Humanity is just now emerging from adolescence. It’s time to grow up.
This chapter zooms out to a big-picture view of where humanity is right now, framing the current chaos not as a breakdown, but as a kind of growing pain. The idea is simple but challenging: we’re collectively moving out of adolescence and into a more mature stage—and like any growth phase, it comes with tension, confusion, and conflict.
What looks like things falling apart may actually be things coming to the surface so they can finally be worked through.
The parallel between individual growth and collective evolution runs throughout. Just like in personal healing, where buried issues have to rise up before they can be resolved, humanity is facing its own inner splits—between more developed and less developed ways of being.
The discomfort is part of the process, not a sign of failure.
The chapter ultimately points inward. Real change doesn’t come from fixing the outside alone—it comes from understanding and transforming what’s within.
As more people do that work, the larger system begins to shift. It’s a hopeful take, but not an easy one: growing up, whether as a person or a planet, requires effort, honesty, and a willingness to face what’s been avoided.
Jill Loree is the founder of Phoenesse and a longtime student of the Pathwork teachings. She has studied the Pathwork Guide’s material since 1997 and completed four years of training to become a certified Pathwork Helper.
When she first encountered the Pathwork teachings, she described the experience as “walking through the doorway of an AA fourth step and finding the whole library.”
Through Phoenesse, Jill writes and teaches about personal transformation using the spiritual psychology found in the Pathwork lectures.
Her books present these teachings in clear, accessible language to help readers apply them in everyday life. Her work focuses on helping people move from the struggles of duality toward the peace of inner unity.
Raised in northern Wisconsin, Jill began her professional career in technical sales and marketing before discovering that her true calling lay in spiritual teaching and writing.
She lives in New York with her husband, Scott Wisler, who now works with her in sharing these teachings around the world.
