“When the underlying spirit of humanism is extended to everything, animate and inanimate, in this universe – I have designated this as Neohumanism. This Neohumanism will elevate humanism to universalism, love for all created beings of this universe.”
Shrii P. R. Sarkar

Neohumanism: A Call to Action!
by Dr. Marcus Bussey

Neohumanism is a pragmatic philosophy. It is concerned with the work of becoming ‘whole’. It argues that we, as conscious beings, only deepen and expand our consciousness through engaging with the world. Hence, it’s catch cry of: Liberation of Self and Service to the Universe! In short, we cannot achieve the spiritual goal of liberation without deep commitment to the world we inhabit.

This awareness is relational in nature and it provides a tool for assessing the processes at work in the world by judging the effects of our actions, their motivating beliefs, and the deep stories that underpin these on the entire planetary system.

Action takes place in the day to day world and is managed by systems we all recognise as necessary for civil society to function.

Yet, as we all know our systems are failing us today, and will continue to do so into the future, without a thorough re-engagement with the worldviews that sustain them.

Neohumanism offers a deep critique of these worldviews. It works with the socio-spiritual theory of PROUT to develop alternative and practical methods to respond to the global crises we face today.

This critical spiritual orientation looks at the relational implications of worldviews, it asks: What is the quality of the relationships generated by the dominant worldviews today?

It then goes onto ask: How can we generate new, or revive earlier more inclusive worldviews that will ensure richer futures for all planetary stakeholders?

Furthermore, recognising that as Shrii Sarkar states ‘life is an ideological (ie narrative) flow’ that we need new stories, richer metaphors upon which to anchor our work in the world at all levels of activity.

Importantly, we also need spiritual practices to move us towards a deeper loving appreciation of our relatedness to all things. In this way Neohumanism acknowledges that personal development, the inner work of meditation and supportive practices, is linked to the ecological, social and cultural evolution of our planetary system.

This is an ongoing work, there is no endpoint but there is a goal that calls us forward and that is the sense that we are moving towards spiritual and loving unity with an expanded consciousness, the sense of interbeing and becoming whole.

To achieve this, we need to address those sentiments that keep us under the illusion that we are separate beings competing for limited resources. This sense is, from a spiritual perspective, an illusion.

Yes, of course the planet has limits, yet those limits are accentuated when accepting current worldviews that have no regard for our relational embeddedness in the world. When we embrace the possibilities of a Neohumanist paradigm shift alternatives to the dog-eat-dog worldview emerge.

So today, we are in a Neohumanist moment. One demanding a recalibration in being, acting and dreaming.

This point is driven home almost daily as we struggle to deal with Covid-19, environmental crises, social crises, economic crises, knowledge crises, and the existential crises that such phenomena spawn.

All told, these crises reflect a deep relational crisis (singular and global) that sits at the heart of the human story. Namely, that we paid a high price as a species when we moved into the agricultural and then industrial world.

The cost has been the increasing distance from the relational basis of being. To embrace a new form of humanity is to be Neohumanist.

To accept that we are because of others — the human, the non-human and even the inanimate. We exist only in relationship. The such relatedness draws on the wells of a deep capacity to love, what Shrii Sarkar called a ‘loving stamina’. And finally, the we find meaning only through relationship.

PR Shrii Sarkar established AMGK in 1990 in order to accelerate this Neohumanism project. Neohumanism was developed to give form to the recognition that we need a new narrative to provide the inspiration and the tools to transform ourselves and our futures.