A New Axial Age? World Evolution - Determined by
Human Consciousness and Agency
Reflections by J Michael Heynen
I Introduction
An axial age is shaped by change and transformation from spirit, utopia, and historical enlivenment. The last axial age (according to Jaspers) encompassed the opening to the universe, to a kind of transcendence, in order to offer humanity, beyond superstition, "higher assistence" in understanding and mastering the geosphere and biosphere. 2500 years later, indicators of a new axial age are emerging, this time at the end of the anthropocene:
Modern humans largely control the geosphere and biosphere through their being and possessions, yet the structures and orders that have grown from this control are alienated from humanity, their system functions consequently becoming increasingly dysfunctional and unsustainable. Egocentric, existential logics of dominance ignore and counteract the essence of humanity and its life based on universal free will. This raises the crucial question: What kind of collective consciousness is represented in the reconnecting noosphere?
Interdependent crises and attempts at transition, as well as the growing understanding of necessary transformation, throw humanity back upon itself, upon its inner worlds and the individual transcendence of the self as an evolutionary continuum to be activated. Thus, the reasons and driving energies of an emerging new axial age simultaneously become the source of transformative solutions: the ultimate reconnection with the inner self, with the individual, and the resulting supremacy of consciousness and determination of its agency in the outer world. (Only) in this way can the current time, characterized by dissolution, be converted into an axial age: through humanity's quantum leap into its maturation as a sovereign, evolutionary agent.
II State of the Art: Liminality and Metanoia – „Every ending contains a new beginning!“
Chronologies scale timelines, profile eras and epochs, and qualify the causes and effects of civilizational movements and their cycles. The Copernican Revolution, world discoveries and colonization, book printing and industrialization, as well as global expansion, mechanization, and IT/AI, etc., have shaped their respective periods into developmental cycles, solidified them, and influenced societies globally. While the evolutionary-anthropocenic mastery of the human habitat served utilizing progress and established single cycles, the endpoints of cycles can occur synchronously in the sense of parallel or superseding causality, generating a global development. These human-generated processes depend centrally on individual and societal self-perception and the free will to determine them.
Currently, a predominantly Western, but also globally influential, end to various interdependent civilizational development cycles is becoming apparent. Developments and domination with the central perspective of securing the future through possession and form, through a purely external, quantitatively objectifying order—also algorithmically transhumanizing—have externalized human self-control and fixed material utility in the external. This causes and generates a further cycle of development: The unrecognized absence of any kind of legitimation and justification leads to nihilism and alienation. Humans are no longer masters of their processes; the subject mutates into an object. Regulatory systems and orders, derived purely from external reality and its inherently limiting relativity, enslave and ultimately dissolve. The sedated self, the externalized human subject, definitively loses inner alignment and basic orientation and thus also risks civilizational suicide.
For a long time, humanity's growing autonomy had been confined to its external worlds and mechanisms, thus slipping into self-imposed immaturity. This long cycle is currently culminating in liminality, in a space of paralysis, passivity, confusion, and depression. Traditional narratives, social patterns and rules, institutions and hierarchies are dissolving; theologically and ideologically compensatory projections and paternalistic statehood no longer hold sway, leaving behind an emptiness of possessions and familiar securities. Existential crises and conflicts, even without cause or legitimacy, are becoming a permanent state of competitive egocentrism. A plunge into the abyss and empty certainties dominate any necessary self-awareness; even the externally determined objects of compensation vanish into the fog of indeterminacy, and the future collapses into the end of a liminal present.
This simultaneously opens up to the point of metanoia: a potential for a 180-degree process reversal open to every human being. In this transformation following recognized suffering and collapse, individual identity experiences itself in complete, radical reversal; people recognize and define themselves from within, thinking and feeling anew. External crises and endings open access to mental and spiritual substance; the individual liberates one’s self from the object and emancipates its quality as subject. After the centripetal limitation of external relativity, the inner human’s world and individual self-determination forces the fugal transcendence of substantial potentials and co-creative universality. While outer temples empty, inner ones are re-established, creating unimagined depths and expanses of freedom and its processing. Present and future—from the inside out—are newly determined by spirit and opened into the realm of true future humanity.
