What a tumultuous month it has been. I think you would have to have been hiding out in Antarctica to have missed the world's financial dramas, but come to think of it they probably have Wi-Fi even there by now. Yet while it's been a difficult time for almost everybody, there's also a growing sense that it's the beginning of the healing process.

For some of that time, I've been in India as a guest at the annual Peace of Mind Meditation Retreat at the truly remarkable Brahma Kumaris Academy at Mt Abu in Rajasthan. Even there, up on the mountain top (well, not quite), five hours journey from the nearest city of Ahmedabad (whose building boom puts Perth in the shade), news filtered through about the global crisis of confidence.

But along with the 260 odd other participants from 55 different countries, I came away with my heart full of hope and lightness. These are tough times around the world - the five Icelandic delegates were going home to a country whose entire banking system had gone into freefall - but the momentum for change towards a more conscious, caring, compassionate and ethical world is, many now believe, unstoppable.

Some call it the coming of the Golden Age, others the Age of Transformation or Higher Consciousness. And I'm sure there are plenty of people who could be much blunter as they are only too happy to farewell this current age of greed and corporate carelessness that has caused so much harm. And in Australia we are far better off than almost anywhere in the world.

The Brahma Kumaris, an organisation devoted to achieving world peace through self mastery and the sense that we are all "one world", and run by elderly Indian women (the current head is Dadi (elder sister) Janki, a sprightly and rather formidable 92 year old who spoke to us all on several occasions and conducted the 4am meditations (I only know this second hand!)), is at the forefront of this growing awareness. And its reach is truly impressive - our group at this 12th annual retreat included doctors, surgeons, a magistrate, many teachers, nurses and public officials, even a politician from South Africa who called the experience "the best week of her life".

While I've come away refreshed and invigorated, I know the experience reaches much deeper than that. When people of different colours, cultures, countries and creeds meet together in a spirit of harmony with the goal of connecting with our individual and collective soul, that's transforming in itself. We've all come away from Mt Abu knowing the healing has definitely begun and after a rocky few months or longer, our interconnected world will start showing the benefits of this painful experience.

I was interested to read an article from The Times that suggested the same thing but for different reasons. Over the past 10 years, a group of US economists and psychologists has been trying to work out if we really are better off in boom times - and the answer seems to be no. In fact, they even suggest recessions, rather than booms or depressions, might be a blessing. Their studies show we drink and smoke less, lose weight, further our education and the air is cleaner with fewer vehicles on the road. So it's not all bad!

Take heart and healing energy from our issue this month.

Margaret Evans
NOVA Editor
November 2008