Gaia Community: Malcolm's Blog

On Climate Change and Wisdom

http://malcolmhollick.gaia.com — Sun, 18 May 2008 02:19:51 GMT

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.

Face in Peppermint Tree

Tags: climate change, greenhouse gases, tipping point, policy, interdisciplinary research, Australia, Aborigines, spirituality, humility, wisdom, caterpillar dreaming

The challenge of climate change

http://malcolmhollick.gaia.com — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 03:06:32 GMT

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.

Wongsanit Ashram

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.

Bangkok billboard

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.

Perth across the River Swan

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?

University of WA

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.

Tags: Thailand, Bangkok, Perth, Western Australia, climate change, greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, emissions, policy, action, addiction

Love miles

http://malcolmhollick.gaia.com — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 09:27:24 GMT

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.

Tags: love miles, climate change, air travel

Tipping points, asteroids and mass extinctions

http://malcolmhollick.gaia.com — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 07:51:38 GMT

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.

Tags: Dinosaurs, extinction, evolution, positive feedback, climate change, biomarkers, fossils, greenhouse gas, methane, tipping point, change

Reflections on the beach and the future of humanity

http://malcolmhollick.gaia.com — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 08:43:39 GMT

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.

Cluny Hills

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.

Findhorn Beach

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.

Tags: Deep ecology, nature, humanity, evolution, extinction, the future, Gaia, reflections, sea, beach, forest

Values, Lifestyle and Community Glue

http://malcolmhollick.gaia.com — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 09:01:40 GMT

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.

Nature Sanctuary

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.

May Pole

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.

Pottery - 1

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.

Art Centre

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 Eko

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.

Tags: intentional community, Findhorn Community, community building, ecovillage, Global Ecovillage Network, community currency, community economy, cooperation, beliefs, values, spirituality

The Findhorn Community and the Global Future

http://malcolmhollick.gaia.com — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 16:08:55 GMT

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!

***********

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.

Tags: Findhorn Community, money, economy, finance, University of Western Australia, Centre for Water Research, Centre for Integrated Human Studies, sustainability, sustainable development, climate change, peak oil

May we all have a Transformative New Year

http://malcolmhollick.gaia.com — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 10:13:27 GMT

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!

Ice on the Findhorn River

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.

Butterfly

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.

Cluny Hills - 8

Tags: new year, resolutions, transformation, individual, family, community, purpose, crisis, civilization, planet

Blocks to Transformation

http://malcolmhollick.gaia.com — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 17:19:07 GMT

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!

Tags: transformation, change, climate change, spirituality, religion, security, terrorism, virtual reality, science, materialism, addiction

Transition Towns

http://malcolmhollick.gaia.com — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 17:58:19 GMT

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”.

Tags: climate change, peak oil, energy, energy conservation, energy efficiency, energy descent, transition towns, community, communities, relocalisation, planning

The Community Future

http://malcolmhollick.gaia.com — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 11:11:03 GMT

In my last post, I challenged you to start sharing your dreams and visions of the future. Today, I want to start sharing some of mine. It’s a big task that would fill a fat book because there are so many interwoven issues. I have chosen to start with a vision of restructuring human settlements, and rebuilding local communities. Please post discussion on the Pod "On the Wisdom Trail"

The Ecovillage Movement

I have chosen to live in an ecovillage at Findhorn in Scotland, part of the vibrant Global Ecovillage Network (GEN). Ecovillages are relatively small communities that seek to create a way of life that is sustainable ecologically, economically, socially, culturally and spiritually. They are very diverse. At one end of the spectrum are traditional villages in the majority world such as the Sarvodaya movement in Sri Lanka and Eco Yoff in Senegal. In rich western countries, many are small rural communities with just a few families and enough land to grow most of their own food. But others, such as Eco-village Los Angeles, are transforming inner city areas.

A decade ago, GEN was small and almost invisible. Today, with growing concerns about climate change and sustainability, the world is starting to take notice of what ecovillages have to offer. For example, the Findhorn Community, where I live, is an NGO accredited at the UN, and host to one of 12 CIFAL training centres set up by the UN Institute for Training and Research. Each CIFAL Centre is “a hub for capacity building and knowledge sharing between local authorities, national governments, international organizations, the private sector and civil society.” Findhorn also offers trainings in all aspects and levels of ecovillage design. The month-long Ecovillage Design Education is a training for trainers developed by GEN and an official contribution to the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. By contrast, the Ecovillage Training, which also lasts a month, is more of an introduction based on Findhorn’s experience.

