I love it when the moment, in its unexpected and unpredictable way, connects a piece of information to everything that has been occupying me.
It happened that I was browsing through a folder on my hard drive where I had saved many things over the years. My eye caught a conversation with Terence McKenna. There was nothing particularly inviting in the title, yet I started it anyway. It was a discussion recorded in 1998 about the world, the changes that are happening and will happen, the nature of time, and the role of the human being on this planet. I just sat and listened as the words added something to what had long been waiting for an intervention, for an update. When something like this happens, it feels like a small awakening, a satori-like experience, for which I am always deeply grateful.
McKenna said something like this:
“The entire Universe is moving toward greater complexity. What we live in now is far more complex, more intricate than what we lived in before. Some would say this is the result of ever-developing and unfolding processes. But this raises a question: what are these developing processes, and why has the Universe emphasized order emerging from disorder—especially when we have the second law of thermodynamics, which seems to say the opposite? Physicists believe the Universe is heading toward ultimate disorder, yet everywhere I look I see increasingly complex forms appearing in language, in organisms, in technologies—always building on the level of complexity already achieved. This process does not unfold evenly over time, but follows an asymptotic curve—where one end stretches toward infinity and the other approaches a line without ever reaching it—in other words, everything happens faster and faster.
If we interpret this in the human world, we can understand that technologies, languages, artistic movements, ideologies are not different from processes in nature. We see this in the drifting of continents and in the evolution of new species—except that human complexity is far more dynamic. I see the cosmos as a kind of complexity-producing machine, creating complexity everywhere—on the physical, chemical, social levels, and beyond—using whatever level has already been achieved to generate an even more complex system. This explains current conditions: the accelerating development of technology, the emergence of new social structures.
You don’t have to be an atomic physicist to understand that if the universe keeps making itself more complex, there will come a time when this rate accelerates so much that existence itself becomes overburdened in this three-dimensional space-time world. I call this the Omega Point—the transformation at the end of history. I believe this is not far away, with the emergence of the global internet, population growth, and the appearance of ever new electronic domains. We are now in the shadow of this point.
Our legendary sensitivity gives rise to apocalyptic intuitions, but even the person on the street feels the acceleration of time—without dismissing it as merely psychological or as some peculiarity of our society. The human species is part of this process, which is now reaching its peak along the front line of historical time.
Time has sped up dramatically. Here is a question: which passes faster—one million years in which nothing happens, or one second into which 50,000 different things are packed? (Let us remember: this conversation took place in 1998. How much has changed since then.) Time is really only experienced when events occur within it. And if we ask what the ultimate state of the interconnection of events would be—when every point is somehow connected to every other point—the universe seems to be performing one operation with everything: bringing everything into relationship with everything else through the creative capacity of consciousness.
It is as if evolution has moved beyond development solely through genetic mutations and is now also evolving through epigenetic changes. On this planet, the human being is the most complete representative of this complexity. And as such, is capable of influencing the surrounding field more profoundly—both in matter and in the transcendent. The diversity of written and spoken languages, the multitude of arts, technological achievements, the transformation of communication, the powerful influence of the internet—all of this makes the experience of time increasingly complex.
The Earth was shaped by volcanoes for millions of years, then by water for millions of years. A kind of plasma-like state once prevailed. Now look at the multitude of events and the rhythm of life. The manifestation of the present always builds on what has already happened—but not in such a way that mere sequence pushes events toward some unknown goal. On the contrary: it is always what has already become more complex that draws toward itself what is still unformed.
It is like releasing a ball at the rim of a curved bowl. It rolls down, then up again, and continues this until it finally comes to rest at the bottom of the bowl. The bottom of the bowl was already there when the ball began its swinging motion along the sides. The place and certainty of its arrival were present from the very first moment. Many things can influence how long the journey takes and what path the ball follows—but the place and certainty of its arrival are given.”
This is only a fragment of the conversation, yet even this expanded my capacity to understand and receive what is happening now. And it fits perfectly into the previous post. It offers a different point of reference for how to interpret current world events and the weight of the effects of my actions.
If all this is true, then the outcome of these changes has already happened in a dimension of reality that is not visible to us. And in this feedback loop, we are now laying the foundations of a time that is already beyond the turning point. Thus, the importance and responsibility of our actions and the rising of our consciousness are no longer about avoiding something—but about a new beginning that follows something that has already taken place.
With love,
Your traveling companion
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