The Economy, The Worldwide Oil Shortage And Human Evolution

Future News-The Economy, The Worldwide Oil Shortage and Human Evolution
Bill Tenuto
August 19, 2005

Perhaps because of "frothy, happy conditions back in March" and "investors believing the economy was moving at a good clip" (NBC Nightly News, April 15, 2005), there was no mention by the news media in March 2005 that the U.S. economy soon might be in trouble. Most Americans then seemed in agreement about the prospects of continued economic growth in the U.S.

Nevertheless, my view at the time suggested economic problems were coming soon, and, so on March 14, 2005 I wrote in "The U.S. Economy Headed for a Fall" (http://futurenewsinfo.blogspot.com/2005/03/us-economy-headed-for-fall.html),

"The economy soon will take a downturn, inflation will rise, the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates substantially and…economic conditions in the U.S. will continue to deteriorate." (1)

It has been only about five months since I wrote those predictions, and much has changed in five months.

In March 2005, the Federal Reserve's short-term interest rate was 2.5%. The Fed has since raised interest rates four times. Rates are now at 3.5% and expected to go even higher by the end of the year.

Inflation also has been on the rise, primarily because the cost of oil has reached record-high prices, now hovering around $65 a barrel. The cost of oil also is expected to go even higher by the end of the year.

Under building pressures, mostly from higher energy prices, the U.S. economy is beginning to show signs of weakness, and Americans are starting to feel it. As recently reported in The New York Times:

"Inflation surged last month [July 2005], the government reported yesterday, as the long rise in energy prices finally seemed to be pinching the American economy. After absorbing the burden of oil at $40 a barrel, then at $50 a barrel and beyond, consumers have started to react as prices have risen above $60 in recent weeks." (2)

Record high prices for gasoline also are having an effect.

"Across the country, families are trying to figure out where to cut corners so they can afford gas that now averages $2.55 a gallon nationwide after posting the biggest weekly jump in at least 15 years, according to the latest government statistics."

" 'We spend much less,' said Hollie Tubbs, a 32-year-old teacher's assistant in Brooklyn. Instead of going to the movies, watching plays or dining out, she now takes walks in the park with her husband and son…. 'Everything is related to gas prices. The more you drive, the more you spend. In order to bring the budget down, we stopped driving.' " (2)

But we in the U.S. have not yet felt the full impact of increasing energy costs on our lifestyles. The effects of higher energy costs will take more time to ripple out into all sectors of the economy.

"…a spike in oil prices hurts, economists say, even if the pain does not come immediately. In the past, the full effect was not felt until a year, or even two years, after prices began rising." (2)

With this ripple effect still moving out through the economy, it is likely that an economic decline has only just begun. The effects of increasing energy costs have not yet completely taken hold.

"It was only 13 months ago that the price of a barrel of crude settled above $40. Oil, which closed yesterday at $66.08 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, is not likely to become cheaper anytime soon, analysts say."

"…the high cost of oil already appears to be curbing growth, translating into unusually modest gains in employment and pay."

"If history is any guide, higher prices will hurt consumption, curb the nation's output and shift spending patterns. The risks of a domino effect on the economy are real, economists say." (2)

A Worldwide Oil Shortage
When we think of oil, it may not occur to us that one day we will run out of it. Worldwide, at some point in the future, as we continually pump oil to meet an ever-increasing demand, the supply of oil will begin to dry up, one oil field at a time. When this happens, it will signal the start of a permanent, worldwide oil shortage. Increasing demand for oil immediately will outstrip the supply, and oil prices will skyrocket like never before. This would create a dangerous situation, not just for the U.S. economy, but for economic, social and political stability around the world.

According to Kenneth S. Deffeyes, formerly a geologist with Shell Oil and professor emeritus of geology at Princeton University, the time for a permanent decline in the world's supply of oil is coming sooner than we may have expected.

In his New York Times article, Deffeyes says,

"…my own independent research places the peak of world oil production late this year or early in 2006." (3)

According to Deffeyes, in late 2005 or in early 2006, world oil production will peak and then immediately begin to decline. The reason for the decline in production, he says, is that in late 2005 or in early 2006, the supply of oil worldwide will begin to decline. The world will begin to run out of oil. According to Deffeyes, late 2005 or early 2006 will mark the start of a worldwide oil shortage.

