A change in your beliefs is sometimes referred to as a (4) paradigm shift. A paradigm is simply the way you see things, like the widespread belief most people held at one time that the world is flat. But that belief has been disproved, and we can never go back to it again. Sometimes a revolutionary, planet-wide paradigm shift happens because of new technology, like jet engines, digital clocks, or cell phones. After some initial suspicion, such changes can go viral, rapidly generating enthusiasm all around the world. As a general rule, however, when it is their beliefs that are being challenged, people respond with fear, anger, and resistance.

In fact, as Neale Donald Walsh puts it in Storm before the Calm:

Polarization . . . is the signal that the era [paradigm] is actually coming to an end. . . Eras have always ended with the emergence of the sharpest divisions ever between one point of view and another, between yesterday’s ideas and tomorrow’s hopes, because it is at the end of an era that those who cannot let go of their Old Story feel the most threatened, and so hold on most tightly.

And right now, early in the 21st century, polarization defines us in America, as well as all around the world, manifesting in political turmoil and drastic power plays by those who want to keep the status quo or even revert to former conditions. It might be helpful for people to be aware that we are trying to work our way through a paradigm shift of gargantuan proportion. There is no such thing as stopping or reversing a paradigm shift once it has begun. (5) Resistance to change causes anguish; (6) going with the flow brings peace of mind.

Whether they happen gradually or in an instant, painfully or peacefully, internally or publicly, paradigm shifts happen, and there will be more of them in the coming few years than humanity has ever experienced. There will be so many, in fact, that the cumulative effect will create—and, in fact, is already creating–an entirely New Paradigm on earth. Although that is not the language many people would use to describe the shift, and not everyone knows about or believes in such a shift, millions of people are working toward exactly that—some consciously and deliberately, others with less awareness.