Did you know that if all motion in the universe stopped, you'd be staring at nothing but emptiness? It is movement that creates the interference pattern that creates the illusion of matter. If movement ceases, there's nothing solid left to hang onto.

That's one of the amazing things I learned by reading about science. That piece of information is hardly new, but I don't remember learning about it in school. Now I enjoy catching the bits and pieces of modern scientific knowledge that filter down to me through popular science books and educational television shows.

Another great thing I learned recently is that practically everyone in the world is related. Apparently a hardy band of about 200 humans left Africa 100,000 years ago and, due to their isolation for many thousands of years, ended up all related to each other. They then multiplied and spread eventually to Australia, the Middle East, up through Europe and Asia, then over the Bering Straight where in successive waves of migration they populated North and South America. This has been confirmed with the modern technology of genetic tracking. A Greek woman and a North American Cree man shared the same foremother about 30 thousand years ago.

Here's another one. One of the latest theories in physics says that the universe is holographic, meaning everything is everywhere all the time. In other words, everything is part of a deeper order of existence that is beyond both space and time. This sounds like science fiction but scientists are saying that it's the only way to explain certain phenomena, such as the 1982 experiment at the University of Paris in which two photons "communicate" with each other non-locally. It might also provide scientific support for religious and mystical experiences such as feelings of cosmic unity and miraculous healings.

Scientific knowledge is proceeding so much faster than its implications can filter down to the six billion people on the planet. Most of us still live our lives as if matter were real instead of illusion. As if people of other nations, colours, and religions were our enemies rather than our extended family. As if we were disconnected from nature and from each other rather than connected in the most profound ways.

Another remarkable piece of scientific news comes out of brain research. Humans have what it takes in their grey matter to consciously change their consciousness. That's not something we're accustomed to doing because our mind usually evolves unconsciously due to environmental changes that occur over millennia. Nevertheless, to put it simply we have it in us to decide how we want to think and behave, and then do it. If we decide it is time to evolve past the stage of evolution where we need to fight each other for resources, protect our turf, place priority on material accumulation, and feel love and concern only for ourselves and our immediate family (or tribe or nation), then we can. Those characteristics were probably important in the past, and, combined with our ability to adapt and to create technologies, led to our incredible success as a species.

Those same behaviours are now killing us. They have the potential to end our existence according to environmental scientists. We are more than ready for a leap in evolution. It is our ability to adapt that will allow us to make the changes in consciousness, spirituality, politics, economics, food production, lifestyle, and all the other human-built systems that must be fundamentally altered. Yes, there is definitely a gap between our current state of knowledge and our behaviour as a species. Yet there are many people and organizations devoting themselves to closing this gap. In what has been termed the "conscious evolution," everyone can play a part because it involves the subtle but thrilling task of re-making the mind. What could be more personal or more revolutionary?

Maureen Latta is a freelance writer living in Saskatoon. This article is reprinted courtesy of EarthCare Connections, P. O. Box 2800, Humboldt SK S0K 2A0. Phone: (306) 682-2407, Fax: (306) 682-5416, Email: earthcare@sasktel.net, Website: www.earthcare.sk.ca.