Hello, Friends

I hoped a few weeks ago to write regular blogs while I’m here in Western Australia, but I haven’t! Apologies. Life is just too full to fit in everything. Full of research for my next book, of preparing and giving talks, of connecting with old and new colleagues and friends, and of spending time with family. There’s so much I want to do in the next couple of months here, and time is evaporating …

I don’t feel I’ve digested this flood of stimulation, experiences, and activities. This entry began as bits of flotsam drifting to the surface of my mind but I see a theme emerging now …

Climate change again

My last entry was mainly about climate change, and the challenges facing Bangkok and Perth. My host here, Prof. Jorg Imberger, is a distinguished water scientist who was awarded the Stockholm Water Prize a few years ago, has helped brief the British Government, and has been invited by Prince Philip to give a prestigious address in London soon. In his opinion, the Earth is well past the climate tipping point. Warming has already caused increases in emissions of greenhouse gases from the tundra, oceans and other natural sources that far exceed human emissions. Even if we could reduce anthropogenic emissions to zero now, the Earth would keep on warming for a long time to come. And we have no idea what the new equilibrium climate will be, or how long it will take to stabilise. In consequence, he believes we should pay less attention to reducing emissions from the use of energy, and start paying more attention to adapting to the inevitable changes in sea level and climate.

This is scary stuff, and I’m not sure I fully agree with him. I agree that further climate change is inevitable and that we will have to adapt to more frequent events such as the Burmese hurricane, and huge numbers of refugees from low-lying areas. But I still think we should do all we can to reduce carbon emissions by protecting forests, reafforestation, and reducing our profligate use of energy. The last will be forced upon us anyway by rising fuel prices as we pass ‘peak oil’. We can’t prevent climate change in this way, but any reduction in greenhouse gas emissions will help to constrain the amount of future warming.

Incentives for action are another important reason for sticking with emission reduction policies. Mitigation of climate change requires global action, and is only possible if all nations cooperate. We are all in the same boat and no country can go it alone. There is thus a strong incentive for the peoples of the Earth to unite for the first time in history. But adaptation happens largely at the regional and local level: changing food production and water supply systems, protecting coastal resources, and so on. So if the goal is adaptation, it is possible for a single nation to go it alone. The incentive for global cooperation is thus weakened, and there is a greater risk that the rich will ‘pull up the drawbridge’ and leave the poor to their fate. In my view, this would be a recipe for long-term disaster, feeding resentment and terrorism on one side of the moat, and draconian security measures and the loss of civil liberties on the other – not to mention the suffering of billions in the greatest catastrophe the planet has ever seen.

Where will we find the wisdom to choose the right path?

Wisdom and Integrated Human Studies

On a different track, I’m heartened by a new development on campus that couldn’t have happened 5 or 10 years ago. An old friend of mine has been beavering away for a decade, and has finally managed to establish a Centre for Integrated Human Studies, with substantial support from the University hierarchy. The Centre is now in the middle of its inaugural seminar series on the theme of Seeking Wisdom – the University’s motto is Seek Wisdom. I’ll be giving a talk later on the topic “From Information to Wisdom.”

IHS is a sign that the fragmentation of knowledge amongst ever-more arcane disciplines may be near its peak. IHS is the ultimate in interdisciplinarity, with representatives from all the University’s schools. It’s mission is to study and teach the breadth and depth of what it is to be human, human wellbeing, and the future of humanity. They’ve developed the curriculum for 2 courses for first-year degree students as a broad basis for later studies, and are now working out how these can be woven into the University’s course structure. These courses go beyond the usual disconnected contributions from existing disciplines towards an integrated presentation based on several universal aspects of human existence, such as the experience of time.

I’m excited that something of this kind is now possible in the academic world, and that similar initiatives are happening at other major universities such as Kyoto and Oxford. It’s a step towards finding collective wisdom, but it still has a long way to go to escape the dominance of the mind and become truly holistic. I’m looking for ways to support this initiative and be involved in its future development.

Caterpillar Dreaming

Another change of subject, but there is a unifying thread in the search for wisdom. I’ve been fortunate to hear Noel Nannup, an Aboriginal spokesperson, speak twice recently on Aboriginal spirituality and wisdom. He is a gifted storyteller with an impressive, quiet presence that reflects his statement that “I know who I am” - despite growing up amongst all the challenges facing his people.

Pre-European Aborigines are generally seen as a collection of separate tribes with many languages rather than a nation. But Noel spoke of how 4000 Dreaming Trails from all over the country converge on Uluru (aka Ayers Rock) in the red heart. A key myth is the Caterpillar Dreaming, whose origins Noel has traced to his own Noongar people of south-western Australia. In this myth, the women’s ‘totem’ is the butterfly, a symbol of living lightly on the land. As Noel says with quiet emphasis nothing, NOTHING touches the land more lightly. The men’s ‘totem’ is the moth, symbol of humility - an unusual male virtue to westerners. The depth of this humility is reflected in the story of European settlement.

When the tall ships arrived, word rapidly travelled down the Dreaming Trails to the centre via messenger birds and trees. The elders learned that the whites were killing the men, but sparing the women. And so they entrusted the Lore to the women so that their culture could survive. What humility, to hand their sacred right and duty as men to the women! And the women held that trust until recently. After ‘Sorry Day’, the much-reported national apology to the Aborigines, a ceremony was held to hand back the Lore to the men.

What a story!

Noel also spoke about how the Aborigine is inseparable from the land. And how the rocks and trees and rivers are sources of knowledge and wisdom. They know from listening to the land that things aren’t right. They can hear the climate changing.

I’ll leave you with another of my tree beings; a photo taken on the University campus just a few hundred yards from where I’m living.

Yes, friends, I’m still alive!

Life has been full of challenge and change in the last month, but I’m slowly coming down to earth, and almost ready to start blogging again. My last entry was when Christine and I were packing up our house a few days before leaving home for 6 months. Since then we’ve spent 10 days in Thailand, and almost 3 weeks settling into life in Perth, Western Australia. We’ve been giving and preparing workshops and lectures, and catching up with friends and family, as well as fending off the ‘flu and trying to get enough sleep. Today I’ll give few impressions of our journey so far.

In Thailand, we stayed at Wongsanit Ashram, headquarters of the Spirit in Education Movement which is engaged with issues of sustainability and social change. Their diverse programmes include Ecovillage Design Education, teaching Laotion Buddhist monks about the modern world and Thai youth about the importance of Buddhist values, helping remote hill tribes to plan for their future, and assisting Burmese refugees displaced by the Tsunami.


