Are You Participating in the Translucent Revolution?

I’m not sure if you are old enough to remember, but back in 1980, there was quite a fuss when Marilyn Ferguson came out with her book The Aquarian Conspiracy. It was an exciting event to find tangible evidence of something many of us suspected: we were not alone in our new way of thinking! The book surveyed the many recent developments in research, theories, education, therapies, and other domains of activity that were expressive of the “new paradigm.” Ferguson actually named the shift and helped us focus on what was happening. She called it the shift from separation to interconnectedness. I know that many folks on the A.R.E. community were thrilled with her analysis, for it echoed a fundamental principle in the Edgar Cayce material.
The choice of the word “conspiracy” was also of interest, as it suggested that something larger than any one individual was at work. It suggested the potential of creating a new culture, not simply a new way of thinking, but a new way of being together, working together, something that could replace the entrenched establishment, which certainly had the upper hand, as in the conspiratorial phrase, “the old boys’ network.” Her survey of the findings of “new science” in so many different fields of study seemed to provide the necessary credentials to make the new paradigm not merely wishful thinking but enlightened and rational. The only excuse for not being part of the conspiracy, it seemed from her encyclopedic documentation, was ignorance.
Now, some twenty five years later, there’s a new book out, written with the same kind of excitement, the same kind of suggestion that the tide is turning, the same kind of invitation to be a part of something big. It is The translucent revolution: How people just like you are waking up and changing the world (New World Library). The author, Arjuna Ardagh, is someone I had never heard of before (nor had I heard of Ferguson when her book was published). The book says he has practiced meditation and yoga since a teenager and has a large following through his “Living Essence Training,” which I hadn’t heard of either. Nevertheless the book is a credible analysis of his survey of hundreds of people who have gone beyond worshipping the new paradigm and are now living it and making a difference in the world as a result. The essential advance of this book over Ferguson’s is that while she was focused on the evidence substantiating a conspiracy to think in a new way, Ardagh’s book is about the effects of applying the awakening.
The book begins by giving some stories of ordinary people who have had some type of peak experience that exemplify what he means by “translucent.” It reflects a state of consciousness in which the ego no longer blocks the higher consciousness from shining through. Higher awareness is not always present in these folks; they don’t go around in a state of bliss, but the awareness of oneness has become enough of a reality that their egos are no longer the director of their lives, but a servant of practical spirituality. As your read his descriptions of such folk, you may very likely find yourself to be among them.
The author notes surprise that his survey revealed that it is not mainly in offshoots of Eastern religion that he has found the translucents (as it may have been years ago), but in various self-help groups, cchurches, various volunteer organizations, and in many schools and businesses.
What happens when people experience themselves as connected with others rather than separate? Doing for others becomes the same as doing for oneself. Altruism loses its meaning for these people, because they don’t see it as sacrificing of oneself for someone else, but simply as sharing the abundance. Volunteerism is common among these folk, not because they aim to “do good,” but because it feels good to share and it comes naturally. Patience comes easily because being in the “flow,” being in harmony with how things naturally unfold, feels better than trying to assert oneself against “what is.” Yet there is an active allegiance to being a servant of an emerging world of peace and love.
When people experience themselves more as eternal consciousness than as a mortal “thing,” there is less of a need to be in control of their lives and they accept change as the status quo. There is less emphasis upon belief systems—something that people often use to achieve a sense of mastery over the great mystery of life, and something that often divides people. Instead translucents are more interested in experiencing heart connections with others and enjoying empathizing with various points of view. There is an openness, an acceptance, even a humor, about being imperfect, not out of a religious conviction of human’s being a “fallen” species, but rather because it just doesn’t matter than much. What matters is what we can accomplish when we cooperate, a sentiment shared by many of us—a fact that supports the good news this book so well documents.