The same, seven stages of human spiritual evolution recur on larger scales of human experience, too.

Group Soul

Examples of group souls are: the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts, the branches of the armed forces (Marines, Navy, Air Force, Army), GreenPeace, Ashkenazi Jews, Shi’ites, Sunnis, the different sects of Buddhists (Theravada, Mahayana, Tibetan, Zen, etc.), different sects of Christians (Baptists, Catholics, Presbyterians, Episcopals, Evangelicals, etc.), Mormons, Planned Parenthood, The Tea Party, B’nai B’rith, Sikhs, the homeless, tribes, immigrants, alcoholics, artists, etc.

Nation

The United States of America – a relatively young country – provides a clear example of this evolutionary sequence on a national level. You can see how far America has come, and the work that remains to be done:

Just like individuals, as they mature, even nations go through multiple cycles of evolutionary growth. This example shows the growth cycles through history of what is modern day Czech Republic:

Consider the history of your own tribe, race or nationality. See if you can identify the stages in its development. Look for major thrusts forward in consciousness, i.e., changes in the ways that people looked at things, in norms that were held, privileges expanded, dominions conquered, governments overturned, social expectations upended. Almost invariably, these advances had to be, first, conceived of, then fought for against a resistant status quo. Then came consequences, surrender, softening, an elevated perspective… and through that came the idea of something new, then starting the cycle all over again.

Tibet, tightly restrained by the People’s Republic of China, is in a Purification phase.

Switzerland, recognized in 1920 by the League of Nations as in a state of perpetual neutrality, is in the Peace phase.

Many Arab nations – the ones that just experienced the “I Am” of Arab Spring – are entering into their Consequences and Purification phases. Syria is in the throes of this!

Thanks to the leadership of Nelson Mandela, South Africa saw the end of Apartheid and entered its own phase of Declaration as the unified nation elected him, its first black President. What comes now, after Mandela’s death, are the Repercussion and Purification stages where, respectively, the country’s emotional commitment to union will be tested, and anything that is inconsistent with the highest form of this endeavor will be ground down–but not in the way that people may imagine. Remember, in the purification phase, there’s always a Bigger Hand at work.

In his own life, too, Mandela went through these same stages, including his time in prison (Purification). When after 27 years he was released, he was angry no more; he had become an instrument of pure peace who, as the father of modern South Africa, embodied forgiveness and brought unification to a harshly segregated country.

Now let’s see how we can recognize these same evolutionary growth cycles in the advent of the world’s great religions.

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