Situated 1.5 hours from central Bangkok, the ashram is an oasis of peace in a seething hive of 12m people. We’d never been to one of the mega-cities of the majority world before, and it was quite an eye-opener on the trips we took out of the Ashram. First impressions on leaving the vast new international airport terminal are of endless freeways and spaghetti junctions. In places, the subsiding switchback of old road is overshadowed by the elevated tollway for the rich, and paralleled by the rotting concrete of unfinished schemes – monuments to past corruption.

At major junctions, nestled amongst the grey strands of spaghetti, are huge shopping malls, such as Future Park which has just announced plans to create a patch of ‘rainforest’ for the delight of its customers. Never before have I seen a supermarket with 53 checkouts, and this looked small compared to the Tesco Lotus across the road – yes, that archetypal British model of an aggressive multinational seems set to add dominance of Thai retailing to its crown.

Consumerism is not only alive and well in Bangkok, it’s booming. I haven’t been in the USA recently, but I suspect it’s lost the title of king of the giant billboards. Everywhere you look, the landscape is dominated by the brash drive to sell and the urgent desire to buy. And yet amongst the smaller shops and stalls, the sellers are not importunate. They watch and wait patiently, and only come forward to encourage those who seem interested.


The meteoric rise of consumerism is epitomised by the vehicles that clog the roads. Apart from a remnant of tuk-tuks and pedicabs, everyone seems either to ride a jazzily-styled scooter, or to drive a shiny big Toyota. Noticeable by their absence are old cars and the mini models so popular in European cities.

This blatant exhibition of new-found wealth sits side by side with inequalities far larger than those in the west. Shacks surrounded by garbage sit side by side with nouveau-riche mansions. Pavement sellers spread their pitiful wares outside glitzy shops, as blind beggars shuffle through the crowds. And pedicab riders move painfully amongst the teeming cars.

Inevitably, we found ourselves wondering how Bangkok will tackle climate change. How can their trajectory to the pinnacle of consumerism be diverted towards sustainability? How can we possibly expect the poor to forego their vision of a better life until they have a modern apartment with an airconditioner, and a Toyota parked outside? How can the flood of gleaming metal pouring down the concrete rivers possibly be diverted? The only sign of hope we saw in our brief stay was the announcement by the government that it plans to complete its multi-billion dollar mass transit network within the next three years – a target few seem to think is feasible. Even the ashram with its simple traditional lifestyle has its challenges. Every time their activities take them into the city, there is over an hour of driving each way.

Cut to Perth, Western Australia. Now one of the wealthiest cities in the world, riding the resources boom created by Chinese and Indian economic growth. A city with the highest rate of car ownership in the world, and more miles of road per person than even Los Angeles. A city whose food is mostly trucked thousands of miles across the continent. A city whose houses require airconditioning in summer and heating in winter despite a climate in which neither should be necessary. A city which, despite water shortages, still emulates the verdant British countryside.

The resources boom is a mixed blessing. Perth, and indeed the whole south-west of the State, has become ‘home’ to highly-paid fly-in, fly-out mine workers who work hard and live hard. As a result, property prices have gone through the roof, and there is a parallel boom in homelessness. Mental illness and suicide rates are high, as are drug addiction, crime and anti-social behaviour. When we arrived, the media were discussing new penalties for the ‘one punch’ murders that have become common in brawls.

Perth has the dubious distinction of being capital of the state with the highest per capita greenhouse gas emissions in the world. And Western Australia also has the dubious distinction of being a region that will suffer more than most from the impacts of climate change. Fresh water will become even scarcer. Much of its farming land will become desert. Its rich heritage as a biodiversity hot spot will be lost. Perth’s famed beaches will disappear. More people will die from the heat. …

Once again, the question arises: how on earth can such a city become environmentally sustainable? How can it possibly reduce its emissions of carbon within 20 or 30 years from 34 tonnes per capita per annum to the 2 tonnes that Gaia can absorb on average? (That’s a 94% reduction!) And yet climate change seems to be way down the political agenda here. How can ‘sandgropers’, as Western Australians are often called, be diverted from their complaisant hedonism to take their danger seriously?

Here at the University of Western Australia, one of the most beautiful campuses in the world, I’ve joined a couple of old friends who are working to stir the pot. We’re running a series of 5 evenings on “Climate Change: Be the Change”, with 28 members of the public. As you’d expect, most are already ‘switched on’, and our strategy is not only to stimulate individual action, but also to encourage participants to become change-agents in their communities. Rather than focus on what to do, we will mainly be discussing how to do it. How can we encourage family, friends, neighbours, and work colleagues to join us in making effective changes? Key skills are community-building, identifying barriers to change, communicating non-violently with those who disagree, project planning, and group leadership.


A theme running through the course is the perception that our consumerist behaviour is a form of addiction. Each week we’re introducing a few steps from “twelve steps to a spiritual ecology” adapted from the Alcoholics Anonymous programme. The first vital step is to recognise that we are indeed addicted to ‘stuff’: “We admit that we are addicted and living in a society that fosters this addiction, and that we are powerless over our addiction to stop it.” (If you haven't already seen "The Story of Stuff", it's well worth the 20 minutes!) Steps 2 and 3 are to accept that we are parts of a much larger and mysterious whole, and that we can tap the healing power of this whole by surrendering our lives and wills to it.

Christine and I find one of our biggest challenges is how to engage with our own families and friends. It’s relatively easy to stand up in a room of strangers and talk about ways in which they could change. But we find it much harder to discuss specifics with our adult children. They are aware and concerned about the issues, but, like all of us, are inconsistent in their responses. How can we lovingly, uncritically, without judgement, without sparking anger or resentment, point out that driving long distances for minor reasons is no longer appropriate; that over-filling the electric jug wastes energy; that collecting trivial consumer items is not ok; that taking the time to read labels and minimise ‘food miles’ is worthwhile; or that living in the country is no longer sustainable? And how can we truly justify our own ‘love miles’ to be with them? Should we give up seeing our families, scattered as they are across the globe, for the good of the planet?

As climate change bites harder, we will all be faced by these and many similar dilemmas.

I was planning to write at least one more full-length entry before I leave home, but it looks like that’s not going to happen. So apologies to all my regular readers. It will probably be a month now before I have time and energy to write again.