The energy of the ecovillage movement is focused on creating model small-scale sustainable settlements. However, valuable as these are, the vision needs to expand beyond individual ecovillages if this approach is to make a significant contribution to the future of an over-populated and increasingly urban world. My vision of the future is of a sustainable society and economy with a high quality of life and advanced culture based on networks of ecovillages which capture the economies of scale and diversity of large populations without losing the advantages of a smaller ecological footprint, local autonomy, neighbourly and cooperative relationships, slower rhythms of life, and vibrant community arts, crafts and entertainment. Following is a brief sketch, little more than a verbal cartoon, of what this might look.

A glimpse of the future?

When they think about sustainable futures, many people focus on technologies for energy and water supply, building construction, transport, food production and so on. These are hugely important, because without appropriate technologies a sustainable community is impossible. But the experience of aspiring ecovillages reveals that technology is the easy part. There are lots of brilliant technologies and creative ideas already available, and more are being developed all the time. In the long term, people are far trickier. It has proved very challenging to create settlements and social structures that work economically, socially and culturally. These challenges include:
•    Generating a sustainable, if modest, income;
•    Building community relationships;
•    Creating decision-making and conflict management systems that work;
•    Finding time and energy for socialising, celebrations, art and creativity.

The answers developed by ecovillages are as diverse as the technologies they use, and detailed discussion is beyond the scope of this article. What I want to do here is focus primarily on the role of settlement design in facilitating the emergence of sustainable communities. The way we lay out our villages and towns, or restructure urban areas over time, has a big impact on the kinds of social relationships that emerge. For instance, it is almost impossible to provide efficient public transport in suburbia, locking such areas into high-energy, high-cost private transport. They discourage neighbourliness and community, and encourage isolation of nuclear families. And there is no alternative to commuting to work for most bread-winners. So how might things be different?

Imagine in place of your city, a network of autonomous, inter-connected small towns, separated by land set aside for nature conservation, recreation, water supply, food production and similar purposes. The actual size, shape, distribution and spacing of these towns varies, both to provide diverse living environments and to fit harmoniously into the landscape. However, some idea of how such settlements might work can be gained from an idealised model.

Each town has a population of a few thousand people, living around a central area containing schools, shops, offices, service industries, the public transport terminus, and civic, entertainment, sporting and recreation facilities. This core occupies an area of no more than 80ha – corresponding to a circle 1 km in diameter. Most buildings here are underground to save energy, and to leave the surface free for parks and sports grounds. However, there is ducted natural light inside, including ‘windows’ through which the outside world can be seen, including the night sky.

Residential areas are located in a ring around the core, no more than 0.75 km wide, with open space beyond. Dwellings are arranged in clusters of 5 to 50, with a range of shared facilities such as common dining and recreation rooms, child play spaces, workshops, laundry, and shared guest facilities, all of which cut the need for private space and encourage development of a cooperative community. In this way the ecological footprint and cost of dwellings is reduced. Workshops, storage and parking facilities are often located below the dwellings to save land. Buildings are low-rise, no more than 3 or 4 stories high, and of mixed size and density to suit different lifestyles and stages of life. Private gardens are small, and most land is owned and managed in common. Dwelling clusters are very energy efficient and use advanced technologies that make them generally self-sufficient in energy, water and wastewater services.

The dwelling clusters are connected with each other and the central core by a network of paths for cyclists, pedestrians and electric buggies that run through linear parks, and are segregated from the narrow roads used by delivery vehicles, taxis and the few private cars. Due to the layout, no-one lives more than 1.25 km from the town centre, or more than 2.5 km from any other house - easy walking or cycling distance for most, and accessible by electric buggy for others. Similarly, no-one is more than 0.75 km from the open space surrounding the town.

Ideally, in densely settled areas such towns are spaced at about 5 km intervals, although the actual spacing and layout varies greatly. Thus, typically there are 2.5 km of open space between the edges of adjacent towns, and the built-over area occupies less than 25% of the landscape. The open space supports a mixture of conservation reserves, natural parks, urban forests, quarries, intensive organic agriculture and aquaculture, and ‘allotments’ used for growing food by residents without private gardens. As much of the town’s food as possible is produced in this area, thus minimising transport and maximising freshness, although the actual percentage depends on the landform, soils and climate. Other farm products include raw materials for plastics and biofuels as well as timber and paper pulp. The open area is interlaced with walking and cycle paths as well as narrow service roads that are used for leisure, access to neighbouring towns, and transport of produce. The open space also is crossed by transport corridors which connect the towns by high-speed rail and road for both goods and passenger transport.

