the results generated have not been well understood, documented, and measured -- save for certain pioneer studies such as Jacobs’ and Macfarlane’s ‘The Vital Corporation,’ a profound book that explores the power of values in the business environment.

Though great, we should keep in mind that values bring about unprecedented success over time. E.g. applying the value of ‘quality of service’ has catapulted many companies to the top of their fields in the years and decades that followed. Other corporate values like “commitment to the well being of its people” or “focusing on the emerging needs of society” have done the same; rocketing companies to the pinnacles of success. Life Response, on the other hand, can literally change the conditions of life in a single moment -- overcoming limits of space and time, and what we believe is possible. It is miraculous-like phenomenon that overwhelms all previous notions of how life works. E.g., imagine that you change an emotion, and then suddenly two minutes later you receive the biggest order in your company’s history, seemingly out of nowhere!  It is no wonder that the modern intellectual mind is skeptical. Worse still, in rejecting it outright, the modern Mind never bothers to determine if it is a real phenomenon of life to begin with! In other words, it abandons its own empirical scientific methods in ascertaining if the phenomenon exists!

Fortunately, Mind -- which was not highly developed in man until recent times -- has begun to shed its past folly and moved towards logic and reason. More recently still, it has begun to see that we cannot just measure cold fact and say that is the entire truth of things; that when considering any object of inquiry, we must also accept other influences in the human equation, including the effect of our attitudes, emotions, beliefs, and other factors. Mind is thus becoming more subtle in its outlook and understanding, and thus more capable of perceiving the variety of possibilities that life presents us. One result has been Man’s recognition of the value of values -- that they are not subjective, as once believed, but do objectively influence our lives; often with great power.

Mind is capable of going deeper still. It can be centered in a deeper poise in the depths of consciousness within. From there, mind can perceive new truths and unfoldings beyond the mere material facts. From an inner poise of calm and mental silence, Man opens to new forms of perception -- including the utilization of insight, illumination, vision, intuition, and revelation. Anchored within, one can look out into the world and perceive the subtle workings and unfoldings of life. In particular, from that “witness consciousness” we begin to perceive the phenomenon of life response in action. Experiencing its power on a regular basis, it becomes to us as objective as any empirical or scientific fact.

When we look back 100 years from now, we will see how limited our current view of objectivity is. We will see that it is objective to include the power of values in any analysis of success. And we will see that it is objective to include the workings of the life response phenomenon when evaluating the flow and processes of life. Mostly, values and life response will be objective to us because we will be able to summon up its power at will. It will be the very stuff of our daily lives. Except this life will exceed the old way by a factor of a hundred or even a thousand, as we are able to bring the infinite potentials of life instantaneously into the here and now.