"A permanent drop in world oil production will have serious consequences. …The problem we need to face is the impending world oil shortage." (3)

A Geologist's Prediction and The Maya
Geologist Kenneth Deffeyes predicts a worldwide oil shortage starting at the end of 2005 or in early 2006.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the prophecies of the Mayan Elders also mention 2006. Carlos Barrios, a priest of the Maya, tells us the Mayan Elders have prophesied:

"…2006 is very dangerous. …in the period [from] March to November, humanity can come into a big war, in a destruction. …we can destroy ourselves." (4)

In a recent conversation I had with Carlos, I told him that I had been feeling there would be a nuclear war in the Middle East. Carlos responded to this by saying to me,

"We know this too. It is coming soon. It is about the oil."

If we combine all this information and accept it as true, then we are facing a serious problem.

What Can We Do?
The Mayan Elders have sent out a message to us for our times. They have said:

"Please return to being human. Please return to the natural order." (4)

Carlos Barrios adds:

"It is important to return to the basics of the spirit of the great traditions and work together."

"What we need to do is begin to create a unity, to create a union between humanity, between all of us."

"We are close to the next level, the final level. We need to be strong and to work completely together." (4)

I am doing what I can to alert my readers to what is happening and to help us join together to find the answers we need to turn this situation around. I think we are in danger, and I know we need to work together to find the solutions.

Although I realize there is much more to resolving the difficulties of our times than that which I may know or envision, in my view, joining in community, taking action and, together, gaining spiritual understanding is part of the solution for us. We have an opportunity now not only to prevent a horrible war, but also to evolve into a higher state.

For those who wish to read more about my vision of this, please go to "Book One, Chapter Three, 'Creating the Power.' " Click on http://futurenewsinfo.blogspot.com/2005/08/book-one-chapter-three-creating-power.html
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1.) See "The U.S. Economy Headed for a Fall," Future News, Home Page, left column, March 2005 Archive
or click on http://futurenewsinfo.blogspot.com/2005/03/us-economy-headed-for-fall.html

2.) Jad Mouwad and David Leonhardt, "Economy Shows Signs of Strain From Oil Prices," The New York Times, August 17, 2005. http://www.nytimes.com/

3.) Kenneth S. Deffeyes, "What Happens Once the Oil Runs Out?," The New York Times, March 25, 2005. http://www.nytimes.com/. See also, "News Reports Confirming Predictions in Future News Article, 'U.S. Economy Headed For A Fall,' " Future News, Home Page, left column, April 2005 Archive or click on http://futurenewsinfo.blogspot.com/2005/04/news-reports-are-confirming.html

4.) From Carlos Barrios' workshop on "Maya Divination," The Prophets Sedona, The Great Rethinking, Sedona, AZ, October 14, 2004.

© 2005 by William L. Tenuto

Book One, Chapter Three: Creating The Power

Future News
Book One, Chapter Three: "Creating The Power"

Section I: "The Destruction Has Started"
Section II: "How To Stop The Destruction"
Section III: "Spiritual Understanding"
Section IV: "Creating A Space"
Section V: "Evolution"

August 10, 2005
Bill Tenuto

To start this discussion there are two main points I want to make.

First, the predicted time of destruction already has started. We are in "the destruction."

Second, there is a way for us to stop the destruction, but the longer we wait, the harder it becomes to stop it. Nonetheless, we can stop it and from it generate a magnificent new world. I will discuss this in more detail in a moment.

The immediate questions are whether we believe a destruction is taking place, and if so, why are we not working as hard as we can now to stop the destruction before it gets worse? Perhaps we don't see these destructive events for what they really are, or perhaps we just don't want to look. Let's explore this.

The Destruction Has Started
The Mayan Elders tell us we are living in

"a very important period for humanity. This is the time of the prophecies."

They add:

"We have to stop the destruction."*

I look around me and I see that these times are difficult. Thinking back to December 2004, I recall how I felt after seeing photos of the dead bodies that were washed ashore by the tsunami in Indonesia. I remember literally feeling sick to my stomach about seeing those photos in the New York Times. As I continued to look, I felt as if something had reached up from the photos themselves and struck a blow to my solar plexus.

That feeling in my solar plexus was a signal to me, and I commented to the people who were with me,

"It has started."

