In essays written by experts in fields that range from global health and energy consumption to sustainable lifestyles, the consensus is that we simply can't continue with the way we use energy, the direction of technology, and an ever-expanding population if we expect to survive another 100 years. Complicating our problems is the growing threat of a world war that is driven, at least in part, by the competition for the same disappearing resources that defined the essays. Perhaps the uniqueness of our time is best described by Harvard University biologist E. O. Wilson. He states that we are about to enter what he calls the “bottleneck” in time, when both our resources and our ability to solve the problems of our day will be pushed to their limits.

The good news echoed by the experts, however, is that “if decision makers can get the framework right, the future of humanity will be secured by thousands of mundane decisions. It is usually in mundane matters that the most profound advances are made.” Without a doubt, there are countless decisions that each of us will be asked to make in the near future. I can't help thinking, however, that one of the most profound, and perhaps the simplest, will be the decision to embrace what the new science has shown us about who we are and our role in the universe.

If we can accept the powerful evidence that consciousness itself and our role in that consciousness are the missing links in the theories of how reality works, then everything changes. In that change we begin anew. This makes us part of, rather than separate from, all that we see and experience. And that’s why the current revolution in the way we think of ourselves is so powerful!

In his classic book The Prophet, Kahlil Gibran reminds us of what it means to have a great gift, and to know that the power of that gift is already within us. “No man can reveal to you,” he states, “that which already lies half asleep in the dawning of your knowledge.” In words that are as beautiful today as they were when they were written in 1923, Gibran reminds us that we can’t be taught the things that we already know. And we came into the world already knowing how to use our beliefs.

On the one hand, we’re told that we are frail and powerless beings who live in a world where things just “happen” for no apparent reason. On the other hand, our most ancient and cherished spiritual traditions tell us that there is a force that lives within every one of us, a power that nothing in the world can touch. With that force comes the promise of surviving the darkest moments of life, and that difficult times are only a part of a journey that leads to a place where bad things can’t happen any longer. It’s no wonder that we feel confused, helpless, and sometimes even angry as we witness the suffering of our loved ones and share the agony of what sometimes seems like hell in the world around us.

So which is it? Are we hopelessly fragile victims of events that are beyond our control or are we powerful creators harboring dormant abilities that we are only beginning to understand? The answer may reveal the truth of one of the greatest mysteries of our past.

It is also the focus for some of the greatest controversy in scientific discussions today. The reason? The answer to both questions is: Yes!

Yes, we are sometimes fragile victims of circumstance. And yes, we are sometimes the powerful creators of those same circumstances. Which of these roles we experience is determined by choices that we make in our lives, choices based upon our beliefs. Through the god-like power of human belief, we are given the equally god-like power to bring our beliefs to life in the matrix of energy that bathes and surrounds us.

Perhaps the greatest challenge of our time in history is simply this: Can we handle the truth that we have asked ourselves to discover? Do we have the courage to accept who we are in the universe and the role that our existence implies? If the answer to this question is “yes,” then we must also accept the responsibility that comes with knowing we can change the world by changing ourselves. We’ve already seen that the widely-held beliefs of hate, separation, and fear can destroy our bodies and our world faster than we could have ever imagined. Maybe all we need is a little shift in the way we think of ourselves to recognize the great truth that we are, in fact, the architects of our experience. We are cosmic artists expressing our deepest beliefs on the quantum canvas of the universe. What are the chances that by changing the destructive beliefs of our past into life-affirming beliefs of healing and peace we can change the world of today and the future, as well?

We may not have to ask ourselves this question much longer. New discoveries about the power of belief suggest that we're about to find out!