More and more each day I am convinced that the Internet represents a profound new technology that will transform human society and give us the opportunity to make a quantum leap in the evolution of our species. Just as the printing press and movable type helped transform the Medieval world into the Modern world, and catalyzed the Protestant Revolution (implementing Christianity 2.0 the home edition), the Internet seems to be catalyzing something equally profound, though perhaps only beginning to take shape.

Just as printing technology had a major impact on the practice on the Christian religion, the Internet seems very likely to have an equally game-changing affect on contemporary religious and spiritual practice. Simplistically the Reformation was all about creating new denominations of Christianity that featured (from an information infrastructure point of view) removal of gatekeepers (priests) and direct access to the underlying information (the now ubiquitously available printed Bible). A person need only own or have access to and read that Bible to have all the wisdom they needed to live an ethical life.


This was a really big deal because it highlighted the individual believer and their relationship with God rather than a theological hierarchy managing a collective “flock” of much less differentiated people. This was a change in focus that inevitably led to a revolution in consciousness through such ideas (according to TBD) as individualism, self-consciousness and emancipation.

So how will the Internet, if in fact (or at least for argument) the transformative technology catalyzing a new era, once again revolutionize human consciousness? I do not know the answer (please let me know if you’ve figured it out) but I suspect it will be something about access, connection and concern…

Access – to the complete recorded wisdom of the human race

Connection – with other people, including a broader circle or friends and acquaintances and those who share an affinity or can otherwise contribute to your path forward

Concern – for the increasing intertwining of the fates of more and more people throughout the world (e.g. “The Global Village”) and a corresponding decrease in the degrees of separation and “us and them” thinking between all of us humans

In biblical terms you can look at the Internet as an attempt at a simulation of god of sorts. In the “Book of Matthew” in the Christian (New) Testament, chapter 7 verses 7 and 8, Matthew recounts Jesus’ wisdom about reaching out to God…

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

I can think of nothing in the last two decades that has facilitated my seeking (and that of my partner Sally and our two kids) more than the Net. I have borne witness to this in a number of my blog posts (See my posts “Thoughts on the Internet”, “The Adventures of an Unschooler on the Virtual High Seas” and “Massively Multi-Player on the World Wide Web”).

For example, we were faced 12 years ago with our son Eric’s increasing problems dealing with his school. This was a serious problem that manifested itself every morning struggling to get him out of bed and to school and every afternoon trying to get him to do his homework, plus instances of acting out at school. The available wisdom of the resources we had access to off the Internet was that, short of maybe sending him to a very expensive alternative private school, we should send him to educational specialists to help him develop his study skills, practice “tough love” (including employing rewards and punishments) to otherwise external motivate him to stay in school until he somehow developed his own motivations and rise to his potential.

It was on the Internet that we were introduced to an array of very different educational paths and a profound critique of the conventional education system. The wisdom of these sources was that our son was exhibiting the behavior of someone who was not in an appropriate learning environment and that we should consider some radical alternatives like homeschooling or even unschooling. We were able to identify the best thinkers on these educational modalities, find, order and read their books, plus exchange emails with others who could testify to the efficacy of these educational paths with their own children.

Without the wisdom we could seek and find on the Net, I shudder to think what would have become of Eric. Increased acting out perhaps, maybe drug use to self-medicate and labeling as “lazy and unmotivated” and as a “problem” kid.

Besides facilitating a needed sea-change in our son’s development, both my partner Sally and I have had our life paths profoundly influenced by sources of information and communities of people on the Net (many of whom we have never physically met). These are the kinds of things that people often look to religion and spirituality to inspire.

Sally was aided significantly in her recovery from breast cancer by an online community of breast cancer survivors. Though she had checked out some local groups with the same focus, she found the much larger and more diverse online group had more to offer her particular need (which was more for information than emotional support in her case). Sally also has explored and developed a practice in alternative healing modalities, doing much of that exploration and making crucial connections on the Net.

For me, participating in an online alternative education community web forum (see Alternative Education Resource Organization), helped me clarify my own ideas and hone my writing skills. This included identifying many of the best thinkers in this area and actually finding opportunities (again through the Internet) to meet them in the flesh and/or interact with them online as ongoing mentors and sources of my own inspiration. This also led to my breakthrough (after 30 years of trying), developing the daily discipline to be an essayist, and I have written over 200 three to five page pieces over the past two years. Having the online Daily KOS community, giving me an audience for my writing with people reading and commenting on my blog pieces, has been critical to my development as a writer.

It has been all about finding circles of people that share fundamental values and ethical principles, values and principles that have been or are becoming important to me. And if I look back over the past 20 years, most of the people that populated those circles I have found on the Internet and it is unlikely that I could have found similar circles locally without the Net. It might not be inaccurate to say that the Internet made it possible for me to reinvent myself post age fifty, and reframe “over the hill” and help my overcome a mid-life crisis that might have otherwise been debilitating.

Aren’t these the kind of things that people look to religious, spiritual or otherwise metaphysical practice to assist them with? If your inspirational needs are more ordinary, maybe you can more easily satisfy them by finding a local community of some sort that you can participate in face to face. But like in my case (or my other family members), if you are looking for something perhaps more outside the mainstream, then the Internet is a powerful tool and a rich venue for this sort of connection.

That said, I don’t think it can substitute for the hugs and warm words of friends and family that you interact with in the flesh. But when those same people are not local (or are local but daily logistics prevent you from spending enough time with them) virtual social-networking venues like Facebook can give you a stronger ongoing connection. Even though I might only see my brothers’ kids once a year if I am lucky, I can read their Facebook posts which gives me a sense of where there heads are at. I also reconnected with a large community of people who had been in the same youth theater group that had been so developmentally significant to me. Finding them, hearing about their adult lives and getting the occasional message of support have been significant to me in appreciating the roots and trajectory of my life.

I could go on, but I hope I have made a case for at least considering the transformative potential of this communication technology. We live in exciting but challenging times. With issues of “us and them” thinking (leading to various forms of violence) and environmental degradation threatening our continuing coexistence on this planet, we need to marshal all the connection, inspiration and wisdom to move forward in a positive direction.