In recent times, Patten has been focusing his work on humanity’s civilizational crisis and collective mortality. Since April 2021 he’s also had to face his personal mortality in the form of a rare, aggressive “incurable” Stage IV cancer. Here he shares what he’s learning about being of benefit to all life in the midst of death. He has a deep comprehension of the sacred global rite of passage that we, and all humankind, are going through in these liminal times and shares how we can be of help in an insane world. He suggests that we gather as spiritual friends to be of help to one another in these crazy-making times. Terry’s work weaves together strands from evolutionary neuroscience, deep ecology, integral theory, and spiritual wisdom. He offers a way to be an effective revolutionary during humanity’s current morass. He points to a collective, “There’s a puzzle we’re all faced with; how can simple sincerity that’s post ironic, post heroic, post tragic, encounter grace and be changed by it and not stuck in negativity? How can we become a more discerning listener, listening with the ear of the heart in a deeper way so that we actually can hear what is true amidst this cacophony of pretender voices that are lying to us and manipulating us, gaming our nervous system, reverse engineering the things that grab our attention, and who are bringing out our fear and our sense of threat?”
