This chapter first surveys the mystical and spiritual core of some of the world’s major religions, including Christianity, Islam (Sufism), Hinduism (Advaita Vedanta), Buddhism, and Daoism. It shows that beyond dogma and doctrine, the spiritual core in all these traditions points to a remarkably similar conception of the divine. This concept is comprehensible to humans as they contemplate their own true nature and begin to see what they are and what they are not. Many of the pathways to understanding our own true nature lead first to what we are not. Eventually, we come to an understanding beyond body and mind, which is normally difficult to explain in words as this understanding is beyond language and thought. This deep insight is often referred to as emptiness, pure consciousness, or pure awareness.

The chapter then asks whether this understanding can play a role in how humans organize their societies, govern themselves, and make public policy. It will show that the failure to understand our true divine nature is the root cause of the challenges we now face in the Anthropocene, through false or imaginary notions of the self as an ego, and the sense of separateness from each other and nature. It will argue that the recognition of our oneness, of non-dual reality, and a shared consciousness can indeed contribute to a rethinking of public policies and social institutions at the heart of a more sustainable world.

In this light, we introduce the concept of the “Divine Human” as the emergent state that arises when fragmentation ends. Rather than defining it as a fixed ideal, we use it to illustrate that when the sense of separateness dissolves, choicelessly, human actions flow from wholeness. Such action directly responds to the interconnected ecological, economic, and social dimensions of the Anthropocene crisis. The actions which flow from the Divine Human naturally correct patterns of overexploitation, pollution, over-consumption, and systemic exclusion. In contrast to transhumanism, which focuses on technological enhancement, the Divine Human reflects a transformation of consciousness. From this state, action is guided by care, relationship, and responsibility toward all life, addressing the polycrisis and metacrisis not through control, but through wisdom.