Monday, August 25, 2008

Quotation Nation

"With relief, with humiliation, with terror, he understood that he too was a mere appearance, dreamt by another." - Jorge Luis Borges, The Circular Ruins

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Forward Into The Past

The signs are there, as they usually are. The further our species evolves, the closer we get to our origins. Let's take a look at a potted history of the anthropological progression. Man starts migrating out of southern Africa, up into the Rift Valley of present day Kenya and over the then shallow isthmus of the Red Sea into the Arabian peninsula. From that point millenia will pass, but eventually discrete cultures and civilizations will follow; each with a distinct set of skills to conquer their immediate environment. Not long after the landmasses are settled the need for domination will rise, which begets war and empire. This rapidly escalates the development of technology and the possibility of auto extinction, followed in quick succession by over exploitation of commerce and the mismanagement of natural resources.


Today our issues are rapidly moving away from our national differences and gaining pace towards our common evolutionary needs; not unlike the early homo sapiens. The 'tribe' has grown and diversified, but the challenge remains - how to evolve successfully. Tracing the trajectory of this evolution, it becomes abundantly clear that we are due for another major developmental shift. Combine this with the fact that our global system of governance is failing to deliver such progress, and it must follow that we can only turn to our individual selves for answers. The key lies in a global effort towards enabling personal power; power based on emotional intelligence, individual responsibility and unity conciousness. The affairs of man now requires greater ambition than mere systemic tinkering. We can no longer afford being trapped by the inefficiencies of heritage and legacy. Below is an excerpt from "The 2008 Shift Report: Changing the Story of Our Future" by Matthew Gilbert, Executive Editor and Project Director of the Institute of Noetic Sciences :

One of the most significant recent shifts in worldwide consciousness is a growing awareness and alarm about global warming and planetary instability, along with a decline in trusting governments and other mainstream institutions to tell the truth and take effective action. At the same time, trust in NGOs (nongovernmental organizations) and other groups actively working to bring about positive change is strong and steadily growing. As just one “tipping point” in a series of crucial shifts necessary for global transformation, ecological issues may be the most important. In evolving from unusual to common, eco-consciousness is rapidly integrating itself into our social, political, and economic realities. We may be entering the opening stages of what industrial designer Bruce Mau calls the “massive change”—the emergence of a new culture with a new economy and new industries based in a new political system. With a growing understanding that humanity may not have a generation of time left for more trial and error, work that previously languished in the realm of theory has suddenly taken on new urgency and meaning, while new connections are being made among pressing issues that long appeared to be unrelated or fragmented.

Most significantly, we have come to recognize that our ecological crises are a by-product of a flawed economic system and that the system itself is becoming increasingly impacted by—and dependent upon—global conflict and natural disasters. Such a system, addicted to continuous economic growth as tracked by a narrow set of indicators, is proving catastrophic for large numbers of people and their land base. Those who offer a different way of measuring health and prosperity have brought strong challenges against this pervasive economic model. They are working to build a “green” or “caring” or “partnership” economy based on the values of social justice and sustainability, and they are attracting new levels of support while generating tangible, in-the-field results. This unprecedented and widespread response has translated into a renewed sense of purpose and action. The instant availability of vast amounts of new information has allowed greater numbers of people to educate themselves about a variety of issues and to plug into both on-the-ground and virtual networks of change. These efforts are emerging in a multitude of ways as a kind of “swarm intelligence” that is attacking the problems at innumerable inner and outer tension points, constituting what is being called the largest movement of change on Earth.

However, organized responses to social inequities and injustices have struggled in recent years to evolve alongside rapid changes in world dynamics and the new challenges those shifts present. Many organizations and causes within a fragmented network clamor for support, and true progress is often difficult to discern. The perceived failure of the peace and environmental movements, for example, to bring about lasting change has burned cynicism into many activists, at a time when nearly all assessments point to an intensification of the problems facing humanity. As a result, many social change movements have become stuck. But this period of frustration is also catalyzing a much-sought-after evolution in philosophy and strategy. The acceleration of change and the greater imperative brought about by the growing awareness of what are being called the “convergent crises”—resource depletion, peak oil, climate change, systems collapse, and economic instability—are forcing adaptation on both the individual and institutional fronts. Once-moribund activist practices and daunting social change work are being creatively reinvigorated. Effective alternatives to such traditional social change strategies as marches, rallies, and regulated not-for-profits reflect a wealth of new thinking on organizing models that take advantage of the emerging dynamics of collaboration, decentralization, autonomy, flexibility, and technological nimbleness.

With many postmodern theorists advocating a unification of ancient tribal wisdom with conventional science and reason as the next phase of human evolution, it is no surprise that neotribalism, particularly as it applies to organizing people into ad hoc tribal councils or councils of elders, has experienced a revival. One interesting and effective example of this is the growing popularity of the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers and its work with the largely science-and-action driven Bioneers organization, which has been sponsoring annual gatherings of scientists and social innovators since 1990. Another hopeful sign is the formation of The Elders, a group of thirteen global leaders—including Gro Brundtland, Jimmy Carter, Aung San Suu Kyi, Nelson Mandela, and Arch-bishop Desmond Tutu—who are applying their collective experience and leadership to such troubled areas as Darfur, the Middle East, and Zimbabwe.