Now, just a few months later in the summer of 2005, there is a drought and a famine in the impoverished nation of Niger, and, as reported recently in The New York Times:

"...hunger [is] ravaging 3.6 million farmers and herders. As aid begins to trickle into some of the nearly 4,000 villages across southern Niger that need help--the vanguard of a flood of food brought forth by television images of shrunken babies--the rich world's response to Niger's...nutrition crisis...is proving too late for many."**

That familiar, gut-wrenching feeling I had felt when looking at the tsunami photos came back to me again when I saw a photo in the New York Times of a mother in Niger carrying her dead baby boy. The baby boy had died of malnutrition. I could not continue to look at that picture. I had to look away.

"At 16 months, he was little bigger than some newborns, with the matchstick limbs and skeletal ribs of the severely malnourished. One in five is dying--the result, many say, of a belated response by the outside world to a disaster predicted in detail nine months ago."* *

There's a horror to these scenes of death that makes me--and I think all of us--shudder.

The Indonesian tsunami and the drought and famine in Niger are just two recent examples verifying the many predictions of destructive events foretold by Carlos Barrios and the Mayan Elders, by my writings in Future News and by many others with the gift of foresight. These predictions are no longer just printed words forecasting the possibility of destruction in some far off, future time. These predictions have unfolded in our time into actual, destructive events. These events are real. These events are part of a series of events predicted to occur. We are living in the time of the destruction.

To restate Carlos Barrios' words, as quoted in Chapter Two from his 1999 book, El Libro del Destino:

"In this Epic time that we are living...there will be diseases we have not known, plagues, floods, earthquakes, droughts, hurricanes, and Mother Earth will grow hotter. And the saddest thing is that we see all of what is happening around us and we will be passive, doing nothing, because we are so involved with our daily lives and our material needs that we will take things for granted."***

Carlos Barrios may be correct in saying many of us see what is happening around us, take things for granted and do nothing. Let's be honest about those of us in the "rich" nations of the world. The pictures of starving children in Niger had to be shoved in our faces on television before we lifted a finger to help them.

Although this is true, I think there is an even more powerful reason why many of us do nothing. We feel revulsion when we see death. We feel compelled to look the other way. It's too painful for us to look at death and destruction.

The horror of it is so overwhelming that none of us wants to read even so much as a prediction about death and destruction, let alone face the reality of it when it actually happens. We would rather not look at it, so we look the other way. Looking at it is disturbing to our lives and touches deeply, I think, into our psyches.

Our connection to all other members of the human race is so real and so strong that most of us cannot bear to see human death, especially on such a massive scale. Yet it is the very strength of the connection we have to each other that provides us with the means to stop this destruction. Our connection to each other is the source of our power to change any situation.

The destruction has started. By working together, we can stop it.

How To Stop The Destruction
I know many around the globe are awakening.

There was an enormous outpouring of love, money and aid after the tsunami in Indonesia. If only for a short time, the horror of the widespread death and destruction of the Indonesian tsunami brought the world together. Bringing us together is the ironic gift of the destruction and the whole point of these times in which we live. These destructive events, I say emphatically, are occurring now to push and prod humanity into realizing that we must join ourselves together. These destructive events are demanding of us that we must learn how to change our ways. It no longer will work for humanity to be unconscious and disconnected. Those days are coming to an end. We must reach out with our understanding, compassion and kindness, even if we have to feel our way step by step through the process of learning how to join ourselves together.

The good news is many of us are reaching out. There were worldwide music concerts during the weekend of July 4, 2005 to raise money for the sick and starving people of Africa; and a few weeks later CNN's Anderson Cooper did a full week of special reports on the famine and malnutrition in Niger. Food aid is finally beginning to reach the starving people there. This kind of awareness is spreading, and it's all good. As I keep saying, I hope we can do enough and do it quickly enough to turn things around.

We are in the midst of a major, worldwide transformation of the Earth and all of humanity. We are transforming and evolving toward a new human race, a new humanity and a New Earth. According to the Maya calendar, an evolutionary, transformational process began on August 16, 1987 (some refer to this as the Harmonic Convergence), and we will align fully with the energy of this transformational process on December 21, 2012. I will discuss this in more detail in the next chapter.

But before I get to that, I want to pick up where I left off in Chapter Two with my discussion about the Maya and the Sioux.

The Mayan Elders, through their appointed messenger, Carlos Barrios, have sent their message out to the world:

"Please return to being human. Please return to the natural order." (See Chapter Two)

Is this how we stop the destruction? Is this how we transform and evolve? If this is the Mayan Elders' message for our times, one may ask how those of us in the modernized, rich nations could ever return to the natural order. Isn't that like asking us to go backwards? How could we possibly do this?