Christine and I leave home on Tuesday for 6 months, until early September. For the last few weeks we’ve been slowly organising ourselves for departure, sorting and packing away our personal possessions to leave the house clear for the friend who will be renting it in our absence. It’s been more unsettling than we expected, and I found I simply wasn’t in the mood for blogging. I like the security of routine and a well-established home, and become anxious about the uncertainty of travel.

For 4 months, I will be a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Western Australia where I used to be on faculty. On the way to Perth, we will spend 8 days in Thailand at the Wongsanit Ashram. I will be running a weekend workshop on my book, “The Science of Oneness” and giving a lecture on “The Crisis of Civilization: A 10,000 year perspective”. Christine will be talking with local healers about her work, and giving some healing sessions. In Australia, I will be helping to run 9 public evenings on community action for climate change, as well as doing research on sustainability. Christine will also be involved in healing work.

George Monbiot is a regular columnist in the highly-respected Guardian newspaper in the UK, and author of the book “Heat: How we can stop the planet burning.” In that book, he talks about ‘love miles’ and how love may destroy the Earth. Love miles occur when people are separated from those they love – whether just across the city, or across the globe.

It’s hard now to travel without guilt, even though we will be contributing to action on climate change and sustainability in Thailand and Australia. Our journey to Australia is mostly love miles. Both Christine and I have family there – our children and, in Christine’s case, her grandchildren. Having chosen to live in the Findhorn Community a decade ago, where we feel at home and can make a worthwhile contribution to the future, we now face the dilemma of either not seeing our families, or accepting our contribution to love miles. As we prepare to board the plane, this awareness is never far from our minds. There doesn’t seem to be any solution.

Such dilemmas will become common for many of us as action to curb climate change gears up.

Today, I want to connect a few dots that bring a new perspective to my reflections on the future of humanity in my last entry.

We hear a lot these days about ‘tipping points’ from climate scientists and activists. The idea is that as the planet warms, so processes are being set in motion that cause further warming, thus creating a vicious cycle, or positive feedback loop. Several such processes have been identified already. These include the release of the powerful greenhouse gas, methane, by thawing of the Siberian permafrost or melting of methane hydrates on the ocean floor, accelerating collapse of the polar ice caps, weakening of ocean currents such as the Gulf Stream, and desiccation of the Amazon rainforests. And there is growing evidence that such feedbacks have been associated with dramatic shifts in global climate in the distant past.

Last week, I read in New Scientist about a new strand of evidence that has emerged. Over the last decade or so, we’ve got used to the idea that the dinosaurs were wiped out by an asteroid impact. Many scientists have come to believe that other mass extinctions had similar causes, but the evidence was patchy. Now, a new research tool called biomarkers is revealing that the dinosaurs may have been an exception.

Biomarkers are like molecular fossils. They are stable, long-lived organic molecules found in rock pores. Some of them are made by just one or a few types of organism, so that their presence is a sure sign that these organisms were there when the rock was formed. Unlike ordinary fossils, these biomarkers enable tiny, single-celled organisms such as bacteria to be identified.

250 million years ago, in the greatest mass extinction Earth has witnessed, 95% of marine organisms and 85% of land plants and animals disappeared from the fossil record. One biomarker molecule from this period has now been found in several places around the globe. It is made only by green and purple sulphur bacteria which use sunlight in photosynthesis, but cannot tolerate oxygen. Instead, they thrive on hydrogen sulphide (H2S) which is toxic to most plants and animals. Their presence in sediments suggests that the water was shallow enough for light to penetrate, but had no dissolved oxygen and was saturated with H2S. In other words, the oceans were poisonous, and enough gas may have escaped into the atmosphere to kill land organisms too!

So where did all this H2S come from? The organisms that produced it left no biomarkers, but they were probably bacteria that live in stagnant water. But how could the vast oceans possibly become stagnant? One hypothesis is that it was the result of global warming triggered by the release of greenhouse gases in the massive volcanic eruptions that formed the Siberian Traps basalt.

One of the effects of greenhouse warming is that temperatures increase more near the poles than at the equator. This reduces the temperature differences that drive planetary weather systems and ocean currents. And it is the winds and currents that put oxygen into the water. So a strong greenhouse effect could result in the oceans stagnating. In a nutshell: release of greenhouse gases ended up poisoning the oceans and atmosphere for most forms of life.

As we know, life wasn’t extinguished, but it was a close call for multi-cellular plants and animals. For a while, it looked as if single-celled organisms would take over and rule the biosphere, as they did for the first 3 billion years of life on Earth. There is accumulating evidence that other major extinction events, with the exception of the dinosaurs, may have been the result of similar processes.

Our existence today, and the nature of modern life, tell us that Gaia can recover from such shocks. But there is no guarantee that Gaia will always succeed in pulling herself out of such positive feedback loops. Some scientists fear a runaway scenario in which Earth ends up like Venus. At the very least, recovery may take many millions of years – far too long for human civilization, or perhaps even humanity, to survive.

But all is not lost. There is still hope that we can avert such a catastrophe. Paradoxically, it is a hope that rests on the power of positive feedback, just as the apocalyptic scenario does. Research on complex, chaotic, self-organising systems shows that, at certain times, they are extremely sensitive to small disturbances. Just a small nudge may be amplified by positive feedback to totally transform the system. There are many millions of people and tens of thousands of organisations around the world working to change human behaviour. Gaia is not yet beyond any irreversible tipping point. Our individual and collective efforts may be just what is needed to turn the tide; the last straw that tips the balance back again.

To repeat: no action is futile or worthless. Every action, however small, is potentially significant. What if we all followed Rapunzel’s example as expressed in On the Wisdom Trail:
“I'm going to make a list of tools and skills that I have to share and offer them to the four neighbors I just slightly know right now. What if we all only needed one lawnmower for every 4 or 5 houses, one circular saw, maybe just one vegetable garden? What if we all knew someone who could do carpentry, or plumbing, or who could paint, and we could all take on more projects to make our world better a little at a time, right where we are?”

What if we all found our own small, sensible ways to contribute? Let’s go for it.

We’re very blessed, living as we do on the edge of woods with a choice of walks. Spoilt, I’d almost say when I get bored with the same paths, the same old friends, the trees; when I long for more distant, less familiar places.

