I would like to give a TED talk on how to solve all of the world's problems. Consider this article the basis for that talk.

I'm a bit of a renaissance man. I've self-published about 15 books on various subjects (www.dondurrett.com). Most of them were written because no one else had done it. And since no one has written how to solve all of the world's problems, I guess I'll do that one too.

For my credentials, I've worked for 25+ years in IT related jobs, so I have a logical mind. For 30 years, I have studied metaphysics, and I am spiritual philosopher. I have an M.B.A., but I consider my spiritual education to perhaps be at the Ph.D. level. I am well-read in politics, and have written my own constitution. In fact, I have published two different constitutions.

My constitutions were completely original works, as are all of my books. I have also published a book on health called Get Healthy / Stay Healthy. Plus, I am an expert on investing in gold and silver mining stocks and published a book on this topic. Finally, I have published an article on how Bitcoin works, which I think will be the future of money.

The bulk of my writings have been on spirituality and metaphysics. I wrote my first metaphysical book in 1990. I was not exposed to metaphysics until 1989, when I was 29 years old. Amazingly, I began writing about metaphysical topics less than a year later. It was as if a light went on my head. Everything I was reading was triggering an awakening because I understood what I was reading.

I had my natal horoscope analyzed in the early 1990s, and the astrologer told me that I had nearly unlimited spiritual potential. I forget her exact words, but my ability to learn spiritual knowledge was way above normal. She was surprised I was born in the United States. She said nobody in America cared about what I had to say, and that I should be in India or a country that would accept my spiritual gifts. She said I should be a spiritual teacher of some kind.

Well, so far she has been right. My metaphysical books have not sold very well. And what follows, most of you will likely rebel against, because it probably will seem impossible to you. Solve all the world's problems? Yeah, right.

Okay, let's begin. I'm a 5th-level old soul, and my role is that of a priest-scholar. Don't worry, I'll explain. Everyone incarnated on this planet is somewhere on a continuum of spiritual awareness. There are 35 levels split into five categories. Those five categories are as follows: infant soul, baby soul, young soul, mature soul, and old soul.

Infant soul is where the cycle begins. At this level, we are at the extreme level of spiritual immaturity. It's analogous to the first few years of a baby's life. We are dependent on others to take care of us and teach us what to do. Infant souls are the smallest group on this planet, making up about 1% of the population.

Baby souls are more analogous to children and teenagers than babies. Baby souls have already learned their survival skills and are now ready for school. One of the largest traits of baby souls is they are much better at following than leading. Their leadership skills have not yet been honed. Another trait of baby souls is their lack of maturity.

Young souls are ready to take on the world. The two traits that dominate young souls are an ego-centric personality and a strong desire for achievement. A tale-tale sign of a young soul is the lack of empathy for others. This is the category that generates a lot of karma, but that's to be expected.

Mature souls learn lessons about relationships. If you know someone with a lot of drama in their life and they are empathetic with a good heart, then those are mature souls. These souls not only have a lot of drama, but also their share of trauma. They are learning about emotions and are no longer solely focused on achievement.

Old souls learn lessons about unconditional love and compassion. Old souls have learned that material achievement was a hollow victory, and that how you treat others is of paramount importance. These are the mature, wise souls who inhabit the planet. Most of these souls prefer to stay in the background and avoid leadership positions.

You may have a combination of these categories, which occurs when you are on the cusp of moving into the next category. For instance, late-stage mature souls or early-stage old souls are often very compassionate individuals, but still have a lot of trauma and drama in their lives.

Each category has seven levels. Thus, 5 x 7 equal 35 levels. Each level requires at least one lifetime to master, but nearly always take more than one lifetime. So, it's possible to complete a reincarnation cycle in 35 lifetimes, but that never happens. The average is about 150 lifetimes. Once you complete a cycle, you usually begin another one. I've done several and have lived more than 1,000 lifetimes.

Note: All of this information can be found by studying the Michael Teachings: www.michaelteachings.com.

Okay, I'm a 5th-level old soul, so if you do the math, I'm at level 33. A 7th-level old soul would be at level 35. What is significant about level 33 is that it is the last level before the soul pulls away from society. Nearly all level 34 and 35 souls live very quiet secluded lives.

If a level 34 or 35 soul reads this it is because someone asked them to verify the information. Level 34 or 35 souls get nearly all of their knowledge from within. They have no use for most worldly knowledge. The only knowledge they care about is what their heart and soul tells them. They are here to get closer to the Creator, which is found within. If I complete level 33 in this lifetime, then my next life will most likely be spent in quiet introspection.

Some of you may be thinking, he called himself a priest-scholar. What did he mean? Each of us has a specific role that impacts the lessons that we learn. There are seven roles, and everyone has one. You can also have a sub role, which I have. The seven roles are priest, scholar, king, warrior, sage, server, and artisan.