Spiritual Understanding
Throughout history, different human cultures have borrowed from each other, taking something of value from one culture and assimilating it into the other. "Something of value" could have been anything from technology to forms of art to religious beliefs.

To return to being human and to the natural order, the modernized, rich nations need to borrow from the traditional, native cultures "something of value" which we have lost. That "something of value" is spiritual understanding. One of the ways to access this understanding is through the time-tested, sacred traditions of the Sioux. The way of the Sioux certainly is not the only way, but it is a way with which I am personally familiar.

The Sioux teach that the first step in making this return to the natural order is to stop talking, become quiet and begin to listen to all of it--all the feeling, all the nuances, all the meaning. With that, we will begin to align with the force of the spirit which will assist us on our journey on the "good, red road." When we do this work, spiritual understanding will begin to surface. The understanding is within us.

The Native Americans do hold some of the solutions for us in these difficult times, but the first challenge for us non-Native Americans is to learn how to shut up, go within and listen. In the time I spent among the Sioux, there was a lengthy period when I was not permitted to say anything to anyone, regardless of who was speaking to me, what was being said to me or how badly I wanted to respond. "Silence is golden," I was told more than once until I learned to stop talking. Needless to say, accomplishing this took discipline, but I was bound and determined to succeed.

I eventually discovered the value and the pleasure of silence. In so doing, I found myself one day, at the Sioux Sundance, opening to a sacred space within myself and experiencing inner joy about our human connection to each other. Many of us have experienced a moment of awakening. My awakening took place in 1991 in South Dakota at the Sundance, during my time of golden silence among the Sioux.

When my awakening occurred, the Sioux, in their spiritual and communal way, recognized it in me and acknowledged it. They began to call me "wakan," the Lakota word for "spirit." They understood what had happened to me. I had opened myself to spiritual understanding.

As I began to open myself to the space within where spiritual understanding resides, my consciousness focused intently on a natural, organic process that was taking place around me. The people who had gathered for the Sundance were forming a community. These people had come to South Dakota from all around the world. In this moment of spiritual clarity, with a sense of wonder, I felt within me and saw all around me our human need to seek and create connections with each other. In this moment of spiritual clarity, I realized the spiritual work I had done before and during the Sundance had brought me to this simple and sacred space of understanding. I understood the necessity for compassion and kindness and love to flow out freely and naturally from all of us, together, all the time, if we are to create and maintain a caring, human community. I recognized that when we connect in this way, we begin to activate a potential within us to create paradise on Earth.

Since then, I also have realized that when we connect in this way, we generate a power from our unity with which we can change anything we need to change. We can stop the destruction. There now are about six billion people living on the Earth. If we do it right, that's a lot of power. Learning how to create, regulate and direct this power ranks as a high priority in our evolutionary process.

At the Sundance, in my moment of spiritual clarity, I was in reality experiencing the guidance of the spirit, and the spirit was pointing out to me the direction in which to take my life and my work. I have continued to take myself in that direction, although not in a straight line, but rather zigging and zagging and learning as I go. The direction for me has been that of learning how to find my place in human community. This for me is the path of the spirit. Each person's path is unique. I believe each of us has come into physical form now to find his or her own path and, in so doing, to make a distinct contribution to our evolutionary process.

How and when we assimilate spiritual understanding into our modern cultures is a matter of choice. When we are convinced that we need spiritual understanding in our lives, we then will find a way to assimilate it. Since the door to awareness opened within me at the Sundance, I have come to realize that spiritual understanding is an essential component for our survival and for our evolution. Creating this kind of space within each of us and among all of us has become important for humanity in these times, and in the next section I will discuss what I have learned about this.

Carlos Barrios has stressed the importance of returning to the old ways, and I think we in the rich nations would do well to consider the seriousness of his advice:

"It's important to return to the basics of the spirit of the great traditions and work together."

"What we need to do is begin to create a unity, to create a union between humanity, between all of us."

"We are close to the next level, the final level. We need to be strong and to work completely together."*

Creating A Space
We don't want to struggle for survival through a prolonged series of destructive events. These destructive events will keep coming, and they will continue to push and prod us until we get the point. We need to reach into the depth of our own humanity to find the place where spiritual understanding resides. The answers are there. The point is for us to do it together.

