by Joe Martino
May 5, 2025
from InsightsCollective-Evolution Website






 

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Is Humanity on A Self-Terminating Path?

Since I started this work in 2009, I've been asked this question at least 100 times.

 

I give the same answer now as I did back then because it's honest to how I have felt and still feel about the state of our world and where we might be headed.

When you're on the internet or watch the news, there's no shortage of claims that we're about to see our entire planet collapse via climate change or ‘unhinged leaders' of various countries.

 

As all of those claims are made, with partial truth mixed in to each, I find very few voices that provide a sense of settling and hope.

I feel I used to be one of those voices that reached far and wide with a message of hope and groundedness. The tens of thousands of emails we've received over the last 16 years suggest that statement is true.

 

But with all that has happened to our company and the changes in the conscious media field over the last 5 or 6 years, it often feels like panic, fear, and drama have won out, leaving more hopeful voices in the background.

And so I write this because, regardless of how far it goes, I think it needs to be said.

 

 

 


Where Are We Headed?

I was doing a podcast episode with Daniel Pinchbeck on the CE Podcast a few weeks ago (which I recommend checking out.)

 

At the end of the episode, he actually posed a question to me.

 

It was something like:

"Do you feel like this is the end times, the apocalypse, the end of the world...?"

He asked this as he is quite concerned about the Trump admin and what he feels they are doing to America and thus the rest of the world.

I personally don't feel the destruction of our planet or way of life would be the result of Trump or any singular recent event, but as a result of a much wider picture.

 

So I answered the question like this:

"The way I honestly feel about it is, speaking totally from the gut here, I feel deep down like deep, deep, deep, deep down that even if we all died - I don't want that but - it would be okay.

 

There's a part of my consciousness that has experienced something beyond this physical body and I cannot deny the fact that apparent in the way I see the world is this understanding that like "it's OKAY."

But this does not make me passive. It does not make me not care. It does not make me not feel the emotions of what's going on.

 

But there is a part of me that is like, "it is what it is."

 

Look, we're having this conversation. I dedicate large amounts of hours of my life trying to help with this situation.

I see all the challenges we're going through as an opportunity. Like anything else, it's an evolutionary pressure. The more things are extreme the more we have to converse.

 

The more people have to come out of the slumber and the illusion.

If it feels like it's too easy to just live day-to-day life, we're probably not going to question things, especially given the state of humanity's existing consciousness as a collective.

 

And by that I mean, it's very easy for us to just kind of coast along, going to work, coming home, repeat, repeat, repeat. But when things are so extreme that we have to come out of that, there's an opportunity.

I feel this is where it's about how we steward - or it's about how a certain number of people - stand up and steward this moment with wisdom, with connection, with a new level of consciousness.

I think that's what our best opportunity is, our best chance. And I get emotional when I think about that which means I know there's something there.

 

There's something there that feels right.

 

There's something there that feels accurate."

Daniel was kind enough to allow me to have the last word on my own show after that, haha. (Do check out the full convo here, Daniel had many great thoughts to offer.)

This was maybe the third or fourth time in the span of a month that I was asked a question like this, and so I write this today because I wanted to offer something that might bring a sense of grounding in the chaos here.

When I look out at the influencers, writers and commentators out there, I feel that most everything is polarizing, doom and gloom, or uninspiring. They still provide value of course, but there are flavors missing, and I see it wearing on people.

There are perhaps 3-4 folks I listen to that I feel are providing good medicine, and yet their audiences are not overly large compared to the big names out there who, in my view, are just feeding into the old paradigm without knowing it.
 

 

 

 

Beyond The Old Paradigm

The largest aspect of CE has always been to help build a new future for humanity.

One built on a new story, a new level of consciousness, and a new way of being.

This, of course, requires a commitment to inner work, deep levels of curiosity, and a willingness to communicate in community about what we truly want life to look like.

 

It's the one goal of mine I never got to fully realize, as it's one of the hardest messages to get to catch on.

We tried a project in 2010 on this that failed badly lol.

 

In 2017, I tried again, and still it wasn't time. Here in 2025, it feels more than ever the time to discuss, practice, and hold a new paradigm, yet I find myself at what feels like the end of my journey with this work due to a lack of funding.

 

I don't want it to be the case, but it might be what I have to accept.

Back to the topic here, if you recall, there are 4 elements/stages/themes I find important to consider when navigating our world and how we can create a more thriving society.

