SYNOPSIS of “The Chronicles of the Upheavals”

“THE CHRONICLES”  

Book One: The Chronicles of the Upheavals (2015-2035)

Book Two:  The Chronicles of the Awakening (2055-2085)

Book Three:  The Chronicles of the Metamorphosis  (2085-2120)

Series name: “The Metamorphosis of Humanity” or “The Chronicles”

SYNOPSES

A Synopsis of the Series: “The Metamorphosis of Humanity”

We made it.  But, how?

It’s the year 2125, and the human world has had its mega-crises.  The history of the 21st  Century was dominated by “The Upheavals”: every crisis that threatened humanity happened.  Just about everything that could go wrong, did.  All Western systems fail – ecological, social, political, economic… and they all fail around the same time, one failure triggering another.  

Approximately 450 pages Approximately 100,000 words

“The Upheavals” took a heavy toll… billions of humans perished in the human-caused cataclysms.  Some of the failures were predictable: food supplies go critical; energy production fails; water supplies dry up; ecological devastation renders whole cities uninhabitable; the failures trigger urban chaos and rebellion; pandemics reap a worldwide toll in the hundreds of millions; proposed “techno-fixes” made things much worse.

Then there were the crises more difficult to see: the loss of much of humanity’s accumulated knowledge, as cyber-wars decimated digital information systems.  Humanity losing touch with itself, as news organizations go belly-up around the world.  The already astronomical suicide rate going further through the roof, as people fail to come to grips with the failure of their future.

Despite the Upheavals, humanity made it.  From the excess of waste, the shock of dysfunction and the fog of denial, humanity moved into new ways of working with each other and working with the Earth.  (Actually, a lot of old ways…)  

Some of those new ways are deeply fulfilling.  Humanity will need some time to get used to the changes.  And some of the new ways are… unsettling.

Humanity makes it, because of the visionary work of the Awakening Movement, catalyzed by the mysterious “Culture Council”.  What for some was “The End” was really “The Transformation”.  That transformation happened because the Culture Council, dedicated to the vision of “A World for All”, managed the multiple crises into a rebirth for humanity.  They did so by creating “Awakening Centers”  — lifeboats for the refugees of the global Titanic.

Now that they are out of the woods, the Culture Council organizes what records it has into a narrative of the Upheavals, a history of the 21st Century.  They gather what’s available: surviving recordings, transcripts, newspaper clippings, book excerpts, leaflets, advertisements… the Chronicles of the times.

Each chapter of the series tells a story and also reveals a value or challenge that all of humanity faced during the transformation. 

Book One Synopsis:  “The Chronicles of the Upheavals” [2015-2035]

[100% complete.  Approximately 100,000 words]

After an Introduction from 2125 by the Culture Council, the “Upheavals” starts at 2025, with the rescue of a street kid and his learning of the ways and values of one Awakening Center.  Through his interactions with his fellow novices and his superiors, he learns to accept the mission of the Awakening Centers in providing a realistic pathway through the Upheavals. Through this young novice (with an old attitude and a new name), we learn how the brave new world of the 21st Century takes shape.

The Awakening Centers are the brain-child of the “Imaginal Group”, and its leader and spokesperson, the enigmatic Dr. James Harold Moore.  The Awakening Centers faced many challenges – from starving people trying to steal food to brain-dead politicians needing scapegoats to blame (and finding them, in the persons of Dr. Moore and his Imaginal Group). 

The world outside the Awakening Centers is a near-constant nightmare.  For many people, “survival” comes from the barrel of a gun.  The story of “Outside” is told primarily through surviving newspaper clippings, official documents and advertisements.  

America’s leadership, mired in the status quo and pandering to the rich, does nothing until conditions are completely out of hand.  Then, they continue to do nothing, while they go looking for scapegoats to blame.  Finally, driven to act by extreme circumstances, the leaders take action… and do the wrong thing.  

The Awakening Centers can deal with starving people and gun-toting vigilantes.  However, they soon run into a formidable adversary, one they can neither predict nor control… one that could spell their doom.  To counteract it, they turn for help from an unlikely source… a cure that may pose more difficulties than the disease.

