The morning session focused on an emphasis on different ways to serve the world in a spiritual way. Different examples were given, with co-workers having created units of service in Italy, the Netherlands and Russia, and a French co-worker who, through meditation, had the idea to let the UN values, and knowledge of the UN system, be taught in secondary schools in France.

A video “For the love of tomorrow” was presented (ă 1985 MRA productions/FLTfilms; www.fltfilms.org.uk), which tells the story of Irčne Laure on reconciliation as an innovative approach to peace building. Irčne Laure, a member of the Resistance in World War II, hated the Germans. Yet, on her first visit to Caux, she asked forgiveness for her hatred, and thereafter she worked tirelessly to reconcile France and Germany.

This was an early illustration of a basic approach of Initiatives of Change (www.iofc.org). This is the special Caux experience, requiring an approach to the resolution of conflict that involves the healing of wounds and the building of new relationships across a broad spectrum. This recognition brings an understanding of a moral and spiritual dimension to statecraft, a dimension that should prompt the foreign policy community to draw on the resources and experience of spiritually-motivated individuals and groups in the quest for solutions.

The afternoon was dedicated to guest speakers presenting different fields of service, such as psychology (Astrid Stuckelberger), the world of affairs (Daničle Rousseau), peace-building (Danielle Maillefer with Initiatives of Change), and spiritual convergence (the Geneva Spiritual Appeal www.geneve.ch/appelgeneve/ and Rev. William McComish).

The material which follows is adapted from the presentations given by a number of different speakers in New York and London, and has been re-organised around some of the broad themes of the meetings. Each individual reflection begins with a »».All unattributed reflections are by Lucis Trust staff and close co-workers.

The New Group of World Servers: some definitions

»» Members of the new group of world servers identify themselves by their sense of urgency about the state of the planet, of the natural world, whose ecosystems are such a vibrant demonstration of living synthesis. Members of the new group of world servers are identified by their commitment to globalisation, but a just and human globalisation; by their striving for conflict resolutions that result in “win-win” solutions; by their capacity to see the divinity in everyone regardless of outer differences; by their love of humanity, collectively, not just their family and friends.

»» The true servers of the world are qualified by right relationships; they may be leaders or specialists in a particular field of thought, or they may be living quiet lives behind the scenes, but what they have in common is that their activities are impulsed by the energy of goodwill. This gives them the collective ability to “Fire the world with the new idea of the spirit of relationship”. Fire is the great psychological agent of transmutation. The fire of mind and heart transforms a human being into a spiritually radiant one, whose outstanding quality is the spontaneous outflow of a loving heart and an intelligent mind.

»»The new group is actually the prototype of the new humanity. Through its work it is necessarily evoking co-operation from increasing numbers of people throughout the world and absorbing them into its ranks. Eventually a substantial proportion of humanity will be engaged in the energy distributing and serving work of this group. In other words gradually humanity itself is becoming the new group, and is on the path to fulfilling its destiny as the planetary light bearer and server.

The New Group of World Servers: some thoughts on its role in the world

»» Into this fray of competing ideologies and political intentions that characterize the near chaos of today, come the willing participation of the new group of world servers. They are helping to prepare the way for the next stage of growth in human consciousness. They, by their spontaneous actions and service, are helping to sensitize and awaken the human heart. It is the loving heart that must be allowed to lead humanity through the chaos, and to provide a balancing force to the evils of hatred, divisiveness and separateness. This is their main reason for being in the world at this time of transition into the new age,it is a time when the material forces are still very strong and active, so the new group are needed to act as interpreters of the new attitudes and values and the new activities which must eventually govern men and women in the new age. They must also bring about the eventual synthesis and unification of men and women of goodwill into one coherent body, so that this scattered group of world servers come to realize their essential unity—a unity truly found on the level of the soul.

»» In a transitional era between two ages, such as the present time, the new group of world servers and particularly those with an at least somewhat conscious sense of the spiritual implications of the times have a special role to play. The pressures of conflicting energies colliding in a time of transition from an old age to a new place enormous stress on the physical, emotional and mental states of human beings. In a sense, this is a period of training as we build up our spiritual muscles to accommodate the demands of the coming age. In such a period, the Tibetan said, the integrating group of world servers must meet a very real need. “Their work must primarily be to keep such a close link with the soul of humanity…through their own soul activity that there will always be those who can ‘work in the interludes’ and so keep the plan progressing and the vision before the eyes of those who cannot as yet themselves enter into the high and secret place. They have to learn to work subjectively, and this they must do in order to preserve the power, latent in all, to withdraw into the centre. They constitute the door, speaking symbolically. Capacities and powers can die out for lack of use; the power of divine abstraction and the faculty to find what has been called ‘the golden path which leads to the clear pool and from thence to the Temple of Retreat’ must not be lost. This is the first work of the Group of World Mystics, and they must keep the path open and the way clear of obstructions. Otherwise knowledge of the way might temporarily die out and the selfish purposes of the material nature assume undue control”.

