Childhood’s End

Childhood’s End 150 150 Ben Coker

Childhood’s End

“At childhood’s end a stranger stands . . .”

This was the opening line of a song written by my friend Pete Fulwell, later co-owner of Eric’s Club in Liverpool, with whom I co-managed a student modern-folk band of the same name – ‘Childhood’s End’

(Michael, if you have an mp3 version of the album could I have a copy? I don’t have anything to play the old reel-to-reel tape on!)

The band and the song were named after a book written in 1954 by science fiction writer Arthur C Clarke, of which the New York Times said –

“Wonderfully imaginative novel of the transformation of Man . . . hailed as a landmark by aficionados of the genre”

It, in a way, depicts the ‘end of the world’ or at least the end of the world as we know it through the ascent of man from childhood into adulthood. Unfortunately, a really bad TV adaptation was made a few years ago seemingly by someone who hadn’t read, or maybe just didn’t understand, the book.

I’d like to see someone like Peter Jackson have a go at it – but then again maybe we’re not quite ready for that adventure.

Back in 1973 Dr Jacob Bronowski wrote ‘The Ascent of Man’ which along with an excellent TV series documented a more factual account of how we as a species came to be where we are now – or where we were half a century ago. The last chapter heading is ‘A Long Childhood’.

But now things are different and things are changing.

Who are we now?

What are we now?

When I talk about ‘we’ in this context I mean what most people refer to as ‘the human race’ – which is more than just the animal species and more than just the different variants of it.

Humans are more than just ‘homo sapiens’. I’ve alluded before to the fact that we are infinite energy beings co-existing with a sentient physical organism.

And by the way all religions say this – if you read their texts correctly.

So where are ‘we’ now?

‘We’, present company excepted, are –

  • Generally pretty angry
  • Obsessed with bright shiny objects – new tech and gadgets
  • Talking at each other
  • Banging on about ‘rights’ and what the world owes us
  • Envious of others
  • Feeling paranoid, that everything is happening ‘to’ us
  • Expecting someone else to sort everything out
  • Believing the world revolves around ‘us’.
  • Blaming our ‘parents’ or ancestors for the predicament we are in

And so on.

Now what type of person does that describe?

We’ve all been there.

And we may be in direct contact with one of these types right now.

Yes, the stage we’re in is Adolescence

Humanity has started to ‘grow up’ but we’re going through that ‘phase’.

That phase when either ‘we are right and everyone else is wrong’ or ‘we are right but everyone else has it in for us’.

Humanity is suffering the growing pains of transition from child to adult and everything that is associated with that.

And the ‘bad news’ is that it’s going to go on for rather more than a few years.

Its taken ‘us’ several millennia to get into our ‘teens’ – so how long will it take to ‘grow up’?

Probably longer than we think – unless . . .

Unless we DO something about it.

And the good news is that we can, and we are.

It started not long ago with what some people call ‘new age thinking’. (In fact, it started long before that but only came into the ‘public domain’ more recently.)

A few people realised what was happening and started to explore and connect with the ‘spirit’ side of our existence.

You could find books on the subject in the dark corners at the back of bookshops where they put all the ‘occult’ and ‘self-help’ publications – and going in there labelled you as a ‘wierdo’.

Things have changed and it’s more mainstream although only a tiny minority of people have become ‘connected’ to this nexus of understanding.

There’s a great video of a guy with a vacuum cleaner endeavouring to clean a carpet – but the hose is not connected to the cleaner – and that’s how most people exist today – disconnected from themselves.

Neale Donald Walsch between 1995 and 1998 wrote a series of books entitled ‘Conversations with God’ and then followed up in 2017 with ‘Awaken the Species’.

He proposes that the dawn of adulthood is upon us and that one by one we will become HEBs or ‘highly evolved beings’ where the ‘soul’, the superconscious or spiritual part of us, takes control from the conscious and subconscious minds.

In fact, it’s not an evolution, it’s a conscious decision that you and I can take.

We can decide that we are ready to ‘grow up’ and there are a myriad of techniques available for us to start to do this – a ‘toolkit’ we can consciously use to move ourselves to the next stage and on to a more enlightened way of life.

I have already started to take tentative steps on this journey and you have as well or you wouldn’t be here.

You may be further ahead or a little behind, and you may not be sure which way to go.

But the thing is that as long as you and I keep taking those steps forward, whether it be into the darkness or into the light, as long as we follow the path that others have marked out for us through their writings and teachings, then we will get there.

Only then will you and I really understand what life is all about, who we are supposed to be, and what we are intended to do.

Whatever is happening around us now, whatever the adolescents are up to, has nothing to do with it.

Step bravely.