 

These 4 pieces make up the CE framework that has guided our mission for 16 years, and help us answer the question of what may happen with humanity.

 

The 4 themes are:

  • Breaking the Illusion
     

  • Awakening Curiosity & Interconnection
     

  • Deprogramming Limits
     

  • Living Aligned

To keep this essay efficient, I will provide a very brief outline of each, you can read more about them here.
 

  • Breaking the Illusion

     

    Realizing that what we thought was certain about ourselves or our world is not the case, causing us to begin to question many things related to ourselves or our world. (This is almost always the first stage.)

     

  • Awakening Curiosity & Interconnection

     

    Truly awakening a sense of curiosity about ourselves and the world, so we can begin moving closer to truth and clarity without getting stuck in simplistic narratives.

     

    We awaken a sense of interconnection and complexity to better understand ourselves and our world. We begin to truly define problems at their core, understanding the drivers of what's happening, not just obsessing over the symptoms.

     

    Inner work is involved here.

     

  • Deprogramming Limits

     

    The Illusion (what we believed was certain but wasn't) taught us many limits - or we accepted many limits.

     

    As we hold the two previous themes, we can begin questioning what our true limits are vs. telling ourselves a story of what's possible and what's not based on illusions.

     

    This is where we explore human potential. This is a big part of the inner work as well.

     

  • Living Aligned

     

    To live aligned is simply to say we stay connected to these elements and themes as we continue to explore, create, and navigate what we do and create.

     

    The process is never "done" but always unfolding. To live aligned is to maintain the spirit being deeply embodied as a human being interconnected with all things.

     

    What would it look like to create and BE aligned with that?

That said, I believe there is a path where we destroy ourselves and a path where we do not.

Both bad actors and system dynamics of the old paradigm are at play here, which we will explore more soon.

What path we go down comes down to how we embrace the one we want and whether we take the personal responsibility to hold and embody that vision.

 

I am personally hopeful because I see that path and see little value in constantly sitting in ideas of doom and gloom. Plus, in my practiced spirituality, I feel that underlying "this isn't all there is" deep in my being.

We have to ensure we don't continue to play into and create the old paradigm.

Can we embrace elements of the framework above to stay out of narrative traps, fear traps, division, and illusions that keep us separate and polarized?

 

How can we see our world and ourselves in a new light based on the chaos happening around us? What is the chaos saying about ourselves? (Hint: if you feel "it's just the bad guys at the top," think deeper.)

 

How can we take short-term responsibility to create local connections, relationships and systems that end revalrous and individual-focused dynamics of competition?

As we ask ourselves these questions and truly practice a new state of being, you will often find that literally the lens through which you see the world changes.

 

You move from seeing, perhaps, only the bad and poor outcomes, to seeing the world much more holistically.

 

 

 


Looking A Little Deeper

One thing I want to say is this:

when I look out at the media landscape, I generally feel we have still not collectively grasped the challenges we face.

 

It's primarily because we are stuck in a disintegrated version of Breaking The Illusion.

That is to say, we are narrative battling or stuck in the blame game without looking deeper.

 

Whether it's blaming elites, one political side, one class of fellow citizens or another country, blaming doesn't get us deeper.

Instead, I still think we have to look at the wider consciousness and the system it has created as our way of seeing the challenges we face more clearly.

 

We have to begin Awakening Curiosity & Interconnection at a cultural level. These themes need to be part of how we make sense of the world.

Let's consider an overwhelming story that drives our consciousness: we are fundamentally separate from each other and nature, and therefore it makes sense to compete with one another to improve our individual quality of life, even if it is at the expense of each other or the natural world.

This concept of ourselves as separate beings creates the illusion that we can thrive at others' expense, ignoring our complete dependence on natural systems like forests and soil microbiota, and establishing the foundation for increasingly dangerous conflicts.

If you look closely, this is how our world turns. Systems have been set up where it is every person for themselves, and while collaboration is an option, it's not overly incentivized compared to thinking purely individually.

Further, in our current market economy as it is, an old, beautiful tree in a forest is seen as valuable only when chopped down and turned into lumber, yet valueless when it stands in the forest's complex ecosystem, doing many great things for the totality of nature (including us).

This dynamic creates incentives for us to damage the environment wholesale while slowly and surely disconnecting our emotions and connection in the process, so we can more easily participate in the system.