In its pure form this vision is applicable only to ‘green fields’ developments, or regeneration of extensive derelict industrial areas. But over time whole cities could be restructured into more self-sufficient communities. Natural models for this exist in many older cities such as London which long ago engulfed neighbouring villages which have somehow retained their identity over intervening centuries. On a smaller scale, there are already examples of suburban streets that have been converted to cluster housing by removing land boundaries, and apartment blocks and disused warehouses that have been turned into urban communities. Such evolution requires vision, imaginative planning and appropriate incentives rather than wholesale demolition and reconstruction.

Each cluster of dwellings becomes the basis for a cohousing or ecovillage community that is responsible for its own internal management. The town and its surrounding area is governed by an elected council responsible for all functions which cannot be adequately managed at the community level. This includes some aspects of energy, food and water supply, waste recycling, local environmental management, transport, education, welfare, health, cultural and recreational facilities, and development control. A relatively novel, but key, function is employment of trained facilitators whose job it is to help the residents of housing clusters to build community and overcome relationship difficulties. Towns coordinate and standardise their activities where necessary through regional and State assemblies with representation from each town. State agencies and utility companies act as consultants and contractors, facilitating coordination and establishment of uniform technical standards where necessary, and providing expert planning, design, installation, maintenance and management services. However, their role as regulators and central service providers is much reduced.

As each town is responsible for its own development within an agreed coordinating structure, a high degree of diversity evolves in social and economic systems, settlement patterns, architectural styles and so on. The emphasis is on economic self-reliance, with most people working within their own town in order to reduce unnecessary transport. Thus each town needs a diversity of skills ranging from food production and processing, through maintenance of buildings, equipment and open space, to office, education and health services, and leisure and cultural pursuits.

This economic structure, with most people working and living in the one town, fosters a sense of community beyond the dwelling cluster, so that most people choose to use town recreational and cultural facilities for much of their leisure. Local theatre, music, sports and other cultural activities flourish. People also choose to have retired relatives and children living in the same town where possible. As community identity grows, it naturally comes to take responsibility for those who are unemployed, aged or disabled. Each town tends to have a mixture of ages, abilities and incomes, and develops an appropriate mix of housing. In this way, the new economic structure and settlement pattern reduce the problem of inequality.

Beyond common economic needs, each town tends to specialise in a particular type of economic activity. Some produce manufactured goods such as tools, appliances or vehicles. Others focus on higher education, research, or specialist medical and hospital services. A third group is based on arts and crafts such as furniture making, textiles, pottery or painting. Yet others concentrate on specialist retail facilities, while some become home to professional cultural groups such as orchestras or theatre, ballet and opera companies, or to museums and art galleries.

These towns are not closed societies, although the populations are relatively stable, and their growth is constrained by the availability of land and resources, and the lifestyle adopted. Thus, people can only move into an area when others move out or die. Stagnation and parochialism are minimised by the transport and communications links to other towns, and the world as a whole. People are able to visit other villages easily, and indeed need to do so to buy certain goods, to get certain services, to participate in some sporting competitions, or to visit a museum or professional theatre. People have access to information and entertainment in libraries and databases around the world from their home computers, and have videophone links to other towns.

In some areas, recreational access to natural areas has to be limited to avoid degradation from the relatively high local population. Each town works out appropriate ways of controlling use. These range from encouraging leisure activities away from natural areas towards the landscaped central parks, to tradeable permits for a number of days a year for each person, to ‘on’ and ‘off’ days, or pay for use. Similar mechanisms are used for regional facilities such as beaches, fisheries and national parks, based on access rights by each town as a whole. Overall, however, the impact of such constraints is not severe because the vibrant and rewarding community life reduces the need to ‘get away from it all’.

Concluding comments

In many respects, this scenario is similar to utopian anarchism - a return to an idealised past when simple folk lived a non-industrialised rural idyll. However, there are critical differences. This is not a vision of a society that has turned its back on science and technology, or which has magically got rid of most of the human population. This is a vision of a society which makes maximum use of advanced knowledge to create a world in which large numbers can have a high quality of life without destroying the natural resources on which they depend; a society of human scale, which values each individual, and in which people can achieve their potentials as human beings.

There are few if any technical barriers to this future. The challenges lie in the reluctance of ordinary men and women, the reluctance of ourselves above all, to contemplate radically changing our lifestyles and values to embrace a more community-focused way of life; in our reluctance to devote time and energy to developing community relationships. But we may soon be forced by climate change and other limits to choose between radical change with the hope of a better long term future, or hanging onto our current way of life as its quality declines.

