The Cave of Consensus is Collapsing

A short allegory about this pivotal moment

[This article has an 8/10 Woo Rating]

The Cave of Consensus is where we can all safely explore the known world. With the candle of our awareness in hand, we wander the Cave collecting knowledge. We can learn facts about history, geography, politics, finance and technology. We can also expand the brightness of our candle by cultivating wisdom. This allows us to see more of the entire Cave and navigate it with greater effectiveness. Despite offering immense benefits via a variety of practical tools, this latter approach is often shockingly neglected.

After a while, the light of our awareness can start filling the entire Cave. This then allows us to see a new doorway, which leads to the Cavern of Consciousness. Once you’ve seen that door, the Cave of Consensus is no longer quite as interesting to you. You hear something mysterious calling you from on the other side.

The Cavern of Consciousness is where we can explore the unknown. These are topics like spirituality, mysticism and the nature of reality. It’s the world of the living mind rather than just dead matter. Nobody knows how big the Cavern of Consciousness is, so your little candle suddenly feels woefully insufficient. You have no idea how this new world works or quite what’s sharing the darkness with you. This can be terrifying.¹

In fact, once we’re out of the Cave of Consensus we notice that everything is just a little less rigid. Looking back through the shimmering air at the Cave we just left, we see that what looked so solid from the inside is made from the flow of consciousness itself. When you recognize that everything is fundamentally made of the same substance, you begin to see the potential to create and achieve far more than you ever imagined. Consciousness may survive death, transcend time and space or have evolved beyond humanity itself. This means that exploring the new Cavern can take us into strange and unfamiliar crannies like reincarnation, psychic abilities and non-human intelligence. It can be impossible to talk to people who are still stuck in the Cave of Consensus about these topics. They’ve never been to the Cavern. The modern world, materialist science and the most lucrative careers are safely sheltered back in the Cave.² The risks also go beyond merely reputational. Psychosis, loneliness and obsession are often unwelcome companions. Fear of these unknowns dims the light we carry and keeps many people from ever leaving the Cave of Consensus.

But the Cave is growing increasingly unstable. The air is thin and stale. It’s endlessly recycled by people arguing about what’s already known, rather than emerging into a fresher world. It sucks the life from you to spend your days in the dimming candlelight. It’s increasingly easy to see who lives where. Worse, the walls inside the Cave may be crumbling. I wouldn’t want to be stuck in there to find out what happens when they collapse.

Once you’re outside the door, much of what you’ll find in the Cavern of Consciousness actually evolves you. Everything feels alive. Knowledge here isn’t just static; it’s transformational. Beyond politics and news, you can uncover hidden emotional triggers. Beyond historical facts, you can rediscover spiritual wisdom lost to time. Beyond financial strategies, you can redefine your psychological relationship with money. And beyond mastering technology, you can wield it with love to fast-track your own personal evolution.³

Unlike the Cave, in the Cavern of Consciousness, there’s no limit to how bright the light of your awareness can grow. And as it does, you realise how beautiful it is and how much more freedom you have. In fact, it slowly dawns on you that you’re not in a Cavern, but a Cathedral. It’s made of light, and it responds to your thoughts. You can co-create emerald stained glass windows and Sistine ceilings. And to think, if you’d never left the Cave you’d never have known.⁴

1. You can also walk through the doorway by accident. I stumbled over the threshold some years ago I was holding the wisdom equivalent of a Bic lighter rather than a fiery torch. A much more aware spiritual master told my anxious wife: “he’s in darkness, so that stick on the floor looks like it’s a snake. When the lights come on later he will understand.” It took me many years to understand what he meant.

2. It can be career suicide for people within a mainstream institution to have the kind of open conversation I just had with Bill Brewster about mental health, psi and aliens.

3. Check out my article Robot Heart on this topic for the online magazine Hurry Up We’re Dreaming.

4. My mental image of the Cathedral brings this video to mind The second half especially). I also love Coldplay and won’t apologise for it.