III Noosphere: Noumenality and Normativity – „With spirit and soul, everything is elevating and ennobling!“
“When all has become silent around man, when the soul is alone with itself in the whole world, then the soul power faces itself; it is as if heaven opened, and the self chooses itself, or rather, it receives itself. Then the soul has seen the highest thing that no mortal eye can see and will never forget. Then the personality receives the accolade that ennobles for eternity …” (from: Kierkegaard, The Eternal Power of Self)
The self-chosen individual opens itself to the supremacy of consciousness, the first and highest cause arising from the determination of their self. From this inner space, where the absolute—available only here—transcendentally resonates and corresponds with the inner / outer universe, spaces of existential, physical reality derive their order and direction. From this arises, above all, the connection, the reconnecting perception, the discourse with consciousness as thinking and feeling in one's own and others' selves. From the invisible realm of inner spaces of the cosmic, the planetary sphere of human consciousness and (re-) connecting spirit is constituted: the noosphere. Following, in particular, physical-neurological and cognitive evolution, the human individual becomes a co-creative agent of its own creation. After long phases of learning in the external world, the mankind’s quantum leap into consciousness as the guiding medium of their existence enables to comprehend and actively shape the present and future in a transpersonal way. This turning point, this metamorphosis, is more than a Copernican revolution and possibly a central, meaning-giving answer to the question of creation as a whole: Does humanity thereby close the circle of creation? Is consciousness not merely a precursor to the Big Bang, but a co-creative further development of human evolution (Teilhard)?
Every individual can connect transcendentally with the universe and reflectively, meditatively create utopias and visions. Collectives, societies, civilizations—certainly more than the sum of individual consciousness processes—co-create a portal, a platform cohesively syndicating the human mind in order universally to correspond and to reason: The noosphere “represents the planetary topmost layer of human consciousness, mind, knowledge, intelligence, science. technology interconnects all minds in two single systems: modern digital networks, global communicating and data exchange act as physical neuronal systems, generating an interacting planetary superorganism.” (AI generated)
The individual's decision for inner connection with the self, for the supremacy of consciousness in shaping a future holistic life, is thus more than a quantum leap, and rather a breakthrough, an evolutionary movement of planetary-civilizational dimensions. This substantially deepening, vertical development of humanity fosters interconnected units, collaborations, and planetary-cosmic self-awareness: the noumenal, collective consciousness generates its noospheric planetary representation.
The technological expansion, the use of (non-) linear neural networks, and their physical interconnection have reminded, inspired, and elevated human intelligence to discover the already existing noosphere (Teilard, Vernadsky) as a sphere of the collective mind and to receive its further resonance. At the same time, the noosphere is also subject to the timeless requirements of cosmic law of thought: its legitimation through the individual, free authorship of the autonomous subject, its transpersonal communication (the absence of any kind of ego and other forms of dominance), leading to the equilibrating unfolding of inter- / societal consciousness. This achievement will determine whether the representation of the noosphere as a corresponding human meta-portal of collective mind and consciousness can develop a lasting, qualifying processing toward a new axial age.
Crucial to this – cosmically irreplaceable and inescapable – is the source of collective consciousness: the noumenon – the self-connected and grounded mind, the thinking and feeling, and the judgment of the free individual, born as a universal subject in a space of free will. Only the inner space of humanity enables the determination of its inner / outer reality, from the creativity, boundlessness, and unconditionality of the universal dimensions of its inner world. Without this realization, even the most complete collection and representation of noospherically syndicated states of consciousness would just merely remain a representation and projection of the external world. The same applies to the cyberclone or algorithmically produced transhuman robotics.
