A Review of “Spontaneous Evolution”
As our society moves into an increasingly critical time, it seems that we are more divided than ever as to how to respond to the challenges of a world at odds. Western civilization is torn by profound philosophical differences about the purpose of life. The debate between creationists and scientists has raged ever since Charles Darwin proposed his theory of evolution, and as co-authors Bruce Lipton and Steve Bhaerman state in their book, Spontaneous Evolution: “The old stories keep us powerless, at the mercy of either a distant God or random genetic events.”
When faced with a crisis such as the one threatening our civilization, we are going to need to find some common philosophical ground from which to move forward. Lipton and Bhaerman describe how traditional religious thinking is not going to do it; “what we call the Messiah … may be a do-it-yourself project,” nor will a belief in deterministic genetics do it, because according to this book, “we are not the victims but masters of our genes.”
In light of the surprising results of the Human Genome Project—it turns out we only have a few more genes than the lowly round worm—a new discipline of epigenetics has arisen, in which the influence of our environment, rather than DNA, determines the action of our cells and how genes react. The cell membrane appears to be a crystal semiconductor with gates and channels, quite similar to a computer chip, and as such, is programmable.
And who might the programmer be? It’s neither a mythological deity nor the agonizingly slow natural selection of random mutations. We have met the programmer and it is our consciousness, our will to make our lives more meaningful. Like the consciousness of the all- pervasive quantum field that gives rise to the evolutionary process, as observers of ourselves and our environmental circumstances, we have the power to collapse wave functions into a new, cooperative reality.
This “new edge” thinking (Lipton and Bhaerman take the “new” from New Age and the “edge” from Cutting Edge), is encouraging and engaging. Weaving humor into their scientific research, we realize that this book is combining the best of science and spirit. Both their quantum science and philosophical thoughts make us realize that “The cosmic joke is this: science and religion are essentially each describing the same thing.”
What they are describing is a universe arising from the creative power of consciousness, entangled in oneness. As the authors ask, “Are you ready to engage the one suggestion—that we are all one with the same One? If so, be prepared because all Heaven is about to break loose.”
This philosophical expose of hope for our own personal evolution is profoundly beautiful. Lipton and Bhaerman explain that “Life is a cooperative journey among powerful individuals who can program themselves to create joy-filled lives.”
Evolution produces its own spontaneous creations in the form of leaps into new species or higher understanding. This is our motivating call to action, this possibility of a spontaneous remission to heal the sickness of society’s crisis. It’s merely a matter of us believing it will happen in a moment of Spontaneous Evolution.
