Times of trauma and tribulation can sometimes spark moments of profound clarity.

Perhaps you’ve experienced it. Amid frenzied activity, stress and tension, sadness, even hopelessness—something triggers it. Perhaps a song, a sentence, a speech. Suddenly there is a glancing mental flash. Momentarily, darkness departs and the light of understanding dawns.

Solutions are born in such moments.

World conditions have never been more ripe for a person to experience such a moment.

It’s not that our woes of themselves are unprecedented. The pages of history are littered with bankruptcy, unemployment, industrial and economic failure, political ineptitude, governmental collapse, disease, famine, immorality, corruption, family breakdown, war, violence and death.

What makes today’s conditions unprecedented is that these woes are universally and concurrently converging on a globalized world in the nuclear age. Never has the potential for planet-wide catastrophe been greater. The momentum toward disaster is swelling, like a wave building toward a crest—and more and more people can sense it.

Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan recently wrote about the “psychic woe beneath the economic blow” pervading America (emphasis mine throughout). This really applies to the entire Western world. There are two parts to this psychological woe, says Noonan:

One is that we have arrived at the first fatigue. The heart-pumping drama of last September is gone, replaced by the drip-drip-drip of pink slips, foreclosures and closed stores. We are tired. It doesn’t feel like 1929, but 1930. People are in a kind of suspended alarm, waiting for the future to unspool and not expecting it to unspool happily.Two, the economy isn’t the only reason for our unease. There’s more to it. People sense something slipping away, a world receding, not only an economic one but a world of old structures, old ways and assumptions. People don’t talk about this much because it’s too big, but I suspect more than a few see themselves, deep down, as “the designated mourner,” from the title of the Wallace Shawn play.

People are deeply troubled, not just about failing governments and economies, but that the world is coming unhinged. It’s hard to talk about, it’s so big. Some few are coming to grips with it and are already in mourning—you can tell by reading some journalists. Others are reacting by buying guns, taking their cash out of the bank and putting it under the bed, moving to the country, buying security systems, stocking pantries, buying gold.

The wave of trauma is about to crest. People are bracing.

Meanwhile, world leaders, economists, media pundits, intellectuals and journalists are scrambling madly for solutions. Solving global economic woes tops the agenda. Our leaders can’t agree on solutions, but they do agree on one thing: Unless it’s solved, the global financial meltdown will result in extreme political upheaval. Some anticipate massive social unrest, even deadly military confrontation.

So the planet-wide search and rescue for solutions continues.

Next week, leaders from the top 20 industrialized nations will meet in London to present more solutions. Frankly, it doesn’t look promising. America and Europe are going in championing contradictory solutions. The same prevails globally. Everyone has a solution or two. Problem is, the solutions are conceived in national interest and prejudice, and often undermine the national interests of other countries. Some, such as Russia and China, consider the global meltdown an opportunity to further geopolitical ambitions.

The search goes on.

The search is equally frustrating among intellectuals and journalists. British and American economists want to stimulate economies with gargantuan government bailout packages. Some Europeans, wanting more not less economic discipline, believe stricter financial regulation is the solution. Free-market advocates say, let the economy fix itself. Socialists want greater governmental intervention. Their solutions contradict.

One thing is certain: There is no consensus on the right solution!

Driving home from work the other night, I heard a popular, nationally syndicated talk-show host offer a solution—that is the exact term she used—to listeners worried about America’s growing unemployment lines, collapsing banks and tanking economy. Her calm, reassuring voice suggested timely elucidation was imminent. I turned up the volume.

The solution: Plant a garden.

America is in the midst of its greatest upheaval ever, I thought to myself. Many listeners spend their days standing in unemployment lines or worrying about standing in unemployment lines. They can’t trust their banks, they are worried about inflation, they live in an immoral society, they see tension and conflict rising, and they are led by a government that does more to facilitate these problems than solve them. And this respected author and influential radio host says a solution is toplant a garden.

Talk about discouraging. Planting a garden is worthwhile advice—just don’t sell it as the solution to global crisis.

That suggestion did trigger a flash of clarity: This dearth of workable, lasting solutions reveals the deficiency of the human mind!

Think about it. These physical trends and traumas are a consequence, a product, a fruit of the human mind. Vanity will try to blind you to this reality, but the truth is undeniable. Mankind cannot blame its flunking economies and governments on anyone but itself. They were designed, built and operated by the human mind.

There’s no denying that the human mind is brilliant. We have created impressive technologies. We have made tremendous scientific progress. So why are our problems multiplying even faster than our progress? Why cannot our leaders agree on effective, long-term, REAL solutions to our cancerous problems? Furthermore, what does it say about the human mind and our “evolution” that man confronts the same woes today that he faced 50, 100, 2,000, 5,000 years ago—only far worse?

The point is this: The frenzied activity, crushing hopelessness and debilitating tension engulfing the world actually lends itself to your experiencing a profound—if humbling—epiphany.

Why not take a moment now to consider these world crises and ask yourself, Does this not reveal a deficiency in the human mind? Strive to realize deeply that mankind’s problems, as Herbert Armstrong taught for years, are fundamentally spiritual in nature.

Consider: If the root cause of human trauma is fundamentally spiritual in nature, and a result of a deficiency within the human mind, wouldn’t it make sense that the fundamental solution to human woes would also be spiritual, and have to occur by the healing of the human mind?

That’s a question worthy of energetic study. It’s also one of the central themes of Mr. Armstrong’s book The Incredible Human Potential, which we will send you free upon request. Studied properly and digested deeply, the message of this book will transform moments of lucid clarity into a lifetime of profound understanding.

Most importantly, it will introduce you to the ultimate solution to human trauma.