The ultimate evolutionary quantum leap will only be achieved when the individual human being finally and sustainably realises that they cannot release themselves from their self and their individual destiny without remaining in their self-imposed immaturity (Kant), that is, enslavement. This freedom, too, is inherent in being human, for life is choosing. At the same time, beyond the self-determination of developed, emancipated humanity, the resources of the end times appear depleted, and the future of civilizations is thus placed in the hands of the armageddon priests and their „transhuman“ executioners. Then the definite potential of an axial age would become the catalysis of the end times. - Will the metanoia point trigger the necessary reversal of momentum toward an individual, collectively inter-connecting, and equilibrating spirit?
Therefore the noumenon is to be (re-) activated as a central element, a germ cell of transformative power: individual, human spirit, its universal reflection in unlimited creative discourse, ideas, visions, utopias and ideal strategies, considered integration of external experiences, etc. - this innermost sphere of the noumenon as the core process of consciousness of world knowledge, the consciousness of the absolute, is the corresponding human instance of universal laws of thought and agency, a resonance chamber of divine creative energy – collectively synergized, noospherically synthesized.
Noumenality primarily describes the most essential prerequisite for sustainable societies: the noumenally conceived human being acts and leads based on conviction, justification, and legitimacy. In this way, societal discourse can guarantee the highest degree of integrative integrity and truthfulness, as traditional forms of domination based on lies, double standards, and dominance no longer apply. Every transpersonal subject acts a-priori, independently, and with self-empowerment, respecting the other subjects in societal discourses as autonomous authors and self-responsible authorities in their active participation.
The normativity required in societal processes can thus truly bring the categorical imperative to life and sustain and expand inter-human connectedness and interdependence. The constant balancing of ideas, convictions, and interests of progress—also in the sense of the so-called "rational third"—is, especially inter-societally and transnationally, a creative driving force and an exponentially facilitating formula for a free and peaceful, indeed good life for humankind and its shaping the future. Ethics, morality, and justice are then no longer a camouflaged phenotype of old and/or trans-humanoid excesses of domination, but rather the genotype of human coexistence and co-creativity: from the inner unlimitedness and independence of a noumenal human - Homo Genesis (Teilhard) - to the progressive, substantial interconnectedness of humankind. A corresponding noosphere, reflecting on this emerging collective consciousness, becomes a qualifying planetary resonance space comprised of noumenal syndication and free will as decisive equivalent category of universal evolutionary dynamics.
IV Future Power: Noumenal Regimes and World Order – „Spirit determines future civilizational concordance!“
As derived above: Human beings, catapulting themselves from the inner absolute, from the self, from their real freedom of will, overcome long alienation and finally achieve their evolutionary emancipation. That way, the authority of future world processes comes from the consciousness of the Self, the free will of the individual subject balancing itself outwards and its planetary representation.
Those who adhere to human dignity and its natural legal position may still consider it necessary for societies to constitute statehood for coordination and real distributive justice. However, even after the first axial age, what essentially prevailed was the paternalistic (theocracy) state, inhumanely using its power and dominating beyond any noumenal legitimation. This self-imposed immaturity of humankind also became the formal „justification“ for pseudo-transcendent messianic visions of saving the world, ideological-theological projections of power, and the associated powerlessness of humankind. Centuries of power egocentrism, framed by statehood and systemically institutionalized, have fundamentally ignored the universe as a realm of free will and thus humanity itself. And today this applies not only to (old) monarchies and autocratic-dictatorial systems, but also to the so-called Western democracies sliding into techno-autocratism and imperialistic neofeudalism. Latest with 9/11, the covid pandemic, AI „singularity“ processing, it has become understandable who and what is driving global dominance, chaos, disorientation, systematic alienation, and the decay of civilizations. - Is there a way out of this era, from the end of time to a turning point in a dynamic new time as a human adequate axial age?
