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Appendix (ix) ‘A WIDER PICTURE OF GLOBAL CONSCIOUSNESS’ - Dominic Dibble - The Lucis Trust Before I come to my main topic, which concerns the wider picture of global changes in consciousness, and how initiatives such as this one may fit in to this wider picture, I thought I'd say a few words about the organisation which I represent, World Goodwill, for those of you who aren't familiar with our work. World Goodwill is an international movement, with Headquarters in London, New York and Geneva. It was founded in 1932 as one of the service activities (the other is Triangles) of the Lucis Trust. The way in which it seeks to serve humanity is by establishing right human relationships throughout the world though the use of the power of goodwill. Now you may be thinking that this sounds a rather ambitious remit, and also very broad. It effectively means that World Goodwill strives to be an intelligent generalist, rather than specialising in one or other field of right human relationships, for as we know, there are so many wonderful groups and individuals who serve in this way, seeking to build right relationships in the fields of communications, human rights, environmental sustainability, health, politics, and many other fields, including of course education. If any of you receive our free quarterly Newsletter, you will know that we seek to highlight positive initiatives in all these many areas of human living, and to comment upon their significance. And trough our Forum meetings in London, we invite people who are serving humanity to reflect upon important issues in their particular field. World Goodwill's Newsletter and public meetings are therefore two of the main ways in which we attempt to fulfil our remit: by publicising the thinking of prominent servers, we hope to mobilise the energy of goodwill, a reservoir of potential energy which is very widespread in the human family, and which only needs to be set to work to produce an acceleration in the positive changes which are already emerging; and by searching for the underlying meaning of world events, we hope to give pointers to where and how goodwill can be intelligently applied in order to build a better future for all. Though both these means, and through the other literature which we distribute, we endeavour to communicate a broad, inclusive, spiritual vision of humanities’ future. The use of the term "spiritual here is not in a specifically religious sense; rather, it means everything which lies beyond the point of present achievement of human consciousness, which embodies the vision and which urges us on to higher goals. In this sense, all those who are striving to serve others by working for a better world are doing truly spiritual work, whether in science, economics, politics, religion, art, the media or in the field with which this particular gathering is concerned, education. The fact that there are so many now working in this way is inspiring evidence of a great spiritual renaissance which is just beginning in the human family; and there is a widespread sense of anticipation that a new spiritual revelation is at hand, a revelation which will give a new and unified meaning and purpose to Humanity s striving for betterment. As Rabbi Herman Schaalman says, "Something new is waiting to be born. We are experiencing the birth pangs of a new age, of a new hope. We are present at that sacred moment when new life is about to emerge from the womb of the past. What struggles to arise out of the past might become our shared future of mutual hearing and understanding, of mutual openness, of unprecedented willingness to acknowledge and accept others in all their differentness. The questions which address themselves to each of us are: Will we recognize the mystery of this possibility? Will we be open to its opportunities: Are we willing to help it be pulled into the light of tomorrow? Will we turn away preoccupied or cynical, or will we step forward to assist? These are not merely questions. They are the agenda of tomorrow, they are the exciting, irresistible invitation to each of us to abandon pre-judgement and stubborn refusals to deeply hear one another. They are the programme and the means to make that leap of faith with each other which will move humanity and our earth into the new era of reconciliation and hope." Because the times are extra-ordinary they summon us to be extra-ordinary, to reach into the depths of our souls. In the words of poet Christopher Fry "Affairs are now soul size." We are entering a new age, where the life of the soul, the inner, subjective, higher self, will be the main conditioning factor, and not, as before, the desires of the outer man. In the popular media, the term "New Age" seems to be associated mainly with psychological exploration in various different directions by the individual, but it is much more than that, and to place the focus on the individual is to miss its wider significance. in fact, the New Age is