»»The innate altruistic note of the NGWS is finding practical expression in their daily lives. They anchor values which demonstrate right human relationships and by so doing sow a seed for change. These magnetic points stimulate reciprocal recognitions in others. In this way many are invited directly or indirectly to risk changing in some way. This inclusive approach dispels the tendency towards isolation and separation and a new way of relating as part of a group becomes possible. In this way group awareness is forming and flourishing. Gradually a new inclusive world view is coming into being as more and more individuals take their stand as practising world citizens.

»»We are told that the task of this new group is to “recognise”, to “see and know” humanity’s demands. And these demands are not what the conventional world thinks they are – food, water, money, and health. These demands are rather to receive and transmit illumination from the kingdom of souls and inspiration from Hierarchy; to uphold the vision for those who follow and finally, to act as an intermediate group between the Hierarchy and humanity, receiving light and power and then using both of these, under the inspiration of love, to build the new world of tomorrow.

»»There is another very interesting and enlightening function of this world group that is more esoteric and obscure, but a function of profound significance. It is the function of a forerunner. In this case, the group is acting (without really knowing it) as a forerunner for the World Teacher Who, it is believed, will return to continue His work sometime in the near future. The group is preparing the way by initiating activities that elevate human consciousness and awaken the heart center to a degree that will enable us to synchronize and understand the new teachings of the mysteries that will be presented by the World Teacher. To some He will be seen as the Christ, to others He will be the Messiah, the Maitreya, the Bodhisattva or the Imam Mahdi. But His teachings will transcend the traditional doctrines and scriptures and will open human consciousness to the true, esoteric mysteries that have existed for millions of years.

So the soul, and thus the new group of world servers, must express the will and the intent of neither the extreme left nor the extreme right; they must express the will of the good in the center which stands for the good of the whole, including the left and the right.It is from that central position that they act as a forerunner group—a group that points the way forward. Their essential function is to advocate the use of the energy of goodwill as the active ingredient in building right human relationships throughout the world. Right relationship is the prelude to peace. Such a peace will bring the glory of the soul into the world, and bring forth the new kingdom. This is their essential task, and is why we celebrate them today.

The New Group of World Servers: a comment on
its structure

»»The reason this group cannot, and should not, be organized into a physical organization is that such a group would then have to have a specific location, an office, a director, a board of directors and trustees and financing, etc.. No self-selected group of individuals can ever speak or appear to represent this worldwide group oriented toward service. The new group of world servers are linked together by an attitude of mind and heart. They stand out as a whole new concept in the way groups are founded and will be founded in the future. Their directive in life comes from the one soul that unites them all. And their primary function is to express the soul qualities of inclusive loving understanding and goodwill. This is why we celebrate them today—to strengthen this bond of love.

Living Synthesis: the scientific basis for it

»»I think this notion of Being one, is like an antibody, it’s part of the immune system, and if it is coming up more and more in the world today – this search for Oneness, it is because humanity is responding–responding to this threat, responding to the fact that we are an endangered species and if we go down we will take, probably, a lot of life of other species with us too.

Now let me move on to the segment that I wanted to talk about, which is: the Re-enchantment of the Cosmos. Why do I say all of this, why do I think this re-enchantment of the cosmos is important? Because – Oneness, Wholeness, has been around for thousands of years. What they didn’t have, which western society, and today, world society asks for – whether we like it or not – is credibility, and credibility is largely supplied by science. People can be believers and they will find that faith replaces their credo, but society, as it is constituted today – if it is to transform, has to take seriously, oneness, therefore it has to have credible, scientific proof of oneness. Now, this may seem like an odd thing to say, but I believe that there is scientific proof of Oneness. I think that we really are part of one system. I think that we really are part of the universe, and this universe is probably also part of an even larger system, in which many universes come and go.