There appears to be no immanent way out of the existing system, at least a liminal, transitional neutralization of nihilism, alienation, and negativity. However, a necessary and future-proof solution lies—as derived above—in the emancipatory process of noumenal achievement: self-determined consciousness and consistent, humane agency as driving force of world evolution.
Societies, supported and networked by cyber technology, can create a transformative new beginning in the establishment and development of neural-noumenal networks based on free intellectual authority and self-governance. In this new beginning statehood can be helpful in a coordinating and administrative capacity, particularly in the sense of a 'noumenal monarchy' (constitutional, transpersonal, transnational democratic). Consumerism and materialism are thus marginalized, possession is largely relativized, and being a „homo gemesis“, derived from consciousness, becomes the fundamental, central power constellation. Based on this, the expansion of consciousness within societal intellectual, cognitive cultures fosters interdependent networking, equilibrating collaborations among global civilizations, and generates appropriate (meta-) normativity from diverse developments and stipulations. Based on individuals who understand themselves and learn from one another, the ongoing process of equilibration towards noumenal regimes and human world orders is dynamically driven by free consciousness, perception, knowledge, and shared, meaning-making will formation. An individual and societal supremacy of the human spirit and consciousness, forms balancing, networking (inter-) regional regimes and synergetic world order process dynamics, and above all a noumenal noosphere that evolves planetary humanity in a self-determined way within cosmic harmonization and universal alignment.
V Conclusion
Humanity, as an evolutionary developing agent, has become fixated on the existential domination of the outer world (substructure), thereby alienating and decoupling itself from its inner realms (superstructure, consciousness, and spirit). Furthermore, its long-overdue emancipation from compensatory transcendence has been absorbed by ideological and theological projections, contributing to the consequential neglect of its individual transcendence. This betrayal of humanity toward itself seems ultimately going to be over. The "objective" external world has completely filled its illusions, while the inner world of the subjective has been egalitarianly nullified—despite (in brief:) the previous axial age, Plato, Jesus, Augustine, the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, Kant, Teilhard et aliud. And today, the consequences of humanity's self-ignorance are existentially threatening the civilizations.
A turning back, a coming home, a process of self-honesty especially during periods of silence, is feasable and necessary, particularly in times of facilitating crises and transitions. Reaching the supremacy of the spiritual superstructure from this liminality and metanoia through individual and systemic transformation is certainly achievable: The individual human will decide! This applies also to 'good will' and appropriate communication based on consciousness, knowledge, and decision. The noumenal agent - as a self-determined and sovereign subject of free will - co-creates and shapes a sustainable presence: The individual and societal, vertically governed reality, formed from human and nosspherically syndicated consciousness, generates an order of real outer conditions in realignment with its evolutionary purpose.
The noumenal noosphere becomes the portal, the reflector, the dialogically activating, processing co-reference of human agency and its leadership. The noumenalized or noumenizing noosphere—comparable to a kind of nuclear fusion—becomes, in particular, an elevating mediation platform and dialogically updating feed-back of spirit-guided volition and justifcation. The human being returns to the cosmic grid, to universal alignment, and unblocks human evolution. This process begins in the now, is simultaneously timeless, and describes a kind of eternity. And eternity needs axial ages to catalytically actualize and visionarily realize itself. Thus, world evolution "releases its children" into an imagined eternity of human worlds and societies as a wisdom-corresponding power of divine will.
In this way, the present can mutate into an axial age, in which past, present, and future fuse into a timeless, humanly determined harmonization. This is decided solely by sovereign humanity, when co-creatively and universally free will shapes its part of world evolution. No promise is needed for this, for the imagined paradise was not lost; rather, humanity is returning from a misprojected diaspora: to the self, to inner freedom, to inner peace - and its syntopian planetary enlivenment in equilibrating inner / outer worlds.
© J Michael Heynen | Director of Nomoi Institute and Founding President of I N S E N International Senate of Noumenal Regimes