The “Banned Books”:  Certain 20th and 21st Century writings are instrumental in the philosophy and development of the Awakening Centers.  As such, they are banned by the US Congress as “subversive”.  Excerpts from these subversive writings are included in the Chronicles.

A key to the path forward lies in returning to an intimate connection to “All That Is”.  Ending “The Age of Waste” means a fundamental shift in human consciousness and behavior.  There are no separations.  The Awakening Centers involve a true awakening… an opening to ways of being beyond the individual, as the novices awaken the “holonic mind” and access abilities undreamt-of by the majority of people in North America.

However, not all is smooth for the Awakening Movement.  An enemy emerges, one that seems equally powerful and completely ruthless.  How do you stop an enemy that always seems one step ahead of you… when your only tools are nonviolence and inclusivity?

Book Two Synopsis: “The Chronicles of the Awakening” [2055-2085]  

[30% complete]

“Awakening” continues the saga started by “The Chronicles of the Upheavals”.  While “Upheavals” focused on North America (hardest hit by the Upheavals), Book Two, “The Chronicles of the Awakening” delves into how the Upheavals have affected other peoples and continents, focusing on Europe, Africa and Asia. 

The Upheavals were particularly devastating for North America, because so many people there were “future-starved” – unable to envision a world beyond their status quo.  Even when faced with clear alternatives, people still embraced denial, scapegoating and status-quoism.  

“Awakening” explores how other continents fared differently from North America.  Other nations had less to lose and more to gain by changing as much as possible, as soon as possible.  These changes led to the development of the “human hives”, or “Unity”… a completely new way for people to live.  

Highlights of “Awakening” include:

• A Western techno-attempt to mitigate the effects of climate change goes disastrously wrong.
• The Awakening Centers try to come to grips with their very different “cousins” in the “hives” of Europe.  Friends and collaborators? Enemies?  Or something else?
• Radical biological transformations among both the Unity “hives” and the “new children” being born in the Awakening Centers calls into question the very definition of “human”.
• The Awakening Centers and Unity enter a showdown with “The Edge”… with some unforeseen consequences.

And, there are still plenty of gun-toting paramilitaries, brain-dead politicians, religious crazies, druggies, warlords, nut cases, fundamentalists, survivalists, refugees…  

Book Three Synopsis:  “The Chronicles of the Metamorphosis”  [2085-2125]

[20% complete]

“Metamorphosis” sees the culmination of a century of devastating upheavals and radical transformations.

Humanity now has three presentations, three “branches”:  

• The Solons (or “Old-Style Humans”), still maintaining individualized consciousness.  
• The Holons, centered in the Awakening Centers, exploring blended consciousness (the holonic mind) and masters of the “Awakened Powers”, and
• The Hives of Unity, explorers of unity or fused consciousness, with powers that are difficult to comprehend.  They are centered… elsewhere.

How those three branches interact will set the pathway for humanity for the next 1,000 years or more.

In “Metamorphosis” all story threads are resolved.  The ultimate purposes for Unity, the Awakening Centers and the “new children” are revealed and resolved.  All “opposition” turns into a new and very dynamic equilibrium.  

And, the reader finally learns what happened to Dr. Moore and the Imaginal Group, way back in Book One.

An “Anti-Synopsis”:  What is NOT in the Series:

From the outset, I posed a “reality” framework for the series:

• No rescues or interventions by space aliens.
• No miraculous technological “fixes” that alleviate the conditions of the Upheavals.
• No conditions or resources that don’t exist at present on Earth.
• No zombies, ghosts, disembodied apparitions or anything else that will distract from the tasks at hand.
• No “divine” interventions (no rescues by the Second Coming of Jesus, the manifestation of the Hidden Mahdi, the reincarnation of the Buddha…)
• [Most importantly:]  No “denials”.  Global climate change IS HAPPENING NOW.  Oil and other energy sources ARE finite.  Social, political, economic and cultural structures ARE collapsing.  Deal with it…
• [Equally important:] Given all of the above, a positive future for ALL BEINGS must be promoted… not spending trillions of dollars so a handful of humans can try to live on another planet, while this one goes down the tubes.