It is with this dual understanding that I welcome the emergence of a new “fifth-dimensional consciousness” (5D), and watch (somewhat bemusedly) my New Age friends’ panic over fifth-generation (5G) mobile data technology and the attempts to link it to Covid-19. From my perspective, we are witnessing, a crisis of over-connection without the preparation of spiritual transformation. 5G is a “smart cloud” grid-technology being introduced within the old paradigm of separation. Our fears about it reflect a distrust, not only that it will be put to “lower-frequency” uses, but on a deeper level, that humanity is still choosing to operate on fourth-dimension (4D) principles, using our emerging technical and spiritual powers for profit, personal gain, magic and control.
In my 2007 book Digital Dharma, I posited that all of our media technology (starting with the telegraph, “when electricity hit the nervous system”) is an externalization of the inner networks of our energy body: each medium both stimulating and, at the same time mirroring, the psycho-spiritual work of a specific chakra. I wrote about the telephone externalizing the second chakra’s hunger for intimacy, releasing the seductive power of the lover, and unleashing from Victorian constraints, the feminine voice; I wrote of the third chakra power of radio’s “tribal drum” to pull together or tear about communities; and fifth chakra-driven over-connection, and the resulting social media addiction, spread of viruses and the counter reaction of mistrust and alienation.
Today, many us of believe that a new, higher frequency of spiritual energy is pushing our consciousness forward into the domain of the upper chakras. Here, the third-eye is free to see beyond the “false news” and conceptual habits of a limited view of reality, and the Crown is opened to receiving new signals, connecting with spirits, connecting with all the beings of the natural world, and in the “we space” connecting us all. Many seers have called this 5D Consciousness.
Well, it sounds pretty good! But as every chakra holds both light and shadow, each chakra’s communications modality is also fraught with pitfalls. The most dangerous is the ego’s need to be “special.” In the realm of the sixth chakra, this means tapping into the energetic domains, not to serve others, but for one’s own needs. In doing so, it is easy to get caught in the (4D) astral planes, unable to discern good from evil, connecting unfiltered to all the ginns and tricksters ready to seduce us; getting lost in a psychic hall of mirrors, caught in a never-ending spiritual attention deficit disorder. This is the dark side of violent video games, virtual reality pornography, and social media terrorism.
In terms of 5G, we have projected these legitimate “4D misuse” fears on to a technology whose very structure reflects the work of the seventh chakra. 5G, or fifth-generation mobile wireless, continues a move from centralized “big towers” (hierarchically-communicating top-down with dumb devices), to a topology of smaller, intelligent nodes, communicating over shorter distances, at higher frequencies and lower power levels, allowing for faster data rates, lower latencies, and real-time peer-to-peer information exchanges. At its best, the 5G-enabled cloud-based “internet of things,” could be more than a way to deliver self-driving cars, instant movie downloads and smarter talking personal assistants. It could enable a world where we are drawn closer to other beings, both human and animal. A world where we can actually see in real-time the health of the environment, hear the singing of whales, and the cries of endangered species. Managed from a place of 5D consciousness, it could be the physical representation of an intelligent self-aware universe, where each “node of awareness” does its specific evolutionary task, monitors its surroundings and shares its experience within the we-space of the communal grid.
Given the sad history of humanity’s attraction to filling its longing heart with the substitute drugs of power and control, its no wonder we are terrified! In the service of our lower selves these technologies can lead not to greater unity, but to a beehive-like, always “jacked in,” world devoid of quiet personal time; where global corporations use 5G wireless to extend their control to the most remote corners of the planet and our most private spaces; where the smallest personal action is tracked in giant marketing databases; a world where physical nature and even human love are replaced by commercially-driven computer simulations. But this nightmare is not a consequence of the silicon chips, fiber-optics connections and wireless radio frequencies that make 5G possible. It is a consequence of our own shadow!
Yes, we do need more peer-reviewed studies of RF energy on our bodies. There is some evidence that while 5G’s higher frequencies are less absorbed through the skin than our favorite FM channels and our in-home Wi-Fi routers, like too much sun, too much 5G exposure (especially to the sweat glands) may increase some skin cancers for some people. So, I am not offering a blanket defense of 5G, but I am asking that you consider our 5G fears as a metaphor for a deeper distress.
Let us be wary of disowning our dark impulses, every conspiracy fear, every loss-of-control dread, on to some external “other” – whether it be a nation, religious or ethnic group, an inanimate virus, or radio-frequency device. Its not about “banning the towers,” but seeing them as ourselves. Not about staying up at night worrying that our electric meters are spying on us, but about enacting laws that protect our data privacy, and breaking up the media monopolies that kidnap our attention and traffic in our very awareness.
It is about seeing ourselves as part of a smart grid, not of commerce or control, but of global compassion and co-creation. 5D thinking requires us to look at 5G as a physical representation of a deeper call to engage with each other as “learning nodes” on a great grid of awareness, forming a true cloud consciousness around the entire planet, moving from listening to our smart refrigerators and thermostats, to the Tweets of All Beings, hearing the cries of the ocean’s creatures, the spreading deserts, and burning rain-forests.
Moving into seventh-chakra communication means confronting all the parts that we hide from others and ourselves, living in radical honesty and transparency; confronting the fear of ego-death that draws us into separation and the hoarding of power and control. Finally, it means having the courage to move past the distractions of the astral (magical powers, ego-boosting spirit guides) into the true plane of Divine Love, Creativity, and Joy. Living in Cloud Consciousness we are challenged to see that our intelligence has always been connected in every action – past, present and future, and that we and all the other individual processors are sharing the same memory and power source. In the 5D-connected cloud we hold all experiences in common, consciously downloading those wisdom programs that use our individual consciousness for a higher purpose. Our bodies and our life experiences become vessels of divine curiosity; and our prayers of gratitude become the uploading technology that refreshes and heals the great web of Being.