Recently, they began harvesting some of the trees. It’s thinning, not clear felling. I can see it’s needed to make space for the remaining trees to grow on to maturity, and open up the ground to the light and allow the monoculture plantation to diversify. And it will raise funds to manage these public lands. But I hate the destruction; the uncaring savagery of modern logging; the indiscriminate tracks of heavy machines going hither and thither; the broken young trees, and shrubs; the churned and compacted soil; the scatter of trashed branches, the severed stumps, and the sad stacks of battered trunks awaiting sawmill or chipper. There is no love, or compassion.

It’ll be long before the scars heal, and then it will be time to start over.

****

I cycled to the beach on Sunday, picking up stones for Christine to decorate with Celtic symbols as gifts for Thai hosts. The tide was low, a wide expanse of drying sand glistening below the bank of varicoloured glacier-worn stones.

Dark and cloudy at first; rain forecast from the south-east. Then the cloud cleared. Blue sky, sunshine, breeze warm for winter.

Task complete, I wander along the sands. Pebbles nestled in their water-sculpted hollows - eyes with laughter wrinkles where the water ebbed. Stems of storm-torn kelp, waiting for the rising tide to sweep them on again to who knows where. The low winter sun casting long, longing shadows towards the freedom of the sea from every stone, and kelp stalk, and sand ripple.

Gulls wheeling, plummeting into waves, bobbing. Footprints in the shining sand - sea birds amongst the stranded weed, and humans taking their Sunday stroll. Kids running, shouting on the wind.

And always the white-noise continuo of waves against the shore; the white-lace foam washing the soul clean and leaving virgin sand. The wind sweeping the cobwebs from my mind, and drifting the smoke of drying sand into silvered hollows.

I feel my legs, reluctant to stretch at first. Then hips relaxing, stride lengthening as I tune in and let go. It’s a while since I’ve been here, close though it is. Always nourishing. Especially when the seals are basking. Why so long? Immersed in my self-created busyness, forgetting the truly important things in life.

My thoughts drift. Surfacing from the depths come sadness, anger, grief at the destruction we have wrought, are wreaking, will wreak on mother Earth. Is it time for humans to leave? Or Gaia to remove us? I often comfort myself with the thought that Gaia will survive no matter what we do; that it is beyond even our destructive power to kill the Living Planet; that within a few millennia of our demise, there’d be little left to remind the aliens or newly evolved consciousnesses of our existence.

But it’s cold comfort. What a tragic loss if all humanity’s striving came to nought. All our passions, loves and hates, our suffering and compassion, our joys and despairs, our creativity and hard-won knowledge ... What a tragedy to lose the wisdom of the Buddha and Jesus, the insights and cadences of Shakespeare, the celestial sounds of Mozart, the imagery of Michaelangelo and Picasso, the science of Newton, Darwin and Einstein, and all the myriad humbler shoulders these giants stood upon. To lose all this in our foolishness! Is it all in vain?

And yet, in time, it is bound to be. Whether through our own greed and blindness, or through the passage of evolutionary time, there will come a day when humanity as we know it will be no more. Will we transcend our current selves, shed our shadows, and rise into more glorious light? Or will we sink deeper into the dark mire? Surely, it is worth the struggle, worth the effort, worth all we can give to the effort to steer us onto the transcendent path.

As I mount my bike, the wind has risen and I battle homewards into the teeth of the gale.

My last entry raises a couple of questions. Why is it that the quality of life in the Findhorn Community is high even though the economic standard of living is relatively low? And why is it that money and the things it can buy are less important here than in mainstream society?

The answer in a nutshell is community life. But community doesn’t just happen, it has to be built. And to build community, there must be a ‘glue’ that holds its members together. In traditional societies, that glue was provided by a shared sense of place, by extended family relationships, by shared beliefs, myths and values, by common celebrations and rituals, by economic necessity, and by the link between personal identity and community. In modern societies, those glues have been dissolved by mobility, individualism, family breakdown, the loss of old religious beliefs and values, the transformation of cooperation into impersonal economic transactions, the professionalisation of the arts and entertainment, and so on.

So intentionally rebuilding community requires that we recreate the glue, or find a new one. Intentional communities around the world demonstrate many forms of glue. Perhaps the commonest is religious faith or the less dogmatic and vaguer ‘spirituality’. In the last few decades there has been an upsurge of ‘ecovillages’ committed to developing a sustainable lifestyle and living in harmony with nature. Other communities have a common purpose, like Kitezh which cares for Russian orphans, or the Camphill communities in the UK which care for people with learning disabilities and mental health problems. In many cases, the practical business of earning a living provides powerful ‘glue’, as at Twin Oaks in Virginia where growing food, and making hammocks and tempe are major parts of community life. Shared activities are also an important constituent of glue in most communities, whether that be helping each other out, caring for land and buildings, preparing and eating communal meals, celebrating birthdays, seasons and other meaningful events, having fun together, or even business meetings.

Findhorn is a spiritual community that coalesced around shared beliefs and values, but includes most types of ‘glue’. In the early days, its spiritual life was closely aligned with western esoteric traditions such as the Rosicrucians, Theosophy, and teachers like Alice Bailey and Madame Blavatsky. To these was added a deep and distinctive connection with nature when Dorothy Maclean, one of the founders, began to get instructions on growing plants from their Devas and Nature Spirits. Indeed, Findhorn first came to the attention of the outside world when a handful of people began to grow giant vegetables.

Today, the situation is quite different, although we are still a spiritual community in co-creation with nature. Many first-time visitors to Findhorn find it hard to see our spirituality. There is no Teacher, Guru or spiritual leader. There is no grand temple, just a variety of small, simple meditation sanctuaries. There are no common beliefs or practices. Instead there are a few hundred people from many different religious and spiritual backgrounds living together in harmony. There are still some from the western esoteric traditions, but most now come from various Christian, Jewish, Buddhist and Hindu traditions. There are many who follow shamanic paths, and New Agers of all shades. We share beliefs in the reality of the spiritual realms, in the possibility of communicating with and being guided by nature, and in the power of collective meditation. And we share a commitment to spiritual growth, and daily life and service as a spiritual path.

The people drawn to Findhorn are mostly disillusioned with modern consumerist society. They are more interested in personal and spiritual development than in career, status and possessions. They want to be more deeply connected with each other and the natural world, to demonstrate another way of being – both as individuals and a community. They want to pursue their own creativity in whatever form that may take, and to promote compassionate and loving change in the world. And we aim to live together in integrity, peace and harmony – which means acknowledging and dealing with the inevitable conflicts rather than pretending they don’t exist. These values are expressed in a Common Ground statement which all members sign.

