The Homo Universalis Project

How are humans evolving at this time? What development and evolutionary processes are underway? How might the complex and unpredictable nature of the meta-crisis be a birthing crucible for new permissions and developments, urging us to make yet another evolutionary leap towards becoming a more universal human?


In this series with Aviv Shahar, Karen Heney and Kyriaki Nikandrou, we allow ourselves to imagine and explore the capacities, character traits, and new sense organs we can develop to update our operating system. We introduce you to the 1000 faces of Homo Universalis, with the hope that you may recognize and appreciate the potential and the promise of some of them inside you.

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Aviv Shahar

Kyriaki Nikandrou

Karen Heney

The Universalis Project – Evolving Together

In this update we first reflect on the journey we’ve been on, and then describe some of the exciting frontiers in development, including two new series of conversations
The Homo Universalis Project #1

The Homo Universalis Project #1 – The Origin Story

As a wave of new evolutionary energy continues to surge with ever-greater intensity across the planet, there is also a greater urge to explore more deeply what this emerging future 
Epoch Conundrum

The Homo Universalis Project #2 – The Epoch Conundrum

Let’s imagine we fully embrace the perception that a big leap in evolution is now liberating the human species into a fuller universal possibility — homo universalis. Are we including ourselves,

The Homo Universalis Project #3 – The Art of Inquiry

One of the most powerful tools we have in our growth and development is something we probably use every day and never really appreciate its potential to change our lives.
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The Homo Universalis Project #4 – Space-Making and Loom Work Application

We’ve explored on Portals the new awareness and capacities being brought online with the activation of Homo Universalis, the universal human, part of the new evolutionary energy
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The Homo Universalis Project #5 – The Evolution of Knowledge

Most of us probably think we “know” a lot. We’re immersed in information coming at us continually through more digital, physical and sensory channels
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The Homo Universalis Project #5 – The Evolution of Knowledge

Most of us probably think we “know” a lot. We’re immersed in information coming at us continually through more digital, physical and sensory channels than we can probably keep track of, even if we tried. How much of this limitless data is actually knowledge that makes a difference in our lives?

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The Homo Universalis Project #6 - A Seven-Fold Evolutionary Process

We see it often, and usually are moved or inspired by the beauty and dimensions of this simple, seemingly magical act of nature. Yet do we ever consider that the spectrum of light
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The Homo Universalis Project #7 – The Epoch Story

What if we were to look at human history with new eyes and maybe a radically different outlook; not as events and cultures frozen in time, but as part of the purposeful flow of evolution that is ongoing and accelerating;
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The Homo Universalis Project # 8 – Partnering With The Universe

Do you ever wonder why some business or life partnerships flourish and endure the test of time, while others wither away and fade out prematurely? What are the key elements of breakthrough partnering?.
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Partnering with the Universe – A Universalis Project Update

Our long and revealing journey of discovery with homo universalis, the universal human, has taken us to what feels like a new beginning, but now as partners; a partnership that will transform both of us in the ongoing adventure of an unfolding new epoch and new future.
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The Homo Universalis Project # 9 - Deepening In Evolutionary Mysteries

If we’re already diving deep into the core mysteries of the human experience — such as how to partner with a new wave of evolution and engage with the universe — how do we push even further on the edge of discovery? Can we go even deeper into the mysteries? What’s the real benefit?.
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The Homo Universalis Project # 10 - Why The World Is Breaking Down

Even if we’re familiar with the themes of evolutionary change and upgrade that run through Portals, what’s happening in the world today seems startling: the operating system that enables modern life as we know it appears to be crashing.
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This Epochal Moment

Mighty, seemingly unbreakable civilizations rose and fell. Historians of all times and futurists try to trace the signs of decline and predict the end of an era. Can we predict the collapse of a civilization, just as Cassandra predicted the end of the Trojans and the Greek historian Polybius foresaw the demise of the Roman Empire some 600 years before it fell? Can we see the warning lights when as a society we are running at an ever-increasing speed towards a cliff? Can we choose to avert civilizational collapse by redirecting and engendering a deep renewal?
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This Epochal Moment, Event Part 1: Breakdown

Is it really a contradiction to think of the global chaos unfolding around us as both an overdue day of reckoning, and possibly the most hopeful, optimistic time we’ve seen in this century? Can humanity still retain the capacity for renewal and rebirth in such a time of intense doubt and fear about the future?
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The Homo Universalis Project #11 – The Two Struggles

As we find our way each day through the often intense and personal struggles facing us and humanity, imagine that we can build our strength and resilience by exercising the right muscles; not just physical, but our emotional, mental and spiritual “muscles.
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The Universalis Project #12 – At the New Acropolis Frontiers

Where can we look for inspiration and wisdom in this truly dynamic and challenging moment in our evolutionary journey? As we accelerate change from the crumbling modern operating system into a new period of history, a new epoch?
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The Universalis Project #13 – The 7 - Fold Epoch Progression

For many, last year made it impossible to ignore the scale of global change — what we see as global instability is only one dimension of a larger meta-crisis. Portals has been following the signs of this broader evolutionary cycle, which is reshaping our planet and humanity.
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The Sevenfold Epoch – The Five Stories

Welcome to a new year of possibility! We’re starting off with two Portals conversations that illuminate in a unique way the evolutionary human story. In the first, “The Five Stories of the Epoch” featuring Aviv Shahar and Jeff Vander Clute, and in the second,
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The Universalis Project #14 – Decoding The Current Of The Epoch

If an incoming wave of universal change is influencing human behavior and global culture, as many have said, how do we see it? Where is it appearing? Can we really decode the flow and patterns of evolution as they emerge almost real-time in many of the core domains of human life and endeavor?
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The Universalis Project #15: Pathways to Universal Life

Imagine a process that can bypass our dominant, loves-to-be-in-control brain and open a subtle energetic pathway to help us sense and feel the many dimensions of the Universalis human.

