Survival of the Kindest: Evidence Humankind is Evolving to Become More Compassionate

By Paul Lenda

Guest Writer for Wake Up World

In recent history it has been thought that human beings are hardwired to be instinctively selfish. This perception of reality made for way for the Western “every man for himself” concept and idea that we are individualistic at the core of our nature. However, many studies conducted over the past several years are demonstrating that this idea is not accurately portraying the underlying nature of human beings.

There is mounting evidence that the human race is evolving towards becoming more compassionate and collaborative since our survival counts on these things. In fact, the reasons given by a growing group of psychologists as to why we humans are as successful at surviving and thriving as we are, is because of our nurturing, altruistic, and compassionate traits. With the understanding of the concept of oneness and the interconnected nature of all aspects inReality, it is realized that this revolutionary perception on evolution makes sense. By being kind to another, we benefit not only that other individual by elevating their positive emotions, but also benefit ourselves by elevating our own.

There was a study done at the University of Montreal which found that emotions, depending on whether they are positive or negative, have the ability to either increase or decrease pain. With this being the case, it would be in the best interests of human beings to gravitate towards positive and compassionate feelings and emotions rather than those to the contrary.

By being more positive, compassionate, and kind, humans reap rewards instead of experiencing punishments from maladaptive and detrimental emotions and states of consciousness such as anger. In fact, anger has been found to be linked to all the major causes of death in humans. It would therefore be obvious that the evolutionary process of consciousness would prefer emotional states that transcend anger. If all of this is true, then the genes responsible for the predisposition of anger in some, as found in a study where there was a discovery that anger has a genetic component, will gradually tune out of existence according to the “survival of the kindest” model of consciousness evolution.

Dacher Keltner is the co-director of UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center and he has expressed recently that “human beings have survived as a species because we have evolved the capacities to care for those in need and to cooperate. As Darwin long ago surmised, sympathy is our strongest instinct.” This expression of empathy by human beings is directly connected to the realization of oneness being the fundamental aspect of Reality, whether it is a conscious or an unconscious realization.

Empathy is the ability to feel what another feels and has recently been found to be a genetic predisposition in human beings. By feeling what another feels, we are able to better understand what another is going through, since we are able to experience it for ourselves. The greatest teacher in life is experience and so it is not difficult to understand that empathy is able to give critical insight into another’s life situation.

If a person is feeling melancholy, the feeling of empathy can have a person desire to elevate the melancholic individual’s emotional state to a higher level. Once this process occurs, the higher emotional state will have a positive effect on the other person and benefit both parties. It is in our everyone’s best interests to have an elevated level of consciousness, for we are all One.

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Previous articles by Paul Lenda:

• Awake Up and Pay Attention
• Let The Emergence of a New Humanity Begin!
• The Consciousness of Plants
• You Are The Infinite Explorer
• Where Do We Go From Here?
• 9 Ways to Spot a Fake Guru or Spiritual Teacher
• 9 Healing Benefits of Music
• The Ancient Esoteric Wisdom of the Hawaiian Huna Philosophy
• 8 Ways to Spot Emotional Manipulation.. and Free Ourselves From It
• 10 Ways to Shift Your Consciousness
• Astral Projection – Going Beyond the Astral Plane of Reality

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