These shared beliefs and values are important, and are supported by other strong glues. Of great importance are Community celebrations that bring us together for fun and fellowhip, sometimes mixed with a more serious purpose. Community sharings when we entertain each other with music, dance, comedy, stories and other performance arts are pure fun – as are the popular traditional Scottish Ceilidhs (country dances). Celebrations of the seasons, full moon, ancient Celtic and other religious festivals mix fun and deeper meanings.

Closely related to celebrations, but more individual, is the glue of creativity. This is a Community of artists and crafts people including theatre, dance, music, song, storytelling, clowning, pottery, weaving, furniture making, wood carving, painting, drawing, jewellery, photography, poetry, and more. The strength of this strand of community life is demonstrated by the regular Craft Fairs, and the opening last year of a new Arts Centre costing close to £750,000 (US$1.5m). The vision and leadership for this project was held for a decade by one person, Randy Klinger, but he couldn’t have manifested it without the support of many community artists.

The Findhorn Community is also united by a sense of purpose. As already noted, it was giant vegetables that first brought the Community to the world’s attention. Today, it is often said, we grow people instead. This ambition is reflected in our diverse educational programmes that draw 3,500 people a year from around the globe. These programmes include not only personal and spiritual development, but also UN endorsed trainings in ecovillage development and other aspects of sustainability, and a study abroad semester for college students accredited by the University of Massachusetts. Our biennial Conferences often have lasting effects. One on “Soul in Education” sparked a series of such conferences around the world. And one on Communities led to establishment of the Global Ecovillage Network, whose headquarters has been based here for some years. We share with other ecovillages the intention to demonstrate a way of life that is ecologically, economically, socially and spiritually sustainable. We may disagree amongst ourselves about what this means and how to balance these four factors, but such active debate is itself a form of glue rather than division.

Finally, we are bound together by the need to earn a living – both individually and as a Community. Today, there are about 35 businesses and charities within the Community, although many members still work outside. The biggest business is the Findhorn Foundation, which directly supports about 120 members. But there are many others including a store, printer, publisher, manufacturer of solar water heaters, a building company, organic horticulture, flower essences, wind farm, and more.

In my last entry, I focused mainly on how individuals cope with the lack of money. The Community as a whole has taken a couple of initiatives to address this issue. It is not possible to set up a community bank under British law, but a way was found by which individuals could invest in the Community. This has raised several hundred thousand pounds for various projects including the community store, and the wind farm. The second initiative is a community currency, the Eko. There are two main benefits of having our own currency. First, Ekos are only accepted by local businesses, and hence circulate locally rather than leaking out to line the pockets of supermarkets, big banks, oil companies etc. In this way they can boost the local economy without anyone needing to earn more $ or £. Secondly, community currencies often run at a profit which can be reinvested in the community. This is because some notes are not redeemed when the issue closes – at Findhorn, some may be kept as souvenirs by visitors, and others are lost or put through the washing machine!

********

There, in brief, are my perceptions of the ‘glues’ that hold the Findhorn Community together. What can we learn from this experience for life elsewhere?

First, it’s important to recognise that the Findhorn Community is not utopia and we cast a large shadow as well as shed a bright light. We are simply humans trying our best like everyone else to find our way through the challenges of life. And so we often fail to live up to our values and achieve our aims. But we are nevertheless a living example of how 25 nationalities and many spiritual traditions can live closely together in harmony and (often) joy with a much lower ecological footprint than most of the developed world.

I think the main lesson is the importance of community life. In the past, there was a sense of community even in big cities, particularly amongst the poor. But mobility, suburban lifestyles, commuting, consumerism, the entertainment culture, and turning services and relationships into commodities have combined with other factors to destroy community. It will take a lot of effort to revitalise it, but, as I argued in my blog on beating climate change, I believe it is a key to a sustainable future.

Community requires trust, shared values, goals and activities, and a commitment to work through differences and conflicts rather than retreating into opposing camps and demonising ‘them’. As climate change, peak oil, and other pressures bite in the coming years and decades, life is going to get tougher for most of us. We have a choice. Either we can metaphorically build defensive walls and pull up the drawbridge, retreating into isolation and opposing camps. Or we can take the risk of reaching out in trust, seeking the common ground of our humanity, of building bridges between each other, and recreating community locally and globally.

But where to start? I’m no expert and cannot advise from personal experience. But it seems to me that a first step is to look at our own values, goals and needs, and then to look around for others who share at least one thing with us. Perhaps it is no more than your desire to care for your kids, and the need to transport them to and from school, or to find a ‘babysitter’ for evenings out. Or perhaps your challenge is to care for an aging parent, or a wish to grow food, or beautify your neighbourhood, or save energy ...

Imagine how cooperation between two families on the school run could help you both and might lead to a larger cooperative group. Imagine how shared transport might grow into collective activities such as picnics and outings, or an evening entertaining each other. Relaxing together and having fun is a great way to build trust, and find the common ground. And who knows where from there? Perhaps ideas will surface for creating a garden in a vacant lot, or sharing trips to the supermarket, or buying in bulk at wholesale prices, or ... Cooperative solutions to whatever challenges life throws at us. The only limit is our imagination.

It’s a long time since my last post. I could plead the ‘silly season’, or busyness, or the ‘flu of having a new boiler (furnace) installed, or having a weekend group in the house – and they all would be true. But the reality is I’ve been going through a dry spell. The words and ideas haven’t been flowing, and I’m distracted by the long list of things to do before Christine and I take off for 6 months.

We go first to Thailand, to the Wongsanit Ashram near Bangkok where I will give a weekend workshop on my book “The Science of Oneness” for the Spirit in Education Movement. I will also give a lecture in Bangkok on “The Crisis of Civilization: A 10,000 year perspective.” Meanwhile my other half will be sharing about her healing work with local Thai healers, and treating a few clients in the Ashram.


From Thailand, we head south to Perth. There, I have a 4 month Visiting Fellowship at The University of Western Australia where I worked for 25 years. My official research topic is sustainability, and I’ll be based in the Centre for Water Research. But I’m not sure yet what I’ll focus on – perhaps the issue of trauma and climate change that I wrote about in several blogs last year. I’ll be collaborating with old friends to give a series of 10 evenings for the public on ‘Action for Climate Change’ organised by the university extension service. I’ll be talking about my book – including on breakfast radio. And I’ll be collaborating with an exciting new venture called the Centre for Integrated Human Studies. Full on and exciting.

