The 2nd Wave

With the decline of the Catholic church, as well as its control over thought and information, a new era of exploration and discovery emerged.  Known as the Renaissance, it was an explosion of new knowledge and methods.  

During this time, many of our old assumptions and superstitions were challenged via the "scientific method," and replaced with more rational conclusions.  And with innovations like the printing press and paper to spread the word, advances in thought spread quickly throughout the western world.  

As the enlightenment progressed, people began to question the divine nature of royalty, and started to explore other methods of governance.  This is when the next major change in our consciousness occurred, as concepts like democracy and self-governance worked their way into our social order.

Now, instead of power residing in kingdoms as in our first leap in consciousness, or power residing in religious hierarchies as in our second, power would come to reside in government.  But even this would not last for long ...

The Industrial Revolution

As the burst of scientific discovery continued, many life-changing inventions were discovered.  Basic things like electricity, the steam engine, the telegraph and the telephone, would soon come to drastically change our world -- a world where the vast majority of people were farmers who lived, worked, traveled and died all within a 10 mile radius of their birth place -- to a modern society that exists today.  And as we did, the standard of wealth changed from land and seeds, to capital and labor.  

But competition and hierarchy remained the rule, as was reflected in the rise of Nationalism.