We stand on the verge of a revolution in scientific thinking that will transform the world. This new revolution is not about our understanding of outer space. Rather, it is about our understanding of inner space and the nature of consciousness.

Peter Russell, author, physicist, mathematician and philosopher told The Great Rethinking Conference, at the Oxford Union, that until now scientist have been completely uninterested in consciousness. They believed that when we understood the material world we would understand everything. So we have ignored what is probably the most interesting question of all.

Peter Russell, author of From Science to God, The Mystery of Consciousness and The Meaning of Light, says: "Today we are in the early stages of a shift in the worldview that lies behind the whole of science. In the current worldview or metaparadigm, within which the whole of science operates, space, time and matter are primary. But this worldview does not allow for the existence of consciousness, which is the fundamental quality of the cosmos. It is primary. It is as real and fundamental as space, time and matter. Indeed more fundamental. In fact matter is derived from mind and not mind from matter."

Professor Ervin Laszlo, widely acknowledged as the father of general evolution theory, told the Prophets Conference: "We operate in an outdated worldview with outdated priorities where might is right and fitness is the key quality. These Newtonian and Darwinian ideas have been transcended by science so we have to change. We have to shift from reliance on outer authority to trust in our inner sources of consciousness and knowing."

This is already happening as millions reject the views of those in authority who say it is reasonable for one country to bomb another and for the world to spend 800 billion dollars every year on arms when 70 billion dollars could provide for clean water and the basic needs of two billion of the world's poor and destitute who live on less than two dollars a day.

"We are experiencing unprecedented systems breakdown with global warming, environmental breakdown, species extinction, massive hunger and violence and with our security and confidence deeply shaken. At the same time there is increasing recognition of the fundamental interconnectedness of all aspects of reality and experience. Perhaps the way to salvation is recognizing that our error is that we operate within an outdated, mechanistic, competitive model."

Professor Laszlo provides the foundations for a scientific theory of universal connectivity in his latest groundbreaking book, The Connectivity Hypothesis: Foundations of an Integral Science of Quantum, Cosmos, Life and Consciousness. He said: "Our task is to adopt the new scientific understanding that allows for the existence of the divine consciousness in everything, so we can move from separation to wholeness and create a peaceful and sustainable future."

Professor Michio Kaku, an internationally recognized authority in theoretical physics, said his mission was to achieve Einstein's dream of creating a theory of everything. A co-founder of string theory, he explained: "Music is the language of the universe. All the particles of nature are nothing but notes on a string and the Universe is the symphony of the strings. The Mind of God is music resonating through hyperspace. So there is a creator. We spend all of our life saying 'this is all there is' but we have to realise that there are unseen dimensions. We are privileged to be alive at the birth of the most incredible transition in human history, the birth of a planetary civilization.

"At our hand the earth has open sores caused by human activity. We have to heal the earth. We have global warning. Some people deny it exists, yet today is the hottest time in human history going back 100,000 years. There will be no snow on Kilimanjaro by 2020. The North Pole is now a puddle of water for half the year. Alaska is thawing out. This is what man has wrought with our technology and it comes from oil. Oil is the reason why US Foreign Policy is so skewed. It puts the US in bed with dictatorships and feudal monarchies."

Professor Kaku, who is also an environmentalist, said he used to be a keen advocate of nuclear power and worked in the atomic industry but he now concludes that nuclear power is unfinished, unviable and unnecessary.

"The sun is a nuclear reactor and it is the only safe nuclear reactor because it is 93 million miles away where every nuclear reactor ought to be. The problem with solar power is that it's for free; it's for everyone.

"I have dedicated my life to the prospects of a peaceful world. I believe we will see the day when nations do live in harmony and peace."

The writer and mystic, Andrew Harvey, who was the youngest ever fellow of All Soul's Oxford said: "We are now, as a race about to move into the eye of the storm that will decide the future of the race and the planet. It is crucial for all of us to know as the crisis deepens that what will look and feel like destruction is the stripping away of delusions.

"The secret of this storm is that it is a birthing and it is going to demand everything of you and 1. We must now purify our hearts and galvanize our wills to ensure that the new divine humanity can be born. We are going through a dark night of the species as a whole. The crisis is offering humanity these intensities to expand and shatter the heart of humanity and for the first time in history we will start to create a world of love and justice.

"What are you doing to stop this madness?" he asked. "How are you living? What are you risking at this time of unprecedented crisis? Nature is bleeding to death. The population is exploding. Weapons of mass destruction are proliferating and religions are retreating into fundamentalism. "The mass media is feeding us trivialities when we need to be taught about real reality. The rich world is locking itself into materialism that leaves the rest of the world starving.

"We need to become mystic activists. Mystics must get active and equally the activists must become mystic. Activists must learn to act from divine peace that will feed them divine wisdom. You must always act from as loving and forgiving a heart as possible and remember you have to learn how to ask and you will be given what you need. Then this world can become the living kingdom of this divine humanity."

Reprinted with permission, Positive News, Autumn 2003 www.positivenews.org.uk