“It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question.” Eugene Ionesco “That sounds pretty ominous.” Walker laughed. “The Fourth Awakening is a natural progression in human development and shouldn’t be feared or misunderstood. One of the reasons we sought you out was because you could explain what is going on in language that could be understood by the average person on the street.” “You win, we’ll do background first, but I want to establish a few ground rules.” “Such as?” “No psychobabble or New Age gibberish. I want the fi ve “W’s. Who, what, when, where and why.” “I can work with that.” “I’m not done. I need verifiable facts, and not opinions or interpretations based on divine intervention or the reading of tea leaves.” “Fair enough.” “One more,” Penelope said with a sideways glance. “If I ask a direct question, could you at least pretend to give me a direct answer?” A broad smile broke across Walker’s face. “Just because you haven’t understood an answer doesn’t mean it wasn’t direct.” “I thought your goal was to reach as broad an audience as possible? If it is too dense for me to translate then we’re both wasting our time.” 133 The Fourth Awakening “Fair point,” Walker answered with a sigh. “I’ll try to rein in my enthusiasm. If I lose you anywhere, let me know.” Walker waited for an acknowledgement, which he got in the form of a nod, before continuing. “We are on the cusp of the Fourth Awakening of mankind…” Penelope chuckled softly. “Here we go.” “What now?” “How many times have you practiced this?” “Is it that obvious?” “Oh yeah.” “What was the giveaway?” “You used the exact same phrase a minute ago and for the fi rst time since I met you, it sounded like you were reading off of a teleprompter. Why the prepared speech?” “It is critical that you grasp the historical perspective. Without an understanding of what happened previously will be difficult to fully grasp what’s happening now. We need you to see the big picture.” “You’ve obviously given this a lot of thought, and you did buy me a nice dinner.” Penelope leaned back in her seat and folded her arms across her chest. “The least I can do is listen to your little presentation. Please, proceed.” Walker glanced sideways at Penelope and cleared his throat. “We are on the cusp of the Fourth Awakening of mankind. During these transition periods the entire fabric of societal structures changes and a new way of thinking emerges that is completely revolutionary and results in the abandonment of old ideas and methods of functioning both individually and collectively making it impossible to ever return to the old way of thinking.” Walker glanced over at Spence and saw that she was staring at him with her mouth open. “What?” he asked. “Who wrote this for you?’ “I did, with the help of some of the academics at the Hermes project.” “Academic, huh? That explains it.” “Explains what?” “I don’t think I’ve heard a sentence that long since college. It does show you are absolutely right about one thing.” “What would that be?” “If that’s the best you can come up with; you guys really need some help telling your story.” 134 Rod Pennington & Jeffery A. Martin “If you think this is bad,” Walker said with a laugh. “You should have heard some of the earlier draft s.” Penelope shivered slightly. “I’ve run across tons of people who believe that just because they got over 700 on their English SAT when they were seventeen it automatically made them the next Hemingway.” “I’ve seen some of that first hand recently,” Walker answered. “What do you suggest?” “Since I’m a reporter, we could try the interview format. I ask a few questions. We’ll see if you have it within your powers to give me some straight answers. Which, by the way, the jury is still out on.” “Hmm,” Walker answered as he fixed his eyes on the road. “Oh, don’t get pouty,” Penelope said as she rested her hand on Walker’s arm. “I’ll make you a deal. We try it my way for awhile and I’ll promise to read every word of your little speech.” “And view the PowerPoint?’ “Yes, I’ll even watch the PowerPoint.” “Okay. Where do you want to start?” “You claim the Fourth Awakening is upon us; since this is all new to me you’ll need to define what constitutes an Awakening.” “I thought I just did.” “Let’s try it again, maybe with punctuation this time.” “Okay. An Awakening occurs whenever there is a major shift in people and the way they view the world around them.” “For example.” “For example when humanity moved from compact familial groups of hunter gathers to the first non-family based small farming communities. From there we moved to even more complex social orders such as city and nation states. Once you’ve gone from a cave to a hut to indoor plumbing, there is no going back.” “I guess there is a certain logic to that. Why do you call them Awakenings?” “Are you a morning person?” “Yes. Annoyed the heck out of the rest of the family. My ex-husband was one of those three cups of coffee before you can talk to me kind of guys. Why?” “That’s a perfect example.” “Perfect example of what?” 135 The Fourth Awakening “Of one reason I decided to call it an Awakening.” Penelope sighed and shook her head. “We were running along