Perth will also be an opportunity for Christine and I to catch up with our families, and revisit much-loved places in the forests and along the coast. After Perth, we spend a month with Christine’s son in Hobart, Tasmania, where I expect to make contact with local university faculty. Then to Hawaii and Vancouver to see some old friends from the Findhorn Community before returning home in September.

Which brings me in a roundabout way to the subject of today’s blog. One of the reasons we moved half-way round the world to live at Findhorn was the extraordinary impact this small community of about 500 people has on the world. Tens of thousands of people have spent weeks to years here before returning to ‘normal’ life where they have promoted change in one way or another. I’m constantly amazed at the number of ‘movers and shakers’ in the world who count the Findhorn Community as a formative influence, or even as a second home. There is no rational explanation!

After 10 years in and around the Community, I can honestly say it’s a wonderful place; a bright beacon in the world. And I can honestly say that it’s a challenging and frustrating place with a big shadow side. As an elder told us during our first visit here: “Findhorn is a microcosm of the macrocosm. If there’s a problem out there in the world, then we’ve got it here too.” So it’s not utopia. It’s not a place to escape the problems of life. But it is a place to learn and grow.

I don’t often write about Findhorn like this. I guess I don’t want to skite (Aussie for ‘boast’). But for once I want to say something about the place. Not long ago a professional study was undertaken of the Community’s ecological footprint. It came out as the lowest ever measured for a permanent community in the developed world – just half the UK national average. A more detailed comparison with the rest of the UK reveals some even more interesting statistics:

Home and heating – 21.5%. This is low because the main Community campus at ‘The Park’ has 4 windmills and is a net exporter of electricity. The Community also has many energy efficient eco-houses – as well as a legacy of extremely inefficient old caravans (trailers) and aging prefabricated buildings. The home and heating footprint will fall further when these are replaced as finance becomes available.

Food – 37%. Many Community members are vegetarian and eat a lot of local, organic produce.

Travel – 43%. Air travel is well above the national average because the Community earns a lot of its income from courses for people from around the world. Visits to family and friends also tend to involve a lot of travel because Community members come from many countries; and Findhorn is a long way from major urban facilities when needed. However, car mileage is only 6% of the national average, mainly because most people work within the Community and don’t need to commute.

Encouraging as these figures are, there is plenty of room for improvement. The Community is developing a renewable energy strategy and is committed to becoming ‘carbon neutral’ as soon as possible. Besides continued replacement of substandard buildings, current initiatives include replacing oil and gas heating systems in the largest two buildings with boilers burning locally-produced wood pellets. This will save substantial amounts of money as well as fossil fuels and carbon emissions. One of these buildings is the Universal Hall, our 350-seat conference and performing arts venue. The other is Cluny Hill College, which began life in the nineteenth century as a 100 room hotel.

Some years ago now, another study estimated that the average income in the Community was about a quarter of the UK average, and wealth was similarly low. These figures may have risen a bit in the interim due to an influx of better-off people, but the economic standard of living is still relatively low. Nevertheless, most Community members would claim that their quality of life is very high.

This is not to say that Findhornians are unconcerned about money. For many, it’s a perpetual struggle to pay the rent and buy food, and an on-going tension between trust in the process of manifestation and the ability of the universe to provide, and fear for the future if it doesn’t. There are many magical stories to support belief in manifestation, including my own, some of which reflect the spirit of generosity in the Community. When someone makes a need known – for a workshop or course fee, participation in a conference, a special pilgrimage, or even a much-needed holiday – others will respond and the money will appear. What goes around, comes around. This spirit of generosity is also reflected in the practice of service as part-time volunteers to support various aspects of Community life and its outreach. For instance, for over a year I’ve been working half a day a week to regenerate an old orchard and bring it back into production, and Christine regularly does shifts on the Reception desk at Cluny Hill College.

Many pragmatic strategies are used to overcome a lack of cash, such as working part-time and doing odd jobs (often at low pay within the Community), sharing accommodation, doing without or sharing a car, making and selling arts and crafts, offering a variety of therapies, joining the Local Exchange Trading System (generally known as LETS), various forms of government support, and so on. We also have a ‘Boutique’ from which clothing can be taken free of charge in exchange for donations of unwanted garments. Many of us also haunt the charity shops in the local town that raise money for good causes – it’s a long time since I’ve bought any new clothing other than underwear and shoes!

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As we move into an era of global constraint due to peak oil, climate change and other resource shortages, and as we search for ways to live more sustainably, I believe there are important pointers to the future in the lifestyle of the Findhorn Community. Money and the things it can buy are less important here than in mainstream society. There are many reasons for this, and even after a decade here, I can’t clearly identify all of them. But in my next post I’ll reflect on some of them.

It feels a little strange to be writing New Year wishes on 1 January. For me, the real year’s end and year’s beginning happened 10 days ago at the Solstice when we ended our plunge into winter darkness and cold – at least here in the northern hemisphere! – and began our ascent back to the light and warmth. Here in the north of Scotland, the sun has been lazily struggling out of bed at about 9am, rising to a zenith of 9 degrees, and drifting back to sleep at 3.30pm. On cloudy days it barely seems to get light at all!



It’s traditional in the Findhorn Community to celebrate the solstice by ‘walking the spiral’. Each year an inward and outward spiral path is laid out on the floor of the Universal Hall, the edges marked by beautiful evergreens. Over a couple of days, people come when it suits them to meditatively mark the turning of the year. Taking an unlit candle, I slowly walk symbolically into the dark, reflecting on and releasing the year just passed. At the centre, I pause and light my candle from the flame that always burns there, before moving on towards the light and whatever the new year may hold. Once out of the spiral, I dedicate myself to the Earth by placing my candle on a low table, in the centre of which is an illuminated globe. Sitting for a few minutes in meditation, I then choose an Angel Card – one from the deck of the Transformation Game which was born here. This year, I had already picked a card the night before in a process with friends, and so I have two Angels for the year: Transformation and Purpose.

The traditional wish of A Happy New Year seems inadequate and inappropriate in this time of turmoil. Happiness would be a welcome bonus, but if we are to meet the challenge of the crisis of civilization, of humanity, of Gaia, what we need above all else is transformation of spirit and consciousness, and a united, determined purpose. And so, I wish us all - myself, my cyber friends, my readers, the Zaadz Community, and our real communities of family, work and home - a Transformative and Purposeful Year.