The Universalis Project #16 – Is a New Human Model Emerging?

Welcome to a new year of possibility! We’re starting off with two Portals conversations that illuminate in a unique way the evolutionary human story. In the first, “The Five Stories of the Epoch” featuring Aviv Shahar and Jeff Vander Clute, and in the second,
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The Universalis Project #17 – 10 Dimensions of Knowing

“How do you know what you know?” This provocative question sets the stage for an illuminating live conversation. Opening pathways to expanded ways of knowing is a profound liberation — especially in a time marked by increasing polarization.
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How Do We Verify What is True and Real? – The Universalis Project #18

If you search the internet, you're instantly confronted with a vast reservoir of knowledge — academic, scientific, artificial (AI-generated), and even channeled sources. Amid this teeming sea of information, how do you verify what is real and what is true?
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The Verification System of Life – The Universalis Project #19

One practical test asks: Do the practices drawn from this knowledge foster sustained well‑being, or do they diminish it? Can the study of natural laws liberate us into a more potent agency for life?
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Becoming The Future Human – The Universalis Project #20

It’s both curious and fitting that the validation and verification of knowledge has become a central inquiry within the Universalis series.

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The Axis of Becoming – Humanity’s Sacred Covenant

One of the great mysteries of all time is the God–human, human–God relationship. Throughout history, this relationship has revealed several key patterns.

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Sacred Revolutions: The Unfinished Axial Promise – Universalis #21

One of the greatest mysteries of all time is the God-human, human-God relationship. Throughout history that relationship has had several key patterns.
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Self-Leadership Inside the Violet Intensification – Universalis #22

The cultivation of qualities as a perennial practice initiates this in-depth appraisal of the current human situation, demonstrating how the values we share become the foundation for co-creating the future together.
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What Truly Holds Value Now? – Universalis #23

Currency, in the context of a medium of exchange, raises a profound question: Are we trading away our human values and evolutionary possibilities for a lesser response — or are we embracing the emergent potential to balance, recast, and actively facilitate evolution?
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The Nascent Renaissance Emerging – Universalis #24

Amid sweeping shifts in global systems, economics, science and technology, a new Renaissance is drawing near, though still invisible to many. We can trace its early sprouts in modern medicine, art; and in the many spaces where philosophy, science, and spirituality meet to unlock a fresh green impulse.
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The Examined Life: An Esoteric Trace – Universalis #25

In this episode, Aviv Shahar, together with Karen Heney and Kyriaki Nikandrou, brings the lived perspective of a visit to Finland into a live, experimental conversation into Socrates’ timeless insight, “The unexamined life is not worth living”.

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What Blocks the Human From Its Greater Possibility? – Universalis #26

What enables us to look at a problem and discover the opportunity within it? What helps us loosen the gravitational pull of a predicament and release its holding power? To do so requires a form of inner alchemy – an authentic transformation that rewires who we are and how we engage with our environment.

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Indigo Planet? – Universalis #27

How might we appreciate Indigo not merely as a color, but as one of the seven natural potencies shaping all organic processes? How might we move beyond concept and begin to sense its subtle activity and emergent influence?

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Entering the Cathedral of the Unseen – Universalis #28

When was the last time you found yourself in a space so filled with presence that it awakened wellbeing, self-value, and a renewed sense of purpose within you?

 

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Contemplative Pathways for an Epochal Crossing – Universalis #29


Contemplating and abiding with inquiries through feelings, values, sentiments, and appreciations is an active search for knowledge beyond just the logical mind.

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Liberation: The Next Frontier of Human Development – Universalis #30

Liberation is explored as the next frontier of human development, inviting us to move beyond conditioned patterns and discover the inner freedom that emerges through self-awareness, transformation, and the realization of our deepest human potential.

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Where Truth, Love, and Life Converge – Universalis #31

What are the three deepest forces that have shaped human life throughout every culture, every age, and every civilization? And what becomes possible when they begin to work together?

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What Happened to Religion? Universalis #32

This inquiry-driven conversation explores the relationship between religion and the larger evolutionary story, the functions the Axial religions served in humanity’s development, and their significance at this time of epochal transition.

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The Three Octaves of Religion – Universalis #33

What if the recurring waves of religious renewal throughout history have been responses to an evolutionary current seeking fresh expression? And what if the current arriving now is seeking expression not through another religion, but through a new universal human capacity?

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The Hidden Purpose of Religion – Universalis #34

For more than two thousand years, religion has been one of humanity’s central organizing principles, alongside family and nation. Most people alive today have encountered religion in one form or another, whether through belief and practice, cultural inheritance, spiritual searching, or even through the decision to reject religious belief.

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The Study of the Human Predicament and Its Stop Situations

In both conversations, the inquiry is forensic: Where are we in the Universalis journey, and what brought us here? The aim is to trace the living, causative roots that propel and nourish this endeavor.

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New Ways of Knowing – Unlocking a Greater Truth

During a Portals of Perception team meeting, a team member shared a striking observation: “It feels as though the body of work that’s been developing — in the Universalis Project, Portals Into the Soul, The Current Opening Series,
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New Ways of Knowing, Part 2 – The Natural Integrated Verification System of Life

In Part One, we explored the origins of the inquiry into the verification problem — what catalyzed it and the discovery it set in motion. We reflected on the nine steps of the scientific method, acknowledging not only the immense knowledge and progress it enabled,

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The Hidden Purpose of Religion – Universalis #34

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The Lost Oath of the Mystery Schools

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The Three Octaves of Religion – Universalis #33

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