fi ne there for a few minutes then suddenly you go off the rails again.” Walker laughed and a broad grin covered his face. “The point is people wake up at different rates. Some bounce out of bed at their best while others have to shake off the cobwebs. Some wake up at the crack of dawn while others sleep in until noon. This is exactly what happens in an Awakening. There is an adjustment period before everyone gets on the same page.” “Oh,” Penelope said while shaking her finger at Walker. “I get it. Some people take longer to adjust to the dawning of a new day than others.” Walker continued on. “The big question, as you have so artfully pointed out, is how to put this into language that will resonate with the most people. Some of the folks at the compound wanted me to use the currently accepted names for the eras but I didn’t think it would fl y with the general public. ” “Currently accepted by whom?” “Some of the most enlightened minds of our time.” “I suppose that would include you?” Walker shrugged but didn’t answer. Penelope thought for a moment then asked, “Out of morbid curiosity what did these enlightened minds call these eras?” “Th e first era, pre-200,000 BCE, is referred to as the Archaic Structure. After the First Awakening came the Magical Structure which was followed by the Mythical Structure…” “Ha!” Penelope said with a short laugh. “I guess these folks were all Beatles fan.” “Where did that come from?” “Sounds like you guys were having your own personal Magical Mythical tour.” “You have a very interesting thought processes.” “Th anks.” Walker grimaced slightly. “That wasn’t a compliment.” They both laughed. “With that level of verbal craftsmanship,” Penelope said. “I can’t imagine why you guys don’t have people knocking down your doors begging for more.” “Actually there is a large body of supporting work and some truly outstanding books on this subject. Jean Gebser’s The Ever Present Origin. 136 Rod Pennington & Jeffery A. Martin Allan Combs’ The Radiance of Being. Ken Wilber’s Up fr om Eden. I’ll get you a reading list if you’d like.” “Maybe later. Did they help with your little prepared remarks?” “I wish,” Walker said while shaking his head. “Gebser is dead so unless we have a séance he’s not available. As for the others, with every spy agency in the world looking for the Hermes Project we didn’t dare try to contact them. I was afraid to even go through Walker Industries’ PR department. Th at left me with a bunch of lab rats and PhD physicists to help me write this. ” “Oh my. Do you think Combs and Wilber could have done better?” “Absolutely. When you read their stuff you’ll understand. Th ey are gifted writers who could have put this into language that even a reporter could understand.” “Hey!” Penelope said in mock protest. Walker shot Penelope a knowing glance but didn’t reply. Puzzled, Penelope asked, “What was that look for?” “When you read their work, you’ll understand. “Whatever,” Penelope said. “I think your instincts are spot on about using the Awakening language over the era structure thingy. That’s a very elegant way of describing all of this.” “Excellent.” “What kind of a time-frame are we looking at for these Awakenings to completely take hold?” “It can be hundreds if not thousands of years.” “Thousands of years?” “Yes. After the first Awakening the adjustment period was over 100,000 years.” “Really? Why so long?” “There are a lot of factors that can affect the amount of time it takes for an Awakening to be fully engaged. While the progress is always ongoing, environment, weather, geography, food supply and other outside forces have always played a role in human development. Plus, there is the inherent nature of the Awakenings themselves.” “What does that mean?” “Around the time everyone is just getting used to the current Awakening, the next one starts and the cycle repeats itself.” “The early risers are on a different page than the night owls?” “Essentially that’s correct. Everyone develops at their own pace.” 137 The Fourth Awakening “I see,” Penelope said as she rubbed her chin. “What happened 200,000 years ago that merited the First Awakening?” “That was when Homo sapiens are thought to have emerged in East Africa.” “I guess that would qualify as a pretty big change.” Walker nodded. “Progress in human development was pretty slow back then. It took around 150,000 years before the next Awakening and that is when things started to get interesting.” “Interesting?” “Are you familiar with Joseph Campbell?” “Are you kidding? I went to an Ivy League college when he was in his heyday. I stood in the rain for two hours to get tickets to hear him speak.” “Excellent,” Walker said as he nodded his approval. “Then just imagine this Second Awakening being the canvas he used as the background for his Power of the Myth theory. Spoken language emerged during the time of the early shamans, and great myths were told around the campfi re. For the fi rst time, early humans became self aware and while still considering themselves a part of nature they understood they were somehow diff erent.” “What does that mean?” “We began to explore our spiritual side through myth and the creation............