Each role has an overriding archetype that impacts our personality and the lessons that we learn. Priests inspire, scholars learn, kings lead, warriors achieve, sages entertain, servers help, and artisans create. Using those archetypes, you should be able to guess your role.

Okay, as I have stated, I am a 5th-level old soul, and my role is that of a priest-scholar. I am way up the spiritual awareness continuum and my role is to learn about spirituality. We keep the same role for an entire reincarnation cycle, or approximately 150 lifetimes. So, I have been learning about spirituality for lifetime after lifetime. You can say that I am an expert at spirituality. All of the great actors have the role of sage. All of the great musicians have the role of artisan. That's how it works. They didn't become great actors or great musicians. They were born that way. They brought that talent with them from past lives, and then it was awakened.

I am a real priest. I didn't become one in this lifetime. I was already one when I was born. Mozart was an old-soul artisan. No one had to teach him how to play the piano. He remembered. Just I like I remembered spirituality.

I know the answers to the deepest questions. I know the meaning life. I know why we are here and where we are going. I'm not the only one that knows these answers. There are many old souls who know these spiritual truths. However, being a 5th-level priest-scholar, it is natural for me to share this information. Most old souls prefer less exposure, and even I am apprehensive about releasing this information. I would prefer to avoid the limelight. Conversely, I know that this information needs to be shared.

Now that we have established my credentials, I am ready to tell you how we are going to solve all of the world's problems. But first, a bit more of an overview.

There are three main groups of people in the world today. One, those who know that they have a soul and are not going to die when this lifetime ends. Two, those who have faith that they have soul, and are not going to die when this lifetime ends. And, three, everyone else. This last group includes those who are atheists, agnostics, or in denial of what they know to be true - that they probably do have a soul.

As you can probably guess, I'm in the first group, which encompasses about 4 to 5% of the global population. It used to be 3% when I first starting studying metaphysics, but has been increasing at a rapid rate. That rapid rate is why I can write this article and know it has validity.

Let's talk about what I know. I know that everyone has an eternal soul and that we are all connected. In fact, we all share the same consciousness, which is that of the Creator. What we perceive as our ego-personality is an illusion of separation. It was only created to learn lessons. Our true self is within, and only encompasses one thing, love. It's really that simple. Love is our true nature, and everything else is an illusion.

If you go within deep enough, you will find that the source of our consciousness is the Creator. You will also find that the Creator only has one true nature, which is love. Thus, that is our true nature as well. Why? Because we are not separate from the Creator. Our individualness is an illusion. In fact, because our individualness is an illusion, we are all one. Our consciousness cannot be separated. No consciousness can be separated from the Creator.

The physical world is one all encompassing consciousness. How is this so? Because the Creator cannot create anything that is separate from itself. In order to expand knowledge and expand experience, the Creator created the material world and ego personalities. The material world is nothing more than consciousness made of energy. It's all an illusion.

Currently, we are incarnated in the material world, and our higher-self exists on another plane of reality. These higher planes of reality exist as non-material, non-physical worlds. These are higher dimensions. The material worlds are the lower dimensions. We are only here to learn and expand our awareness.

Everyone on this planet only encompasses a portion of their soul. The other portion remained on another plane of existence, on the non-physical dimensions. That other portion is in constant contact with you. And when you leave this lifetime, you will be reunited with your higher self. You will instantly feel a level of love and bliss that is your natural true self. It will feel like going home, which is what it is.

So, what is the meaning of life? Expansion. The expansion of life, the expansion of experience, the expansion of awareness. That's it. Simple as that. The Creator only has one objective, which is expansion.

Every soul on this planet is doing the same thing. They are expanding their awareness. What you don't know is that your personal expansion is just a blip of experience. Everyone thinks that this lifetime is really important. But it is just blip of experience. Time does not exist. The eternal soul has plenty of time to expand its awareness. It is a blessing to be here during this unique period, but the soul has plenty of time to learn its lessons and expand its experience.

You are expanding your soul's experience by using free choice. You get to choose what you put in your body, how you treat others, and a myriad of other decisions that you make on daily basis. We don't really have free will because all consciousness is interrelated and works together. Free will implies you can do whatever you want, but thats not how life works. Everyone has limited free will and limited choices. It's very complicated and I can't explain it in a few sentences. What's important to know is that while we don't have free will, we do have is free choice. Ultimately, what you have is the free choice to decide if you want to embrace the truth.

If you think you have the free will to do whatever you want, try it and see how it works out. You will come to learn very quickly that you don't always get what you want. There are forces bigger than us impacting our lives, and those forces are integrating all of life. But we do have is the free choice to embrace the truth. Very few people do, even though they know it is the right thing to do. In fact, they know it is the most important thing to do.

