new species/homo veritas

A new species -- Homo veritas
Homo sapiens vs Homo veritas -- similarities and differences

A new species – Homo veritas (veritas means truth in Latin)

We humans need to grow into a new species – Homo veritas – if we are to survive, not destroy the planet, and fulfill life’s contract to evolve. Homo veritas is a truth-based human, living out of the true self, the sacred self and not the false self imposed by our unconscious families and culture.

Homo sapiens are very smart, but not very wise. Our cleverness has allowed us to invade every environment and set up shop in the harshest climates and most forbidding environments. We have outsmarted every other species, large or small, with our enlarged brain. Only a few viruses don’t quake at our presence.

But in the destructive swath of human occupation, we fail to notice what our successful dominion has done to our host – the planet earth. Many are starting to wake up – but many still deny our destruction presence. We are destroying the earth’s life sustaining potential – polluting the sea, the land, the air.

In our denial of the impact of our successful colonizing every niche on earth, we continue to populate with more and more homo sapiens, replicating what our families and cultures have always done. Think the same as our ancestors and procreate more children who will do the same – many ignore life’s charge to mutate into a more conscious beings – or die out as a species on an over-crowding un-sustaining planet.

But why is it such a formidable task to ring true? To live true – we must make a sacrifice and give up the comforts of conformity to the traditions of the family and the norm. We must defy our parents’ limits and live outside their seeming care and overlooked compromises. This is too much for most. Except a rare few who are courageous enough to endure exile, and the barren landscape that is the journey to the promised land of truth. And if you’re still reading this – that’s you! By the way, the promised land of truthful and sacred living actually is fulfilling beyond your wildest dreams. Indeed, it is a land of milk and honey.

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Homo sapiens vs. Homo veritas (similarities and differences)

1. A core of perfection

Both species have a core of perfection and access to the river of truth that runs through all that is.

Homo sapiens (H/s) however do not access truth nor do they live by it, but live instead from a false self established by their families of origin and culture. It is too painful and anxiety producing to go within to find an authentic identity for H/s. Therefore leave the comforts of family traditions and the culture and religions that support this conformity. H/s therefore live a role pre-established by the family. H/s are not self-reflective which is a prerequisite for living out of the true self, generated by the core of perfection.

Homo veritas (H/v) live from their core of perfection and establish a true self as an identity. This puts them at odds with the main culture and often in conflict with their families of origin. But enduring feelings of being an outcast and living in exile are worth the sacrifice for the inner rewards of living consonant with truth.

2. A traumatic past

Both species have traumatic pasts.

Homo sapiens (H/s) do not see their past as traumatic, for to do so would mean to indict their families, their ancestors and most difficult of all, they would have to indict the failings of their parents. This is too anxiety producing for H/s. Instead of being clear about the wounds inflicted by parents, families and culture/religion, they define bad behavior as original sin or dissociative illusion (Maya). So the dissonance that is experienced within, is either thought of as the limits of human nature, never to be fixed but to be reconciled somehow with a withholding, enigmatic God, or project the “evil” we feel within unto enemies or minorities – the other – of all sorts. H/s can not imagine that the source of inner conflict is close to home – family-based trauma – and not the will of some capricious God or vile external enemy.

Homo veritas (H/v) have dared to look within at the source of their traumas. As frightening, threatening and hurtful as the world can be, it was really the deficits of mother and father that hurt H/v the most. This daring stance, indicting the parents and their culture, and not other external enemies, is the courage needed to ring true and heal and manage the traumatic history. Also, H/v doesn’t see the wounds as some inner flaw (original sin) or the human condition grounded in mystery and illusion, but as a wound inflicted on original perfection by flawed caretakers. This is a huge shift in perspective from Homo sapiens and requires the courage to leave the family and stand on one’s own. Those who remain wounded children can not indict their parents. Only a courageous individual can stand apart and indict mother and father and still survive – and then thrive into a fulfilled truth-filled adult.

3. Life's purpose

For Homo sapiens, life’s purpose is to be comfortable through conformity. To achieve this aim, H/s must remain unconscious, asleep to deeper issues and meaning. H/s live to please their parents and fulfill the demands of the culture. H/s do not rock the boat, but replicate the values as given. In a nutshell, H/s live for comfort and conformity. There is great support and approval given from family and cultural for this complicity. The religions or non-religions of H/s support this passive interaction with life’s deeper questions. Don’t ask life’s questions, just accept them as unknowable for the religion and irrelevant for the irreligious -- and for this passivity towards asking and seeking, you will be rewarded and accepted.

For Homo veritas, life’s purpose is the opposite of living for comfort. Instead, H/v live with the restless urge to ask, to find – to evolve, to move beyond the limited definitions of culture and family, to find deeper meaning, to increase consciousness and to live consonant with the demands of truth. This at times requires great sacrifice of friends and family and the financial and emotional approval conformity with the norm provides. But H/v find deeper riches in living truth-filled lives, experiencing the creative thrill of discovering new capacities and a deeper understanding of life’s meaning. H/v discover that they are being co-creative with a creative, loving and expanding God.

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