Tags: ecovillage, community, cohousing, vision, future, climate change, urban design, urban regeneration, town planning, local government, utopia

The Explorer's Vision

http://malcolmhollick.gaia.com — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 10:19:13 GMT

Experts analyse data spilling from the innards of their computers like priestly diviners poring over the entrails of hapless chickens for portents of things to come. With 20:20 hindsight they tell us endlessly where we have been in recent years and months, but little of significance about the future. A glance at the headlines says it all:

Inflation 0.3% last month as downward trend continues
Share market falls 3%, ending bull run
GDP up 0.5 last quarter as growth slows
Retail sales down 2% last quarter as consumer confidence weakens
Unemployment hits its highest level for 5 years
Burglaries up ...
Car theft jumps ...
Prime Minister's popularity slips ...
Air quality improves ...
Divorce ...
House prices ...
Grey Eminence wins three of last four starts ...

Government plans and policies are little better. They start with detailed analyses of where we have been, and end with calls for more information, more monitoring, more research to document each step along the way. ‘Experts' measure and calculate the trend in every subtle nuance of our economy and society. And not content with trends, they create complex computer 'models' of the past in order to predict the future. They know without a shadow of a doubt where we have been, and where we were heading recently. But know nothing of where we are going, unless it’s to hell in a hand basket! (What a wonderful expression that is!)

Our leaders have been seduced by these faceless grey people. They have become technicians, fine-tuning the dials which keep us on track. But on track to where? They tell us endlessly about policy settings to bring about growth, low inflation, employment ... They exhort us to be more productive, to save more, to spend more, to be smarter ... For what? So we won't fall off the escalator. But we search in vain for anyone to tell us where the escalator is going. Beating inflation, stimulating growth, creating more jobs, protecting the environment - doesn't anyone realise that these are not goals, but simply means to other ends. But what ends?

Humanity thirsts for a vision of a different and a better world that acts, as Elise Boulding put it, as a powerful historical magnet drawing us towards the envisioned future. We thirst for a vision of a possible world that is abundant, joyful, loving and worthy of our commitment, body and soul. But where are our visionaries today? We wait in vain.

In the meanwhile, let me tell you a story ...

Once upon a time, an explorer set out to see what lay beyond the mountains. Shouldering his pack, he set out one fine morning, boldly striding backwards into the dawn. Day after day he stumbled on, keeping careful watch on the way he had come so he didn’t get lost. And from time to time he glanced in the battered old mirror strapped to his shoulder to see what was in store behind him. But the view in the mirror was dim and distorted, and every now and then he bumped into a tree, or tumbled into a hole. Once in a while, too, with despair in his heart he found himself following his own tracks, having walked in a circle.

One day, as he staggered on his way through the early morning mist, he passed a wizened old man sitting under a tree. With a puzzled frown on his face, the old man watched his painful progress for a while. Then he called out:

"Friend, why are you walking backwards?"

"Oh," was the reply, "by walking backwards I can see where I have been and which direction I should head now."

"But where are you going?"

"I don't know. No-one has ever been there, but I want to make sure I get there safely."

"Safely?” exclaimed the old man, “How can you travel safely when you don't know where you're going and can't see the path ahead? Why, I've sat here watching you for the last half-hour and you keep tripping over and bumping into things. Do you call that getting there safely?"

"Well, maybe I do get a few scratches and bruises, but what else can I do?” responded the explorer, ”If I don't watch where I've been I'll lose my way.”

"But what good is it to know what you’ve left behind? Surely you know that travellers on this road never return? You can only go onwards from here, never go back."

"What? Are you sure?" exclaimed the explorer.

"Why yes, I’m sure. Now why don't you turn around and look where you are going? You would get on much better that way."

The explorer hesitated for a long moment. He looked longingly back down the path he’d trodden, and felt the security of familiarity. At least he knew what lay in that direction even if it wasn’t very enticing. Then he turned his head just a little and glanced in the other direction. True, he could see more clearly than in his mirror, but it was scary. Why, he couldn’t even tell for sure what lay behind that next boulder.