Transformation is not comfortable! The hapless caterpillar in its chrysalis is not comfortable or happy as its body dissolves and starts to reassemble itself. And yet without passing through this dark night, when all it knows and values is dissolving, it could not re-create itself as a radiant being bathed in sunlight. 



My body and emotions resist and avoid transformation in any way they can. I keep myself busy with ‘important’ tasks and anxious forebodings, I hold down uncomfortable emotions with physical tensions, I ignore protests from my body and subconscious, I project my issues onto others, I fail to stick with a consistent spiritual practice ... If it was not for the love and persistence of my partner, Christine, I’d probably remain stubbornly untransformed.

But like the ice on the river, above, the untransformed self is brittle and will break if stressed. How much more powerful is the constant, swirling change of the melt water.

And I know that transformation is life. When any organism ceases to change it dies. When my body ceases to change, I will be declared dead. When any ‘soul’ ceases to grow and transform, it is spiritually dead. When any species or civilization ceases to evolve, it is headed for the scrapheap of history.

Our efforts to stabilise the world, to somehow maintain the status quo, to prevent disaster, are misguided. If they work, they will kill through stagnation. If they fail, they will herald unplanned, unexpected, and unwanted transformations. How much better to embrace life, to welcome change, to promote positive, desired transformations – in ourselves, our loved ones, our communities, our nations, and our planet.

And let’s do it with determined, clear-sighted Purpose.

In my last entry on Transition Towns I talked about the blocks to change, and listed the ‘7 Buts’ addressed by the Transition Initiative. Since then, I’ve been reflecting on blocks to action – surely the most critical issue in tackling climate change. What are these blocks? Where do they come from? and How can we overcome them?

What stops us acting? Well, of course, there are our fears and traumas, emotional and psychological blocks, our busyness and other commitments to family and job and ... They’re all very real. And yet they can be transformed by seeing Reality differently; by changing our worldview. This is the key starting place – a conclusion I reached many years ago before I began writing “The Science of Oneness: A worldview for the twenty-first century.” To become a revolutionary, change your mind!

So what’s wrong with our worldview? Well ... lots of things actually. But here’s a simple image. To make a stool that will stand firmly on an uneven surface, you must give it three legs. With two or one leg, it will fall over as soon as you let go. With 4 or more legs it will wobble. Just so, a stable worldview must be based on three aspects of Reality – what we might call Physicality, Mentality and Spirituality. Today, we have fragmented our view of Reality as if we’ve made a stool with hinged legs and now wonder why it keeps collapsing.

This fragmentation began in the European so-called Enlightenment which led to the scientific revolution. Philosophers and scientists of the day rightly rejected the authoritarian dogmatism of the Church. But in throwing out the bathwater of religion, they also threw out the baby of Spirituality. So existence became reduced to nothing but mind and matter. And today, we’re so besotted with materialism that we regard mind as nothing but an epiphenomenon of matter. It’s like we’ve removed half the second leg, or put a hinge between the two. We are thus left desperately trying to prop up this tottering one-and-a-half-legged stool with Physicality, but this can’t take the load. The consequences of this fragmentation run deep in our psyches and lives.

Let’s start by taking a closer look at Mentality. Some of us try to build a rational worldview on the basis of science, philosophy and logic, and to lead lives consistent with our conclusions. In some cases, this leads to commitment and service to the material world, but in others, without the support of Spirituality, it results in disengagement and self-service. Many others (particularly in the USA) seek to replace the broken Spirituality leg with fundamentalist religion, but destabilise the stool again by rejecting the critical mind.

What of the majority? Most of us in the developed world, I think, are simply asleep a lot of the time, inhabiting dreamlike virtual worlds. We live, if it can be called living, inside our heads, disconnected not only from Spirituality but also from Physicality. We live in a pretend world of TV, films, books, magazines, avatars, the web ... including Zaadz! Even at work, we mostly inhabit a digital domain removed as far as possible from contact with real people and the real world.

Whenever we leave our mental bunkers and venture into the material world, we don our blinkers, pacify our minds, and enter a strange Physicality of addiction. Addiction to drugs: legal or illegal, recreational or pharmaceutical. Addiction to foods: sugar, coffee, chocolate ... Addiction to the acquisition, operation, care and protection of possessions: houses, cars, electronic playthings ... Addiction to habits and routines that give us an impression of control, stability and security. Addiction to sports and leisure pursuits. Addiction to sex and dysfunctional relationships. Addiction to any and all distractions from the painful, meaningless, scary, lonely, insecure, unpleasant experience of here and now as it really is. Addiction to anything that will blank out the fear when the ice gets too thin over the turbulent cold waters below. Like Charlie Brown in the Peanuts cartoon, we hang on for dear life to our security blanket of materialism and virtual reality.

Unfortunately, the global crisis is not a computer game; climate change, war and poverty exist outside Second Life. If we’re to survive, not only as a civilization but also as a species, we must wake up and leave the security of our virtual worlds and our addictions. We must move boldly into the here and now and dwell there. Just think what we could do for planet Earth by releasing all the creative time and energy!

It takes courage to wake. I’m as reluctant as the next person when my inner fears and traumas rise. I head for the coffee and sugar, if not for stronger things. I take refuge in my routines – like writing blogs! I’m as addicted to stability and security as the next person, but I can see that it’s a mirage enticing me to destruction. Life could throw a big spanner in the works at any moment: sickness, accident, death, ... Or fantasy world on which I depend may collapse as the credit crunch, energy prices, ‘natural’ disasters and terrorism bite. My best hope is to face my fears and take action. But boy, am I resistant!

It’s fear that locks us into our virtual world and our addictions. It’s fear that blocks action. Fear born of trauma. Until we face our fears, heal our traumas and move through them and beyond them, we will remain stuck on the road to destruction. But when we do face them, we will discover great treasures. This is the universal myth of the hero’s journey. The hero (male or female) sets forth into the unknown, facing their terrors, encountering hardships and dangers along the way, and ultimately returning home transformed and with a great gift for their community.

Real security can only be found within. Not in the world of virtual reality, but in the confidence that we can cope no matter what, that we have a valuable part to play in the journey of humanity, that we can trust the process of life and learn from it. Only those with the deepest spiritual lives can stand alone in this way. But we don’t need to. We can stand together as family, friends and community in mutual support. We can replace electronic relationships with good, old-fashioned, local, flesh and blood ones! 