If we are going to turn this destruction around and evolve peacefully and wondrously into the new humanity on the New Earth, then we first need to clear a space within from which we can create. If each of us can fill this space with understanding, compassion and kindness and extend this out to that same space in others, we can create an energy field of human love that surrounds the planet. This field of energy linking all of us together is the source of our power to stop the destruction.

Again the point is to do it together. Otherwise it won't work. If we do it together, we will stop the destruction. If we don't do it together, then the destruction will intensify until we learn together how to stop it together. This seems to be nature's way to motivate us to evolve into a higher form of human being.

The human pain and grief we feel about the death and violence of a destructive event is put in us by nature for a reason. Nature will push, prod and coerce us into opening our eyes to see the way. The way is a spiritual way. These destructive events are set up to teach us that we can transform our pain and grief into understanding, compassion and kindness. From this flows our capacity to love one another. Our love for one another is the binding force and the creative energy to change all things. That which we human beings experience as love is a form of the creative energy of the universe. It is powerful. It is magical. We are in the final phase of learning how to master it.

It is through the spread of love that we, together, will awaken and become conscious beings. When we all gain this insight, it will be a stunning global experience.

Evolution
We know from Chapter One that the vacuum energy of space creates matter. Matter can change its configuration back and forth from matter to energy to matter to energy. Matter and energy are interconnected. This is also true of the physical body and the human spirit. The physical body and the human spirit both are configurations of energy, and they are interconnected. When the material form of the physical body disconnects from the spirit, the term we have for this is "death." But there is no real separation between life and death, only the illusion of a separation. Most of us do not perceive death as an illusion, yet, but we are evolving towards a new way of "seeing." When we have evolved, we will comprehend truths such as this.

When we bring our creative power together, we will co-create our selves into a more highly evolved physical and spiritual form of human being. With our new way of seeing, we will see configurations of energy, not just solid objects. In such an evolved state, there will be no need to experience death. We will have the understanding we need to cross over at will from the material world to the spiritual world and back to the material world. Our work then will be the process of learning how to merge the two worlds into one. This is the potential we are destined to fulfill as we continue our journey to December 21, 2012 and beyond.

We now have the opportunity to evolve. If we lose this opportunity, we could destroy ourselves.

All species of animals, the Sioux taught me, have their own specific spirits who guide them. Human beings have spirit guides too. The difference between the animals and humans is that the animals listen, humans don't, because human beings have free will. Human beings can choose to listen or not. In the tradition of the Sioux, learning to listen to the spirit is essential.

The destructive events of our times are intended to break down the resistance of our free will until we freely and willingly align with and listen to the creative force of the spirit. This is a demanding lesson, and the most important lesson we must learn if we are to graduate from this "school" we call Earth. This lesson requires that we not only align with and listen to the spirit, but that we also surrender our free will to the guidance of the spirit. Human civilizations of past ages failed to learn this all-important lesson, and so they lost their opportunity to evolve. The Mayan Elders have told us that these previous civilizations had reached a point in their development similar to the point we are at now, but they didn't "pass with Mother Earth to the next level." (See Chapter Two.) If this is true, then we are at a critical stage in our development as a species.

These destructive events will continue to take place with more frequency and more intensity until we get it figured out. There is a lot to this, and I certainly am not able to see all of it. What I do see is this. It is good for us now to do our best to learn how to create a space for understanding and compassion and kindness within each of us as individuals and among all of us as an organic, human community. It is good for us to become aware of the part each person plays in the overall process of our human evolution and, with this in mind, to support the learning and development of any other person whenever the opportunity presents itself.

We build our power by supporting each other's contribution to this process and by becoming involved in this process together. Each of us carries within herself or himself an important and essential component to help all of us make it to the next evolutionary level. And if we align ourselves correctly, we will receive direct assistance from the wondrous force of the spirit which guides humanity.

Carlos Barrios said something in Sedona, Arizona which is worth thinking about:

"We can make change. We can make everything. All of us. You know inside yourself--we have the power. All of us--we are more. That is what we need to understand. We are more. We are more."*
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*From Carlos Barrios' workshop on "Maya Divination," The Prophets Sedona, The Great Rethinking, Sedona, AZ, October 14, 2004.

**Michael Wines, "Malnutrition Is Ravaging Niger's Children," The New York Times, August 5, 2005. www.nytimes.com

***This English translation is taken from the article, "A Call from the Mayan Elders to the Human Race," which can be viewed at www.sacredroad.org/

© 2005 by William L. Tenuto