**The only things that are collapsing are those that are unsustainable. **This was the observation made by Gregg Braden at a lecture he gave in San Francisco on the weekend. Speaking to the enormous changes and turmoil that the earth, its people, and its institutions and societies are experiencing, he argues that we are at the end of what he calls a Great World Age. Everything, he argues, that is not fit for the new age will not survive the transition.

A geologist by training, Braden had a successful career in computer systems and technology until he became one of the first teachers internationally recognized as able and willing to demonstrate and explain the direct links between spirituality and science. He has enormous credibility in both fields and for this reason he is definitely worth paying attention to.

He says that the earth moves in cycles of approximately 5,000 years, and each one of those 5,000 year cycles occurs five times within an overarching “precessional” (or parent) cycle. The cycles are determined by the position of the earth within our galaxy. When the position changes - including changes to the orbit, angle, tilt and wobble of the earth - powerful changes occur on earth.

To give some idea of the extent of the changes, past cycles have ended in the ice age, massive floods, fire, as well as earthquakes and volcanoes which affect the earth’s axis. The turmoil we are experiencing around the globe is part of the current shift in the earth’s position.

But the earth is not the only thing that is changing. There is an accompanying shift in energy which is affecting non-physical things - our emotions, desires and behavior. This is what is causing our political, educational, financial and so many other institutions to wobble and even, as we have seen, collapse.

We are on the brink of a new age. The hallmark of this new age will be a recognition of our oneness with the earth, the universe, and with each other. For this reason the only things that will survive will be compatible with this realization of oneness: love (in all its forms - including forgiveness, compassion, non-judgment, empathy, caring, and kindness), mutual cooperation, and the sharing of resources.

Dishonesty - political, social, financial, business, religious, educational and personal - competition, and division must, and will, go the way of the dinosaurs.

Bruce Lipton says it neatly:

Mother Earth has a habit of taking care of the garden. That which doesn’t fit, becomes mulch.

Eileen McBride
Eileen McBride is the author of Love Equals Power 2, a spiritual seeker and teacher. This article was published on May 3, 2011.