Though from the perspective of consciousness, we cannot make a judgement on the way the world works, we can, nevertheless, from the perspective of consciousness, recognise that, as science has advanced better solutions to issues, so too can we apply better thinking to social policy as part of the natural celebration of living. The intention behind these proposals is not to ‘fix the world’, for that would claim we know better than universal consciousness of which we are only an individual perspective. Rather, it is to share the direct experience of consciousness with the financial industry. Therefore, I am not suggesting solutions to financial policy from a pre-defined ethic or ideology but are introducing those who work in the industry to the direct experience of consciousness for its own sake. What follows is what follows. There can be no specific expectation of these results. At best, we could say this is an impersonally motivated experiment we are curious to conduct. The following are observations about the current state of finance and why it may be in the interests of finance to conduct this experiment.

5000 Years Of Searching For A Stable Source Of Value In Objective And Subjective Experiences

For however many centuries, two groups of people on Earth have broadly searched for value. The first group have been mining downwards “quantitatively” into the physical Earth. The second group have been searching up to the Heavens for a source of value “qualitatively”. Up till now, these two groups have, until now, been speaking different languages to each other, not understanding the other party’s source of value and unable to communicate appropriately and find common ground with each other. The former group has managed the financial system they created to organise material value and has been reluctant to share this power with the other group. This situation, however, is now changing as the financial system is waking up to its social responsibility.

Though economists would have us believe that money is simply a convenient neutral exchange token that replaced a prior cumbersome exchange system based on barter, this is not historically true. As anthropologists like David Graeber have pointed out, the concept of credit and debt, the core of money, has been part of human civilisation for many thousands of years, preceding coinage systems and deeply part of the natural human psyche. As a baby instinctively knows how to recognise and suckle on their mother's breast, the concept of credit and debt has always been an intuitive part of the human psyche. Its ability to assist with qualitative and quantitative aspects of life mirrors the nature of consciousness itself. However, for most of money's history, its value has only been measured against material things. This has skewed our view of credit and debt in purely material terms. To view it from the consciousness perspective, we might equate debt with the effect of separation from our true nature. The ability to pay and settle the debt, the recognition and return to our true nature. Thus, the ebb and flow of finance is an energetic reflection of or metaphor for consciousness. Whom we owe and are paying is ultimately ourselves. However, hidden by the veil of separateness, it appears we owe and pay other people. This revelation does not justify or bypass the very real iniquity and damage of extreme disparity of financial wealth; on the contrary, by realising who we owe and are paying, we are likely to demand less out of fear and share more of the financial wealth around in a manner that more closely corresponds to our experience of oneness, once realised.

The Financing Of Separation

The ongoing legacy of basing money's value only on materialism and ignoring the qualitative aspects of life has been part of an overall culture of objectifying happiness, leaving many with damaged lives. It has become a source of fear for many, often leading to destructive behaviours and detracting from the desire to lead a more conscious life. Materialism is not the inherent fault of money. It is in the hearts and minds of people that this exists. As Krishnamurti pointed out, this is a "crisis of consciousness". This is a global moment of metanoia as we let go of materialism as a definition of wealth. As more and more understand that this crisis has arisen due to a failure to locate our sense of self in its Universal essence, where there is no fear and resulting egoic behaviour, the prevailing culture will naturally evolve. Such people recognise that a critical determinant of our ability to dance harmoniously with material existence is that happiness always comes from within and not from objective experiences, which, though real, are not separate from the underlying reality. They are not separate things but are "made of" the same unifying reality that underpins all existence. Our failure to understand the nature of the self has led to constant confusion. In many cases, this leads to a profound alienation from money or greed for money and less ability to respect and manage money's power to help us.

Stable Financing Of The Flow Of Happiness

It is in the interests of financial systems to have a stable base of value. The only long-term stable solution for money is based on enabling the direct experience of consciousness and the consistent life-affirming qualities this gives rise to as much as possible for all people. When we forget this and peg its value based only on its quantitative aspect, money loses its value, and we pay the price as a society. We see this graphically illustrated time and again throughout the financial history of the human race. Pure materialism devalues money, whereas, in reality, only the consistent life-affirming qualities of human life give it value. This was always the only thing that did. We need to recognise it fully and consciously.

Living In The Not Knowing And
Basing The Value Of Money On The Qualities That Emerge

Based on thousands of years of philosophical and experiential enquiry, we cannot prove that the qualitative (subjective) aspect of life IS subordinate to the quantitative (objective) aspects in reality. For instance, we do not know that the awareness (consciousness) we experience is limited to or generated by the brain, though some materialist scientists are doggedly trying to prove it. The only open-minded position we can take is to acknowledge we have the choice to believe that our awareness is universal or personal. We can see the results by choosing to live based on the belief that like is a personal affair (quantitative) or impersonal and universal (qualitative). We already have a lot of evidence for the effects of the former; its time to find out how the latter works!

For much of its history, we have based money’s value on the quantifiable aspects of life, and we can see the result all around us in the form of an inevitable stripping of material value from every source possible, depleting the physical environment, human society and individual psychology in the process. We now have the opportunity to create and experiment to make the primary source of value of money the qualitative aspect of life and specifically the life-affirming qualities that are the essence of the self that we cannot know is limited to the body.

Key Proposal: Making Consciousness The Next "Gold Standard" Of Money

By making our experience of consciousness the primary source of value (which I would argue it undeniably is), we see money in a new light. Its value is to facilitate understanding, experience, and expression of the life-affirming qualities that are intrinsic characteristics of consciousness. These experiments could be focussed on education in three key respects:

Making Finance Conscious

Widespread education in the financial services industry about consciousness, psychology and ecological sustainability investigating finance's deep purpose to support the direct experience of consciousness.
Widespread use of “quality of life” indicators such as those proposed by Dr Hazel Henderson when designing social policy. For example, World Health Organisation and Calvert Henderson Quality Of Life Indicators.
Widespread education for citizens about the history of finance and consciousness to overcome fear and limiting beliefs based on a distorted view that objectifies happiness, creating a problematic relationship with money.

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A Proposed No Strings Attached Experiment In Understanding Consciousness For The Financial Services Industry