The design of our system, regardless of who we want to blame as bad guys, incentivizes extractive and destructive behavior to survive and gain power. (Reflecting on this level represents breaking the illusion & awakening curiosity and interconnection.)

How could we expect a system that assigns no value to a tree staying in a forest, and that constantly has us in competition with no end, to produce societal results we would thrive in?

Seems silly, doesn't it?

Within this existing system, we will see the production of bad actors who are conspiring to gain more power and influence within the game.

 

This many people are recognizing (breaking the illusion).

But the disconnect is that people think removing the bad actors will solve the problem (a disintegrated version of breaking the illusion).

It is our programmed consciousness accepting many illusions and the system design itself that is creating the constant competition for survival, the revalrous dynamics that are constantly pulling from the earth and each other, and the race to the bottom dynamics that keep us trying to move faster and faster to beat other people out so we can gain advantage.

For us to move forward requires a new story and state of being that is not built on this deep belief of separation and competition, but one that is centered around our nature of connection and belonging to not just a human family but the natural world.
 

 

 

 

Embracing What We Can Control

For some of us, much of this seems pie-in-the-sky level thinking because it's so different than the way our world currently works, and because considering change at this scale seems unfathomable (or maybe you just disagree with me entirely.)

But for me, when I integrate all I've learned and experienced in my lifetime exploring these questions, I always come back to this way of orienting.

When I look at the results we are currently creating by seeing it all through the lens of good guys, bad guys, teams, political parties, etc, things only seem to be getting worse as people descend into despair, division, vengefulness, and greater forms of competition.

 

Something isn't working when we look too shallowly in defining the challenges we face.

This is a call to look deeper, to truly begin to ask whether we understand what is driving our world as this is what will help us understand solutions.
 

 

***

 


Knowing what we can and cannot control in life is key.

 

We don't have our hands on the levers of power when it comes to societal decisions that are made.

 

For example,

right now the world is watching Palestinians be genocided while having no way to stop it.

 

It's a very challenging feeling to navigate when you feel so strongly about how inhumane what's happening is, yet have no idea of how to stop it in the immediate or short term.

This is the reality of the intensity of the human experience.

 

We can go mad focusing every day on the atrocities without integrating them into the whole and knowing what we can and cannot control immediately.
 

 

 

 

In Exploring what we Can and Can't Control, I'll end with some Final Thoughts

Story and narrative drive illusions or clarity, starting with sensemaking is key:

  • How can we understand what is happening at a deeper level? Might we have to change our media consumption?
     

  • How can we reflect on where our narratives are coming from, and how do we know they provide clarity vs. just feeding into another agenda? (embrace curiosity!)
     

  • Are we truly understanding what is driving our world systems, how they are designed, and what those designs produce in terms of results?
     

  • How much content do we consume that inspires us and keeps us grounded when it comes to these themes? How much is inviting us into new ideas and ways of seeing things?
     

  • How can we create a culture of complexity and curiosity? Perhaps starting with ourselves, how we comment and communicate with each other and on social media.

Creating local connections and parallel systems can be inspiring and actionable.

  • How can we set up local connections, communities and relationships that bring us together?
     

  • Have we considered solution framing like the difference between short term in system solutions, long term in system solutions, short term out system solutions, and long term out system solutions? (these can help us feel a sense of direction.)

Exploring our worldview and state of being is powerful too.

  • How can we spend some time each day finding a sense of grounding, peace and resilience?
     

  • How can we slow down, more intentional with our actions, and be less in survival mode throughout the day? This state shapes how we see the world and how we act.

     

    Do we want to act from survival or a sense of settling and connection? This might be one of the most important elements as the constant doom and gloom orientation I see in people is largely physiological: they are habitually in survival mode, struggling to find settling and connection to themselves.
     

  • How can we become more personally responsible and not feel passive?
     

  • How can we explore how we feel about being separate and competitive individuals? Have we heard other perspectives on this question?
     

  • What is our human potential in terms of creating a peaceful and collaborative society? How do we know the stories we tell ourselves about this are true? (can we be curious?)

There is a whole course that could be taught on all of these things.

 

But I wanted to say something that could provide a nudge to switch things up if you find yourself in a rut of despair or looking for a next step.

Honestly, I've found in doing this work for so many years and teaching at various stages, embracing curiosity and a ‘beginner's mind' in exploring our world and what else we can do is one of the most powerful pieces to this.

Finally, noting that we don't want to simply get stuck in Breaking the Illusion all the time is key too, this is to say, "what's next?"