During the month of March, we’ve invited four guests to enter the fray of discussion, and answer the question, “What Stops Our Growth and Evolution?”

We’re delighted to welcome Rev. Karin Wilson as our first Contributing Author. Karin is the senior and founding minister at Centre for Spiritual Living Yaletown in Vancouver, BC. We asked Karin to weigh in on this topic because of her background as both a journalist and student of philosophy and sociology.

We know you’re going to enjoy what she has to say!


 

What-Stops-Our-Growth

What’s in the way of our growth and evolution is pretty simple – we forget that we are in charge.

It’s easy to do. From an early age we’re taught that evolution is a scientific process that trudges along regardless of what action we take. It’s a fatalistic approach, and frankly, a fallacy.

When I entered university, one of the first things I studied as a young sociology student was the sociology of knowledge where I was introduced to the concept that reality was a social construct.

It was a fascinating field because it provided a context for how the theories of evolution also had a role to play not only in the construction of our physical world, but in the construction of our social world. In essence, what we choose to believe as a collective forms the basis of how we would choose to create our society. And this in turn became our reality – and that reality can become so “real” and “hard and fast” that we fail to see how any one else would construct a different reality. Hence the emergence of xenophobia [ed. the unreasoned fear of that which is perceived to be foreign or strange].

I lived my life by that belief for many years, always knowing that we are creators of our experience. But what I also sensed was missing was something more ethereal which I intuitively felt had a role to play.

It took decades until I found the missing piece of that puzzle – a concept presented by Ernest Holmes, who wrote The Science of Mind back in 1926.

What Holmes said is that the concept of evolution, as Darwin played it out, only told part of the story. Yes, things change and morph over time – including our physical realities. But more importantly, Holmes believed that what we think is actually the starting point of every evolution that exists.

His take is that the mind – our consciousness – is our connection to the Divine. And the Divine – as the ultimate creator only says yes. But it takes us, as humans, to bring creation to life.

Holmes says the process doesn’t begin with evolution – it begins with involution.

“Involution is the creation of the concept,” he wrote. “Evolution is the time or process it takes for the concept to become manifest. Involution is a conscious act. Evolution is purely mechanical.” In other words – the natural result.

Add a bit of Carl Jung’s perspective on the collective unconscious and you can quickly see how we as humans are continually “evolving” based on the ideas that we choose to implant in our minds.

The wondrous thing to me is that we are continually at choice. Evolution is not predetermined. What our world is today, is merely a reflection of what seeds we have chosen to plant. We can choose to invoke – to plant new seeds, and evolve a completely new expression any time we wish.


ABOUT OUR AUTHOR:

Karin-WilsonKarin Wilson is the senior and founding minister of Centre for Spiritual Living Yaletown. Prior to entering the ministry, she spent 20 years working as a professional journalist. Her work has appeared in numerous national and provincial publications, and on CBC Radio. She has a forthcoming article appearing in Science of Mind magazine on her experiences with the power of involution and evolution as it presented itself on Haida Gwaii. CSL Yaletown meets Sunday mornings at 10am at Pacific Cinematheque, 1131 Howe Street, Vancouver, BC