A Secret History of Consciousness
by Joel Pitney
Few people have the capacity to convey the wild and fascinating history of the occult and the characters who shaped this underground spiritual movement like Gary Lachman, a London-based scholar and former bassist for the band Blondie. His depth of knowledge on evolution, consciousness, and pop culture paired with his unique story telling ability, have made him a favorite contributor to EnlightenNext magazine, and his articles like 2013: Or What To Do When the Apocalypse Doesn’t Arrive, Mrs. Satan, and Mary Wollstonecraft and the Romantic Consciousness, have added an important occult dimension to our ongoing exploration of the evolutionary worldview.
This coming Saturday from 5:30-7:30 pm (London time), Lachman will be engaging in a live public dialogue with the Director of EnlightenNext Europe, Chris Parish, at our center in London. The title of the talk is “A Secret History of Consciousness,” based on the title of Lachman’s 2003 book, and they will be exploring the saga of consciousness: how consciousness and its evolution have been understood over time by esoteric thinkers, philosophers, and spiritual masters. Continue reading…
There we were at the sacred 
Without being aware of it, many of us tend to base our sense of what’s possible now, in this present moment, upon what has or has not happened in the past. But if we want to be spiritually liberated, indeed, if we want to be an expression of evolution-in-action, we have to dare to look beyond everything we already know. We have to leave the door open for the unimaginable. We have to stop weighing and measuring what’s possible now by what has already happened. We have to let go of all the conscious and unconscious cynicism that has become habitual in our way of thinking. 
As we mentioned in a previous blog post, a generous donor has made it possible for EnlightenNext founder Andrew Cohen and a small team from EnlightenNext to travel to Melbourne, Australia to participate in the 
Starting next week, Andrew Cohen and a small team from EnlightenNext will fly to Melbourne, Australia, to participate in the 
As you may have read on the blog over the past couple of weeks, EnlightenNext is in the midst of an exciting evolution. Last Thursday I had a chance to speak about some of the changes that are underway when I appeared as a guest on an episode of the EnlightenNext Weekly Webcast. The show is an hour long podcast hosted by my colleagues Elizabeth Debold and Jeff Carreira in which they explore a variety of themes through the perspective of Evolutionary Enlightenment, the spiritual teaching pioneered by EnlightenNext founder Andrew Cohen (this was actually the final webcast for 2009, as we’re taking some time off for re-envisioning). I’ve posted a clip from the show below in which Elizabeth and I give an overview of our current situation and share some of our ideas for the future. I hope you enjoy it and welcome any feedback you have to offer: 