I think the basic reality is space, but not as an abstraction. The basic reality is space as a monumental, original, fundamental field that carries in-formation as well as energy: and – we are part of it. We are variations of it, we are structures super-imposed on this field. All of life is. All of the cosmos is. We are part of the hologram, a hologram of the biosphere and through this hologram we can communicate. We can read this hologram. It is accessible. It is accessible if we allow our mind to pick up the information, If we allow our brain, to put it in physicalist terms, to operate in the quantum information processing mode. That means stop this belief that the left-hemisphere, the manipulative, slow, calculative mode is the only reality. There is a deeper reality behind it. We can access it by going deeper into ourselves. Traditional people have done so; people do it now. People do not have to be ‘shamans’, they can be meditators, they can be religious people who are going into states of prayer, they can be artists, they can be scientists who are going into the state of creativity, where the in-formation comes. I do not believe that the information is unique to the individual; creativity, in-fomation, comes to you from the outside, you operate jointly.

So this is the immune system, a sense of Oneness. A sense of oneness can be recovered, it can be given credibility, by recognizing that it is not an illusion, that it is not purely an insight, a ‘mystical’ insight, (it is that too, obviously) but it has a basis and the new scientists are discovering that basis. We now know a way in which we can explain this that is consistent with the new physics and the new cosmology, the new biology, and the new psychology. It is a great hope for the future. My task is above all to try to bring legitimacy by creating a world view based on this idea of an IN-FORMATION FIELD that could help people to recover the oneness that they intuitively know is within themselves.

Ervin Laszlo

Living Synthesis: two definitions

»»Living Synthesis is best understood as a process of the many cohering into the One. It is important to point out that this is very different from an enforced unity where everything becomes the same. The word “living” gives us a clue here. Organic, living systems tend to be rich in diversity, and full of apparently contradictory elements. Living synthesis suggests the many parts fitting together in such a way that they retain their awareness of individuality and difference within an overarching sense of being part of a greater Whole.

In social affairs and the human psyche, living synthesis describes the awakening sensitivity to wholeness, interdependence, universality. I am not suggesting, as we sometimes hear in New Age circles, that we are living in an age of enlightenment, or that Love and Light are the dominant energies of our time. Clearly this is not the case. Yet what is happening, it seems to me, is that there is now a clear dynamic in psyche and society in which the instinct of separation and identification with the separated self is being balanced by and in a state of tension with the newly emerging notion of wholeness. There is evidence of this dynamic in all fields of experience, of thought, of arts and sciences and it is through this dynamic that a new world is being born. As a species we are being initiated into a yoga of synthesis as we learn how to respond to the growing sense of universality.

»»…the definition of Love here is service, world service, Life for the Whole. It also means having an organic view of the human race as a whole. That each of us is a cell in humanity and each nation is an organ within the body of humanity.David Lorimer

Living Synthesis: signs of its creative realisation in the world

»»In the emerging global community it seems amply clear that the tension between living synthesis and national self-centredness is at the heart of international relations. Just look at the issues that are so central to the economic, political and social affairs in all nations:environment, climate change, world trade, human rights, minority rights, the relations between men and women—in all of these issues there is a massive conversation taking place reaching into the sitting rooms and dining rooms of most homes. It is a conversation that plays itself out in national politics as well as law, business and economic life, the arts and so on.

We are living in an age of interdependence. This is no longer a matter of ideology or belief or dream. It is a fact. The problems we face are very much problems of our interdependence:global poverty affects all; world trade issues are fundamental to the economic debates in all societies; climate change is a topic of heated discussion in national and even local legislatures. These issues reflect the fact that the agenda of human affairs is being set by our collective response to issues of living synthesis—it is not surprising that the response includes a strong measure of resistance to the processes of dialogue, multilateral agreements, participatory planning and consensus building. The tension between separation and synthesis is a logical, and to be expected, part of the process. Yet the simple physical realities of, for example, climate change, the spread of deserts, global terrorism and global crime are such that ultimately societies have no choice but to adapt to the circumstances of a world of unity in diversity.

In the language of esotericism, it seems to me that this new process consciously fosters will and purpose and brings the principles of living synthesis into incarnation. We need to remember that it is in the process, in the discussions and muscular negotiations between governments, civil society, local government, and business that people change and the world changes. It is through deep processes like this that a civilisation centred on interdependence is being born.