In Chicago, San Francisco, and other cities, “urban tribes” of artists, activists, healers, and eco-practitioners are preparing for an uncertain future by forming councils to identify key issues and plans of preparation and action. Many of these tribes were born out of the Burning Man subculture and other communities of cultural creatives. These intentional groupings tend to self-organize in an egalitarian, nonhierarchical manner. Many are united by a common spiritual practice and share an understanding that personal transformation is the first step toward global transformation. This subculture also produced Burners Without Borders (BWB), which started when a group of participants left the 2005 Burning Man Festival to help clear debris in the Gulf Coast following Hurricane Katrina. Autonomous and decentralized BWB groups are now active in community service in more than a dozen U.S. cities, the United Kingdom, and Peru.

In cities across the world, the urban garden movement has exploded as communities harness the potential of vacant, unused property, while urban farms are developing in response to concerns about obesity, food quality, and sustainable economics. Many U.S. churches have gone green, eschewing their traditional conservative partisan affiliations, while renewing their commitment to biblical stewardship of the Earth. Community-based solutions for the disenfranchised homeless and ex-offender population inspired the state of Vermont to create a program that reintegrates ex-offenders into their communities through “surrogate families.” The program helps to ease the difficulties of transition and to dispel negative stereotypes of the so-called ex-convict. Underscoring much of these positive shifts in action is a sense that a spiritual approach to the convergent crises will, in the end, be most effective. The concept of spiritually-based activism, or the pairing of inner work and outer work, is a theme found in the teachings of most major religions. What is different about such activism in the emergent paradigm is that it acknowledges the limitations of both the detached, self-serving nature of the bliss-seeking personality and the angry self-righteousness of the activist personality.

Mystical scholar Andrew Harvey describes this “sacred activism” as “the fusion of the deepest mystical knowledge, peace, strength, and stamina with calm, focused, and radical action.” The spiritual grounding of the mystical allows the activist to turn fear into compassion; the clear agenda-driven work of the activist half gives applied expression to innate wisdom. There has been perhaps no greater symbolic expression of this idea in current times than what the world recently witnessed in Burma/Myanmar, as lines of solemn, saffron-clad monks marched in peaceful protest against an oppressive military regime. As Jungian influenced writer Paul Levy described it: “The situation in Burma/Myanmar is an out-picturing on the world stage of a deeper, archetypal process that exists enfolded within the collective unconscious of our species. What is being played out in Burma is a living ‘symbol’ of a deeper, mythic process which is currently enacting itself in a variety of scenarios around the world.” In sum, the evidence suggests that a legion of autonomous individuals and groups connecting through a shared system of values into one global network of change, along with concurrent trends toward focused inner work, foretell an upswelling of profound social change throughout the world. These activists are perhaps the greatest symbols of our collective potential.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

The Zero Point Field

Sir Isaac Newton, the founder of modern physics, touched on many topics in the Principia that go beyond experimental or theoretical scientific theory. The questions he raised are, perhaps, only matched by the seminal work of Darwin and Einstein; much of which is more readily accessed in the field of philosophy. One only has to follow the debate over the essential nature of time, space and motion to become aware of the human obsession with our own origin and transcendental powers. As we observe our civilization having to weather ever deepening crises, there is a perceptible shift towards acceptance of phenomena beyond observable nature. Perhaps Immanuel Kant was correct when he said, that, although we can never hope to answer our metaphysical questions, we can't help asking them anyway.


In her bestseller, 'The Field', award winning journalist Lynne McTaggart provides numerous scientific case studies of observed effects that could not be proved, nor disproved, by current theory. 'The Field' tells a radically new scientific story. Namely, that frontier science suggests our essence is that we exist as a unity; a relationship, utterly interdependent, the parts affecting the whole at every moment. The Field further suggests a far more expansive view of the world and living organisms like us. That the essential communication mechanism of the universe is quantum frequencies connected by a giant matrix - a field of fields called the Zero Point Field. This pulsating energy field is the central engine of our being and consciousness. There is no “me” and “not me”, no “in here” and “out there”. In other words, we are our world.

The classic example being the 'ghost electron'; a study in which scientists established that the parts of a split electron exhibit the same behaviour as if the electron were still a single entity. Furthermore, these parts will adopt different behaviour patterns when observed; confirming that the very act of observation has an influence. Then there's the work of Jacques Bienveniste, a leading biologist, that proved solutions diluted by a factor of 1 million still provide the same effect as the original dose. Going some way to explaining the 'placebo' effect, its a finding that can only be explained by the presence of an unobservable force. This 'secret force of the universe' currently occupies the best minds in quantum physics; which suggests that our lives can be a daily unfolding of the miraculous, influencing events and the environment around us.