At long last, the explorer heaved a big sigh, unstrapped his mirror and tossed it away. With a shrug of his shoulders, he turned his full face to the road ahead, and took his first hesitant steps into the distance. And, oh, it was so easy and joyful! His past struggles and difficulties and despairs were hidden behind him, and there before him was the most wonderful vision of green, rolling wooded hills. True, they were still a long way off, and he still couldn't see quite how to get there through the intervening swamps and deserts. But at least now he had a goal. He could see that it was possible. He could see that it would be worthwhile. Life didn’t have to be painful stumbling in circles. He could set a clear direction, even if the path was rough and twisted.

As we head into the terra incognita of our future, we need a vision of El Dorado lying beyond the mountains of despair and the deserts of angst. We need a vision, not of survival and adaptation to straightened circumstances, but of a golden future of joy and love, of abundance and peace.

Do you dream of such a future? Let’s share our dreams and create a vision of utopia – not as a place we will ever inhabit, but as a beckoning direction to head. What do you dream about when you pause in the mad scramble of modern life? What pieces would you contribute to the jig-saw of utopia? Let’s hear your vision “On the Wisdom Trail.”

Tags: vision, future, sustainability, sustainable development, utopia, leadership

The Power of Reconciliation and Forgiveness

http://malcolmhollick.gaia.com — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 08:36:02 GMT

Often personal trauma haunts us until we find a place of healing and forgiveness. And often the trauma of war reaches down the generations and centuries, only to explode again when the time is ripe. The only way out is collective healing. South Africa could so easily have descended into a blood-bath with the end of apartheid, but instead it became an example to the world with its Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Several years ago, in 1999, the Findhorn Foundation hosted an unforgettable conference on Forgiveness. Today, I’d like to share a few of the stories that emerged to illustrate the power of this approach.

Abagayle’s story

Abagayle was an ordinary woman; a mother and grandmother. Her story began on the day her daughter Catherine was brutally murdered. From that moment she began her ‘journey of darkness’. She had no religious faith, her mother was too sick to help, her other two children had just left home, and her husband was unable to share the grieving with her. At work, her colleagues and friends were in denial, and many could not bring themselves to talk with Abagayle about her trauma. She believed that finding and executing Catherine’s murderer would make everything ok, and so began eight years of rage, hatred and a lust for revenge.

Abagayle’s ‘journey into life’ was sparked by a meditation class where she learnt to be still and listen within. She began a spiritual quest, joined the Unity Church, and ‘fell in love with God’. She became interested in A Course in Miracles, and was given a video tape introduction in which a Jewish man described how he had forgiven the German soldiers who murdered his whole family. Driving home one day, Abagayle received guidance that she must forgive Douglas, Catharine’s murderer, who by then was on death row.

At 4 am the following morning, unable to sleep, she began to write him a letter, excerpts from which follow:

I know that Catherine is in a better place than we can ever know here on Earth. I did not know that when Catherine died. All I knew is that I had been robbed of my precious child and that she had been robbed of growing into womanhood and achieving all her potential. The violent way that she left this Earth was impossible for me to understand. I was saddened beyond belief and felt that I could never be happy again...

I was very angry with you and wanted to see you punished to the limit of the law... In the midst of studying ‘A Course in Miracles’ I could find, to my surprise, that I could forgive you. This does not mean that I think you are innocent or that you are blameless for what happened. What I learned was this: You are a divine child of God. You carry the Christ Consciousness within you. You are surrounded by God’s love even as you sit in your cell. The Christ in me sends blessings to the Christ in you.

The sound of the letter hitting the bottom of the mailbox changed Abagayle’s life. True forgiveness finally gave her the healing she needed.

All the anger, all the rage, all the ugliness that I was carrying in my body for all those years - it was instantly gone. It just left. And in it’s place I was just filled with a sense of joy and peace and I was truly in a state of grace.

Abagayle’s forgiveness did not require anything more. However, she received a reply from Douglas in which he shared his ‘tears of joy and sorrow’ at having the opportunity to communicate with her. Their contact eventually led to her visiting San Quentin State Prison in California where Douglas was on death row. On that first courageous visit to the prison she saw “the face of God, wherever she looked”. Developing a relationship with Douglas enabled her to understand that we are all one, that we are all inter-connected beings.

Abagayle became an active campaigner for the abolition of the death penalty. She also established a ministry for prisoners on death row and travelled internationally to share her story of forgiveness in the hope that it would inspire others to heal themselves. She established the Worldwide Forgiveness Alliance which aims to make the first Sunday in every August ‘International Forgiveness Day’.

“Remember...” says Abagayle, “ forgiveness is a gift you give to yourself.”
If you wish, you can read her story in her own words.