»»The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are considered minimum standards for the global common good. Additionally, there have been calls from a variety of sectors to meet needs beyond just the minimum targets set by UN Member States. Surpassing the MDGs calls us to redress the evil roots of poverty and extreme disparities of world resources; it calls us to share all, to give so that all may live, to “give of our uttermost,” and so all together to “be the leaven that lifts the whole.”Surpassing the MDGs calls servers to remove obstacles to universal human rights, health and education; to eliminate the dangers to our planet’s climate and environment; to undertake urgent collective action to build and sustain peace everywhere; to strengthen the United Nations to assure global development, social and economic justice, peace and security; to commit the necessary resources, human and financial, to these urgent needs.

»»The vision of a destiny of synthesis and shared responsibility is faintly dawning on the collective consciousness. Failed states, human suffering from war, poverty and disease and worrying environmental degradation are driving home the need for global responses to these issues. The goal of development towards synthesis is being held before us in the attempts to reform the United Nations, despite the fact that nations, like the personalities they represent, continue to throw up obstacles as they struggle and jockey for favour and recognition. Nevertheless, through all of the meetings and councils, the negotiations, the tradeoffs that took place leading up to and during the UN summit on reform last September, we witnessed a massive precipitation of energy around the UN ideal.

While many of the goals of UN Reform could not be wrought into final expression at this stage, there was a broad recognition and acceptance of important principles and acknowledgement that they must make their appearance some day. As world integration proceeds, we can expect that these goals will be reflected more proportionately and that we will see with greater precision and clarity the UN upholding the vision before the eyes of humanity. Today the idea of the UN is being further intensified and instilled into the consciousness of humanity and we are slowly learning to see the divinity in others, despite outer differences and the veils of language, religion and culture - and by doing this we can move nearer to seeing the divinity "inherent in the whole".

»»The spontaneous outflow of a loving heart and an intelligent mind, which characterizes the world server, kindles latent qualities in others, raising them momentarily into the light of a higher vision to a place where self-identity expands to include all other lives as part of one’s own identity. And vice versa, all selves are revealed as part of the One Life in Whom we live and move and have our being – group consciousness, rather than individual consciousness, being the outstanding feature. By bringing the fiery love of this higher reality into the consciousness of humanity, convoluted relationships are transformed – the simplicity of synthesis holds sway, intuition enlightens intellect, and desire yields to unconditional love. Can we imagine a time when the majority of humanity expresses these qualities? Such a time will inevitably come – the divine circulatory flow will access this densest of the planes of consciousness, and the light of revelation will flow unobstructed throughout the field of relationships.

Meditation: supporting the new group in revealing living synthesis

»»To create the new world we hope for, we need to remember that everything begins with an idea. If we want to make a change for the better in the world, we must begin with a change of heart and mind - a more enlightened and synthetic consciousness. Today we are building a thought-form around this idea of living synthesis, empowering it through concentrated thinking and sending it out to the world in service. "Through the impression and expression of certain great ideas, humanity must be brought to an understanding of the fundamental ideals which will govern the new age. This is the major task of the new group of world servers."The Ageless Wisdom predicts that this is all leading to the fulfilment of a vast divine Plan of Love and Light which will see the production of a subjective synthesis in humanity and of a telepathic interplay which will eventually annihilate time.

»»Our group meditations are an important means of service to the Plan. More important than our gaining deeper insight into Reality, the meaning of life, is our serving as a channel for the inpouring energies of Light and Love that seek to irradiate human consciousness. Because we know that “radiation shines through me; I see it naught”, our work in meditation without expectation or self-reference, simply focusing our attention as a Group Mind, is an especially potent form of service that can help to sustain the work of all those servers who labour on the “front lines” of the world’s conflict.

To conclude this piece, we offer the following beautiful reflection on synthesis taken from a Nigerian co-worker’s presentation at the seminar organized by the Nigerian Group for Goodwill.

»»Synthesis is spiritualization. It is the many becoming one. It is the urge within the planet toward union. It is the underlying subjective unity and wholeness which always exists within each diversity. Living synthesis is the spirit of God in manifestation. Synthesis is therefore defined as “is” because God “is”. It is a cosmic law of universal spiritual existence. It is a divine will working through the law of evolution.

Because living synthesis expresses itself in outer differentiation, in practical terms we see many paths, many ways, many differences and divergences of attitudes, beliefs, opinions, many cultures and many fields of service in human endeavours. Our goal is to recognize these differences but identify with the whole. The beauty of this recognition in the human family will be unity in diversity.