To discern and recognize it, let us examine the essential nature of several global trends or paradigm shifts and discover their common denominator:

In politics and culture: feminist movements.

In development: the environmental movement, which moves development attitudes and orientations towards oneness/ harmony/interrelatedness rather than exploitation/dominance over “Mother Nature”; from working on to working with nature; from burning of fossil fuels and risky nuclear power to “soft energy paths”; from cancerous or parasitic growth modes that is eventually mutually suicidal to more sustainable lifestyles and development modes.

In organizational dynamics in business, government and NGOs: a paradigm shift from vertical (pyramidal, hierarchical, authoritarian) to horizontal (network, cooperative, democratic) structures and processes.

In international conflict: a paradigm shift from superpower, Cold War logic (zero-sum games or conflicts) to free market and trade logic (positive-sum games or win-win relationships).

In education: a paradigm shift from IQ to EQ (emotional intelligence), from cognitive to wholistic learning (right brain, values education, experiential learning), from intellectual to affective.

In entrepreneurship, economics and accounting of assets: paradigm shift in wealth creation from technology and markets (manipulation and dominance) to human and intellectual capital (education, training and HRD); from “smokestack industries” to “knowledge-based industries”.

In economics and development planning: from purely GNP (measure of “doing” or “having”) to inclusion of social indicators, sustainable development criteria and HDI or Human Development Index (measures of “being”).

Rise of feminine aspects of deity and worship: Wicca and other feminist/naturalist cults; women in priesthood; Roman Catholic debate: Mary as co-redeemer or co-redemptrix; rediscovery of eco-spirituality and creation spirituality among Christians (“God is everything, everything is in God”); appearance of “God the Mother” themes in religious discourse; surge of interest in North America and Europe of East Asian spiritual and healing practices like Buddhism, Vaipassana meditation, tai chi and Reiki which are less paternalistic or authoritarian than the Abrahamic or West Asian religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam).

In science: shift in interest from the outer, empirical world towards the inner, experiential world as seen in the growth and emergence of transpersonal psychology, paranormal research, phenomenological approaches in social sciences, and research in new areas such as NDE (near-death experience), lucid dreaming and remote viewing.

Grasped as a totality, the above diverse paradigm shifts seem to point to a “suprashift”: from “hard”, materialist, masculine and yang perspectives to “softer”, more inward, feminine and yin perspectives. These paradigm shifts are not occurring as complete shifts but appear as gradual movements towards a discernible direction, serving to — at minimum — leaven and moderate the masculine character of Western-dominated planetary civilizations or — at maximum — perhaps eventually dramatically altering the mix or character altogether.

Who knows? Here we are grappling with rather subtle themes or undercurrents in planetary mass consciousness, seen across various spheres of life (trans-societal) and “feminine” or “yin” is the closest descriptor to this most intriguing undercurrent or “suprashift”.

Let me tell you an interesting experience. A friend — a Filipina visionary, devotee of the Lady of Fatima and prophetic intuitive — recounted that while on a trip abroad, she heard an inner voice which said,

Anak, kumuha ka ng lapis at papel.

Gumuhit ka ng tatsulok na may mata sa gitna at may mga sikat na nagmumula sa tatlong guhit nito. Sa kanan nito ay isulat mo: “DIOS AMA, Unang Tipan.”

Sa ibaba naman ay gumuhit ka ng tupa, at sa kanan nito ay isulat mo: “DIOS ANAK, Ikalawang Tipan”.

Sa lalong ibaba ay gumuhit ka ng kalapating lumilipad, at sa kanan nito ay isulat mo” “DIOS INA/DIOS ESPIRITU SANTO, Ikatlong Tipan.”

Sa ibaba ng lahat ay isulat mo: “TATLONG PERSONA SA IISANG PAGKA-DIYOS” at sa itaas ay isulat mo: “TATLONG BAHAGI NG KASAYSAYAN NG PAGLALANG”.

This story “hit me hard” because I was able to connect it with my academic musings about the global paradigm suprashift I described above. I am an observer of Filipinos and the Philippine scene. In fact, I teach Philippine Studies to graduate students in the University. Let me tell you more of my musings, and tell me how it “hits” you, this time about ourselves as a people and more specifically, about the “feminine” character of our Filipino culture:

Why do we symbolically refer to our country as “Inang Bayan”? (rather than, say, “fatherland” as the Germans do)

The strongest macroclusters in the Filipino value system are rather feminine in character: personal and social relationships, and “loob”.

The Philippines is one of the few countries in the world that has had a woman president or prime minister.
Filipino women have the highest literacy and educational participation rates in Southeast Asia.

Our EDSA Revolution is reputedly a pattern-setting world experience in peaceful revolution, a mass behavior demonstrating the non-violent, “fiesta” and religious aspects of our culture.

Philippine languages, compared with other Malayo-Polynesian languages, have the highest number of affixations (more than 700), which indicates that Filipinos can recognize and distinguish between very fine nuances of action and being.

Our Constitution is reputedly the only one in the world with the words “God” and “love”. Relatedly, three independent international surveys all showed that Filipino respondents score highest than other nationalities in religious and spiritual values.

Intriguing? Controversial? I don’t care. In fact I feel that the more widespread discourse there is about the issues of who we are as a people — about our national identity or destiny — the better for us, whatever the outcome of the debates, or, preferably, of the mutually-enriching dialogues we can have on this very broad subject.This story “hit me hard” because I was able to connect it with my academic musings about the global paradigm suprashift I described above. I am an observer of Filipinos and the Philippine scene. In fact, I teach Philippine Studies to graduate students in the University. Let me tell you more of my musings, and tell me how it “hits” you, this time about ourselves as a people and more specifically, about the “feminine” character of our Filipino culture:

Why do we symbolically refer to our country as “Inang Bayan”? (rather than, say, “fatherland” as the Germans do)

The strongest macroclusters in the Filipino value system are rather feminine in character: personal and social relationships, and “loob”.

The Philippines is one of the few countries in the world that has had a woman president or prime minister.

Filipino women have the highest literacy and educational participation rates in Southeast Asia.

Our EDSA Revolution is reputedly a pattern-setting world experience in peaceful revolution, a mass behavior demonstrating the non-violent, “fiesta” and religious aspects of our culture.

Philippine languages, compared with other Malayo-Polynesian languages, have the highest number of affixations (more than 700), which indicates that Filipinos can recognize and distinguish between very fine nuances of action and being.

Our Constitution is reputedly the only one in the world with the words “God” and “love”. Relatedly, three independent international surveys all showed that Filipino respondents score highest than other nationalities in religious and spiritual values.

Intriguing? Controversial? I don’t care. In fact I feel that the more widespread discourse there is about the issues of who we are as a people — about our national identity or destiny — the better for us, whatever the outcome of the debates, or, preferably, of the mutually-enriching dialogues we can have on this very broad subject.

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