As usual the big question revolves around bringing these theories into our everyday lives, so that we not only understand the theory of our potential, but can begin living it. In this vein McTaggart decided to walk the talk by establishing world wide, verifiable experiments. The 'Intention Experiment' is a series of scientifically controlled, web-based experiments testing the power of intention to change the physical world; in conjunction with leading physicists and psychologists from the University of Arizona, Princeton, the International Institute of Biophysics, Cambridge and the Institute of Noetic Sciences. These experiments are being run at McTaggart’s seminars, conferences and on the web; producing extraordinary results. In the pilot experiment, a group of 16 meditators based in London were asked to direct their thoughts to four remote targets in Dr. Popp’s laboratory in Germany: two types of algae, a plant and a human volunteer. The meditators were asked to attempt to lower certain measurable biodynamic processes. Popp and his team discovered significant changes in all four targets while the intentions were being sent, compared to times the meditators were ‘resting’.

Since then, thousands of volunteers from 30 countries around the world have participated in 'Intention Experiments'. The targets are only philanthropic: healing wounds, helping children with attention deficit or patients with Alzheimer’s, counteracting pollution and global warming. Besides the big 'Intention Experiments', the website runs informal 'Intention of the Week' actions for people or situations with illnesses or problems. Future 'Intention Experiments' will include: the Mini-Gaia Project (an ecosphere with an artificially raised temperature, a little like global warming; with the aim to lower the temperature through co-ordinated thought), the Germination Intention Experiment (group intention to help barley seeds germinate early and grow more healthily), the Water Experiment (aimed at changing the pH of polluted water), the Crime Rate Experiment (using intent to lower the crime rate of a major city), the Hospital Study (lowering mortality at a hospital) and the Attention Deficit Study (helping children to concentrate more).

As we see the low mileage methods, of apathy and lament, give way to new acceptance of age old philosophies; we are becoming increasingly more comfortable with concepts that are not necessarily in step with fundamental theory. As the gap closes between spirituality and science, the nature of the human spirit keeps posing ever more intriguing question. Questions that don't always have answers, but do lead to practical applications which produce positive results. In such cases it may not be necessary to explain how something works, but just to accept that it does; or as Fox Mulder of X-Files fame proclaims: "Let's just say that I want to believe".

Monday, August 4, 2008

Metaphysics For The Masses

Having explored systemic failures within global society for a while now, it becomes abundantly clear that it can turn into a depressing exercise. When faced with 'big picture' issues, the average human being tends to shrug the shoulders and mutter words to the effect that: 'it can't be solved by little old me'. Well, we all know that simply doesn't ring true. Yet it contains an important element that promotes, and entrenches, apathy. The knowledge that most of us go along with the establishment view and, too often, unquestioningly follow conventional wisdom. This way we can avoid the stark reality, that, we play a major part in our own continued powerlessness.

The obvious question, of course, would revolve around our voluntary participation in this state of affairs. Why, frankly, would anyone willingly go along with any situation that's clearly detrimental to their interests? This has puzzled great thinkers throughout the ages and one of the pioneers, Aristotle, formulated the concept of metaphysics in reply. Sometimes described by the ancients as 'the queen of sciences', metaphysics is a philosophy which studies that which is beyond the physical, but not necessarily the spiritual. Metaphysics, as a discipline, was a central part of academic inquiry during this time; and it's issues were considered no less important than the other main subjects of physical science, medicine, mathematics, poetics and music.


Personal power, in all it's manifestations, has been derived from this philosophy ever since. This despite the fact, that, metaphysics has been described as 'vague' by empirically driven scientists and rational philosophers. And, yet, it's driving a renewal of interest in issues beyond the physical. This includes the fundamental questions that arise about the nature of time, religion and spirituality; necessity and possibility or the way the world could have been, abstract objects and mathematics, cosmology and cosmogony, determinism and free will, identity and change plus mind and matter. In short, the sort of study that frees individuals from entrenched thought patterns; that have been imprinted from childhood and constantly produce involuntary actions.

Already the short 8 years of this century have produced scientific revelations, that, have stunned scholar and layman alike. Mapping the human genome, animal cloning, planetary discovery, private space flight, a universal blood type and transparent steel to name but a few. But its anthropology that provides the most personal reference, as usual. Early in 2007, an international team of scientists announced that analysis of a skull discovered in South Africa in 1952 revealed the first fossil evidence that modern humans left Africa between 65,000 and 25,000 years ago. Scientists determined the age of the skull, unearthed near Hofmeyr, South Africa, by testing the levels of radiation in sand that had filled the braincase. They figured it was about 36,000 years old, give or take 3,000 years; and matched skulls found in Europe, eastern Asia and Australia, in age and appearance, which supports the theory that modern man originated in sub-Saharan Africa and fanned out from there.

This stunning announcement stands in stark contrast to the present state of Africa. The cradle of humankind's present inhabitants no longer displaying the spirit which drove the evolution of the human species. However, by going back to the level of metaphysics such a state can be re-created again. All it would take is the re-adjustment of perception and the acceptance of an alternative future. Perhaps it would be fitting that such a turnaround, is engineered where few would give it any chance. In our ancient history we'll find the tools for personal transformation; and we'll build a new society, one human being at a time. It will require the acceptance of personal responsibility and accountability, but Africans are nothing if not socially driven. Given the grace to do so, they will benefit all of humanity...as they did millennia ago.

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