If we’re to survive and transform ourselves and the planet, we must learn to stand in the real world on the three-legged stool of true Physicality, Mentality and Spirituality. A Physicality based on our intimate relationship with the Earth and Cosmos. A Mentality grounded in scientific knowledge and spiritual wisdom. And a Spirituality rooted in the Spirit of Life, the Source that enlivens and unifies all that is. A Spirituality stripped of the trappings of religious dogmas, doctrines, rituals, practices, scriptures, priesthoods ..., and open to the power of love, compassion, truth and wisdom.

Merry Christmas and a transformative New Year!

In my last post, I described my vision of decentralised, sustainable settlements, and suggested some ways in which existing urban areas could evolve in this direction. And in an earlier entry on “How we beat climate change”, I described how local community action will be vital to our future. Today, I want to introduce a practical initiative called ‘Transition Towns’ that is inspiring many communities in the UK. The idea is relatively new, and hence concrete results are still scarce, but more and more communities are signing up. The information here is summarised from the website, and a downloadable 48p. “Transition Initiatives Primer.” If you feel inspired after reading this, how about starting a project where you live?

In response to the twin pressures of Peak Oil and Climate Change, some pioneering communities in the UK, Ireland and beyond are taking an integrated and inclusive approach to reducing their carbon footprint and increasing their ability to withstand the fundamental shifts that will occur as we pass Peak Oil. They are unleashing their collective creativity and adaptability through coordinated projects that lead to a planned reduction in energy use in all areas of life. Their aim is not only survival but creation of “a way of living that’s significantly more connected, more vibrant and more in touch with our environment than the oil-addicted treadmill we are on today.”

As we near the end of the era of cheap oil, and face the necessity of drastically curbing our emissions of greenhouse gases, “it’s difficult to overstate what this means to our lives in the developed countries.” In the words of Andrew McNamara, Minister for Sustainability, Climate Change and Innovation in the Australian State of Queensland:

There's no question whatsoever that community driven local solutions will be essential. That's where government will certainly have a role to play in assisting and encouraging local networks, who can assist with local supplies of food and fuel and water and jobs and the things we need from shops. It was one of my contentions in the first speech I made on this issue in February of 2005... that we will see a relocalisation of the way in which we live that will remind us of not last century, but the one before that. And that's not a bad thing. Undoubtedly one of the cheaper responses that will be very effective is promoting local consumption, local production, local distribution. And there are positive spin offs to that in terms of getting to know our communities better. There are human and community benefits from local networks that I look forward to seeing grow.

Many of us are inclined to wait for governments or new technologies to bail us out. But governments are powerless without broad electoral support, and new technologies take too long to develop and implement. It’s time that we took the lead in our local communities. We have to act NOW, before it is too late. It is imperative that those of us who are aware of the dangers set an example of what is possible by instigating local action NOW.

Do you feel daunted? Do you feel that one individual, one local community can make no difference to such a huge global problem? If you do, remember these points:
•    Your action and those of your community will be an example and an inspiration to others. It will be like starting a snowball rolling down hill.
•    Every significant advance in modern civilization has been the result of persistence and perseverance by one, or a few, individuals: abolition of slavery, prison reform, universal education, women’s suffrage, human rights, etc etc.
YOU and your community have the power to change the world.

The key strategy is ‘relocalisation’ – horrible word, but descriptive. This means a process of building local sustainability and resilience by producing as many as possible of the essential goods and services within the community and the immediate surrounding area. This not only minimises vulnerability to energy price rises and shortages, but also minimizes carbon dioxide emissions from transport. Several cities in the USA and well over 100 communities worldwide have begun to relocalize. Portland, Oregon, for example, in its Peak Oil consultation report proposes a reduction in oil and gas consumption by 2.6% per year, or 25% by 2020. And in the UK several communities are looking at similar (or more ambitious) ‘energy descent’ targets.

According to the Transitions Initiatives Primer, the Transition Model is based on the following realizations:
•    Climate Change and Peak Oil require urgent action
•    Life with less energy is inevitable and it is better to plan for it than be taken by surprise
•    Industrial society has lost the resilience to be able to cope with energy shocks
•    We have to act together and we have to act now
•    Continued growth of the world economy and consumption is not possible on a finite planet
•    We demonstrated phenomenal levels of ingenuity and intelligence as we raced up the energy growth curve over the last 150 years, and there's no reason why we can't use those qualities, and more, as we negotiate our way down from the peak of the energy mountain.
•    If we plan and act early enough, and use our creativity and cooperation to unleash the genius within our local communities, then we can build a future that could be far more fulfilling and enriching, more connected and more gentle on the earth than the lifestyles we have today.

When faced with very challenging situations, we humans tend to construct emotional and psychological barriers to change. We act like ostriches burying our heads in the sand. The Transitions Initiative names and dismantles the commonest barriers in the guise of “7 Buts”. It then works with 12 key steps to transition. These are not a prescriptive ‘must do’ list, but are guidelines based on experience that can be adapted as necessary to suit the local needs.

In summary, the ‘7 Buts’ are:
•    But we’ve got no funding ...
•    But they won’t let us ...
•    But there are already green groups in this town ...
•    But no-one in this town cares about the environment anyway ...
•    But surely it’s too late to do anything ...?
•    But I don’t have the right qualifications ...
•    But I don’t have the energy for doing that ...

If any of these feel like your reaction, I suggest you look at the Transitions Initiative Primer, available on the website (link above).

Again in summary, the 12 steps of Transition are:
•    Set up a Steering Group and design its demise from the outset.
•    Raise awareness
•    Network with existing groups and activists to make sure the project is inclusive
•    Organise a public event to bring the project into the community at large and build momentum
•    Form working groups covering all aspects of life
•    Use ‘Open Space’ meetings – no agenda, timetable, coordinator or minute-taker
•    Develop visible practical manifestations of the project
•    Organise training in key skills such as repair, cookery, cycle maintenance, house insulation, gardening, etc etc.
•    Build bridges to local government
•    Honour the wisdom of elders who remember the days before plentiful energy
•    Let the process go where it will
•    Create an energy descent plan

Again, if you want more detail, download that Primer!

I hope that’s enough to whet your appetite for local action! There’s lots of experience and advice out there on the web to help you get going. And we can start our own self-help group in “On the Wisdom Trail”.