We are living in an era where the truth is being released. It's becoming harder and harder to be oblivious to the truth. And what is the truth? That we have an eternal soul and that we are all connected. More than that, our core is love. Now that is the truth. Are you going to embrace it? That is your free choice. That is the lesson every soul has to learn. The Creator does not care how you learn it and has unlimited patience.

Embracing the truth is very hard because it means that you have live your true essence. You have to do no harm to both your self and humanity. You need live in harmony, with virtue. That is no easy to do. In fact, it is nearly impossible for most souls on this planet, and the reason why most don't even try. As Al Pacino said, "It's too damn hard."

The irony is that humans strive and strive to achieve success, when the only success that is important is learning how to embrace the truth. Those who try are mostly ostracized and labeled with negative connotations, mostly spoken behind their back. The very people who can help humanity are pushed to the side. A few people have voice, such as the Dali Lama or Deepak Chopra, but their voices are drowned out.

Okay, I've told you some very important truths. One, that reincarnation is true. Two, that we use reincarnation to expand our awareness. Three, that we all connected to the Creator as eternal souls. From these three truths, we can solve all of our problems. All we have to do is believe them. Fortunately, the Creator has a plan to expose these truths. And as these truths are revealed, our problems will go away. Actually, what will make our problems go away is when we embrace these truths.

Let me start with the plan to reveal the truths, then I'll explain how we will come to embrace them. The grand plan is eons in the making. I would say the grand plan goes back at least 100,000 years. Incredibly, we get to live during the culmination of this grand plan. It's mind-boggling to contemplate. We are very fortunate to be here to experience it. Every day we should acknowledge our gratitude to the Creator for giving us this opportunity. Trust me when I say that we got a lucky ticket to the show.

The grand plan is to steadily increase the spiritual vibration on the planet. This started happening in the 1800s after a long period of preparation, and really picked up steam in the 1960s. Each decade since the 1960s, it has increased a higher octave. It has now reached a level where advanced souls can now incarnate on this planet.

Advanced souls are even higher on the spiritual continuum than level 35. Many of the millennials are advanced souls and could not have incarnated until recently. This increase in vibration will continue, and more advanced souls will incarnate. As the vibration increases, these truths are easier to grasp and embrace.

Soon there will be a noticeable shift in the spiritual vibration of the planet, where we get a huge boost in awareness. I call this the expected energy shift. Some people call it the change point. There will be a point in time in the near future when suddenly something changes energetically to the mass consciousness. At that time, these truths will begin to be accepted on a mass scale. When that time happens, our problems will begin to fade away.

Mankind has always had a problem with equality. Today financial inequality and racial inequality are front-page news and global problems. When society finally realizes that we are all connected and all eternal souls, life will change for the better. At that time, life will change to create a society based on humanity and love. The old ways of conflict and competition will no longer be accepted norms. Inequality will steadily fade from existence.

Earlier I said that you will rebel from some of the things I have to say. Many of you are saying, he is talking about utopia and communism. No, I'm saying that social structures based on inequality will not be able to stand. When you realize everyone here is an eternal soul, it changes how you perceive life. Society will be reorganized. It is inevitable. And that reorganization will produce a society that is much more just and fair than what exists today. How do I know this? Because it is part of the grand plan.

Advanced souls are incarnating on this planet today for only one reason, and that is to shift our awareness away from separation and towards oneness. This shift towards an affinity with others, is a movement towards love. And trust me, love will manifest. Nothing is going to stop it.

So, what can you do to speed up the grand plan? In other words, what can you do to solve all of the world's problems? Be an example of love. We are human beings. We are here to be. Be harmony, and be love. Those two things are all we need to solve all of the world's problems.

Some of you are thinking that's too simple. Trust me, it's very, very difficult to live in harmony. Try to do it for one day, and then the next, and the next. Many try, but few succeed. But the advanced souls will show the way, and soon more us will be able to do it.

So what does it mean to live in harmony? It means to live with virtue, with love in your heart. Not part of the time, but all the time. Anyone can live with virtue part of the time. It's when you become virtuous and harmonious all the time that magic happens. Once we can learn to live in harmony as a community, as a state, as a nation, our problems will fade away.

I have found that the best way to live in harmony is to follow three rules:

1) Respect the Creator. Live with virtue.

2) Have faith. Trust the Creator's plan for your life, which is perfect.

3) Respect others. Treat them as you want to be treated.

I'll leave you with one final thought, which is to embrace the truth that I have revealed. When you embrace the truth, then harmony and love are the natural outcome. Let's end with those three truths that will create our future: One, reincarnation is true. Two, we use reincarnation to expand our awareness. Three, we are all connected to the Creator as eternal souls. Any separation that we perceive is an illusion.

If you found this material intriguing, but aren't quite sure what to think, watch this video from Louise Kay.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crgez15VO-o

Another source to consider is the book Journey of Souls by Michael Newton.