Steve Taylor is the author of several books on psychology and spirituality, including The Fall: The Insanity of Human History and the Dawning of a New Era and The Calm Center: Reflections & Meditations for Spiritual Awakening. For six years he has been included in Mind, Body, Spirit magazine’s list of the ‘100 most spiritually influential living people.’ His must-read new book is The Leap: The Psychology of Spiritual Awakening, published as an Eckhart Tolle Edition (with a foreword by Eckhart). He is a senior lecturer in psychology at Leeds Beckett University, UK. You can find him at www.stevenmtaylor.com.

In spiritual circles these days, it’s often suggested that the human race is in the process of a collective spiritual awakening. One of the aims in writing my new book, The Leap, was to investigate the evidence for this. Is it really true that we’re in the process of ‘waking up’ as a species?

Let me first of all explain what I mean by ‘enlightenment’ or what I prefer to call wakefulness. I think of it as a shift into a more expansive, higher-functioning state in which we experience a strong sense of connection with the world around us and other beings, a sense of inner quietness and spaciousness, and a heightened awareness of our surroundings. In this state, we transcend identification with the ego-mind, and let go of much of the anxiety and restless which afflicts us in our normal state.

There are a number of signs that this state is becoming more accessible and normal … to human beings, and that a collective ‘leap’ is occurring.

Sign #1: Natural Wakefulness

First of all, wakefulness seems to be natural for a small minority of people. These people aren’t awake due to a sudden transformation, or as a result of decades of regular spiritual practice—wakefulness is simply their normal, natural state. Such people don’t usually become known in a spiritual context. Instead they often become creative artists, poets, or painters, like Walt Whitman or William Wordsworth. Or perhaps they become idealists or social reformers, motivated by compassion or a desire to alleviate suffering, like Florence Nightingale or Peace Pilgrim.

Sign #2: Temporary Awakening Experiences

As I showed in my earlier book, Waking from Sleep, it’s very common for people to have temporary glimpses of the wakeful state, when they’re inactive and relaxed, and their minds become quiet and calm. For a few moments, the wakeful state emerges, like the sun from behind a wall of clouds. This suggests that our so-called ordinary sleep state has only a loose hold over us and can easily dissolve away, even if it usually manages to reestablish itself. Surveys indicate that over the last few decades these experiences are becoming more common.

Sign #3: The Impulse to Awaken

More and more people seem to sense instinctively that something is amiss with their normal state of being, that it is limited and delusory. They’re aware that they are asleep, and they want to wake up. As a result, they feel impelled to investigate methods of transcending their normal state by, for example, following spiritual practices and traditions. Again, this implies that our sleep state is losing its hold over us. It suggests that an evolutionary change is building momentum within our collective psyche.

Sign #4: Sudden Awakening from Psychological Turmoil

As I showed in my book, Out of the Darkness, it’s not uncommon for people who go through intense stress and turmoil—perhaps linked to bereavement, a diagnosis of cancer, or struggles with alcoholism or depression—to undergo a sudden shift into wakefulness. This shift often occurs when they have reached ‘rock bottom,’ at the point when they think they have lost everything. Their previous identity seems to dissolve away, and a new ‘wakeful’ identity suddenly emerges to replace it, like a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis.

For these particular ‘shifters’—as I called them in the book—the wakeful state seems to emerge fully formed, as if it had been latent inside them, waiting for the possibility to unfold. Although periods of confusion and disturbance may sometimes appear as the previous sleep state fades away and the new awake one establishes itself, the process seems natural and inevitable. Again, this suggests that the wakeful state is ready to emerge within our collective psyche. It is already there, fully formed and integrated, but only able to emerge (at least for some people) when the old sleep state dissolves away.

All of these are signs that the momentum of wakefulness is increasing, that it’s beginning to unfold as the next stage in the evolution of life. As a result, it manifests itself in a variety of ways, in the same manner that a rising water level manifests itself as overflowing rivers and lakes, as well as new streams, ponds, and tributaries. Wakefulness is also rising, and showing signs of its emergence everywhere.

But hold on, you might ask, what about all the negativity in the world right now, all the terrorism, consumerism, and nationalism? Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised at this. When any new phase of growth begins, the characteristics of the previous one often become stronger and more entrenched for a time, in response to the threat of their demise. Think about a child whose behavior regresses temporarily before a new developmental leap. So too the outworn materialist worldview—on which most of our negative human traits are based—is threatened, and seems to be asserting itself more strongly. It’s almost as if, within our collective psyche, the self-system of sleep senses that it’s being superseded and is trying to tighten its grip.

Remember that our own individual psyche is connected to—and influences—our species as a whole. When we undergo awakening as individuals, we contribute to the awakening of our whole species. Our own leap is part of the leap of our whole species. As more and more of us move toward wakefulness, the easier it becomes for others to do the same. The blueprint of the wakeful state builds up within our collective psyche until eventually it may replace sleep as the normal state that all human beings naturally develop in adulthood.

The universe wants us to wake up and will guide us toward wakefulness if we create the right conditions—until eventually wakefulness becomes normal for the whole of the human race.

To learn more about Steve’s research and teaching, find his website at www.stevenmtaylor.com.