The Pastor and the Imam

Today, this is a well-known story that has been made into a documentary film that I really must watch one day. But at the time of the Findhorn Conference it was relatively fresh, and it made a deep and lasting impression on me as the two men shared the platform and told their stories with humour and deep brotherly love.

Nigeria has been torn by strife between Christians and Muslims. In 1992, Imam Ashafa and Pastor James Wuye both led gangs which fought each other ferociously with machetes and other weapons. In one battle, Ashafa’s teacher and two sons were killed; and Pastor James lost an arm and he saw his bodyguard’s head severed. I well-remember, all these years later, how Pastor James described his astonishment and fear when Ashafa visited him in hospital – he thought he’d come to kill him. But by reaching out in this way, Ashafa began a process of reconciliation and forgiveness that continues today.

Following is an extract from the daily conference report:

Pastor James’s story is powerful, yet told with a joy and humour that leaves you wondering how it could be possible to hate such a man. But perhaps within this questioning there lies the pathology of hatred that belies conflict not only in Nigeria but throughout nations. Pastor James’s humanity is not ‘seen’ by those less privileged than us to really meet him, and by those who oppose him for what he stands for rather than for who he really is.

The story is an extraordinary demonstration of the power of inter-faith reconciliation and forgiveness. Pastor James and Imam Muhammad Ashafa represent new hope for Nigeria and for the conflict between Islamic and Christian peoples in their country and for all places where religious bigotry and intolerance of the ‘other’ has created a culture of bloodshed. ...

At the core of Pastor James’s model for reconciliation is the need for an understanding of one another’s world view. To really see through the eyes of the other involves ‘living with’ that person. Pastor James is certainly walking his talk here. He and Ashafa have been travelling together, rooming together and experiencing what it is really like to develop an intimate friendship between two men who were once at war with one another. Their story is delightful. Pastor James is irritated by Ashafa’s prayers which begin at 5am. Ashafa cannot understand why his companion worships Jesus as if he were the Divine, rather than ‘merely’ a messenger for the Divine. But the banter is loving and central to the whole message which they carry around the world. “I look at him (Ashafa) and I don’t see faults, I just feel love for him... after all, he is my brother”.

Forgiveness for Pastor James is something which we need to practise many times each day. We should not waste time waiting for our aggressor to say sorry. He does however advocate a time of mediation and a time for the offender to reflect upon their actions before being given an opportunity to make amends. Ultimately though, it is God who will determine whether a man can be graced with peace.

Forgiveness requires willingness. “Close your ears to the shadows and you begin to appreciate your friend, you begin to see yourself in him.” Choosing to focus upon this commonality requires huge courage to break with the cultural conditioning perpetuated by charismatic and fanatical religious zealots on both sides.

(According to Ashafa) Islam has at its very heart the concept of forgiveness. This is the message which Ashafa wishes to put straight, to counter the predominant Western view that Muslims are all extremist terrorists. By citing the Koran, Ashafa spoke passionately about the practise of ‘total submission’ to a system of higher power, of ultimate truth. When one’s path is complete surrender to such a system, peace comes as if you were learning a language. The philosophical basis of Islam is to present the individual with a choice or free will to either adopt negative or positive thinking, and to act accordingly. Courageous free will is to forgive even when one is angry. But forgiveness requires corrective action to compensate the victim. The perpetrator is given the opportunity to show remorse for his actions and to take steps to ‘do penance’ and restore the victim’s losses. Only when there is no repentance does the state intervene. Justice in Islam seeks to correct rather than to punish.

The spirit of Forgiveness or Ego

Ashafa wrote this poem for the Conference:

Things are fallen apart
The centre could no longer hold
The falcon is no more hearing the falconer
Something is missing!
The spirit of forgiveness or that of ego
We wish to know; we need to know

Oh Man!

Between hatred and friendship
Between sadness and joy
Between evil and goodness
There is a strong barrier
The spirit of forgiveness or that of ego
We wish to know; we need to know

Oh Man!

Between the body and the soul
Between the water and the blood
Between the spirit and the flesh
There is a strong barrier
The spirit of forgiveness or that of ego
We wish to know; we need to know

Oh Man!

Within the children of Adam
Between the white and the black
Between the rich and the poor
There is a strong barrier
The spirit of forgiveness or that of ego
We wish to know; we need to know

Oh Man!

What is the spirit of ego?
In this lies the power of self
Tribalism, racism and nationalism
It reminds its possessor of negative past
The law of karma, sadness and the joy of vengeance
It flourishes on the radiating light of exclusiveness

Oh Man!

What is the spirit of forgiveness?
In this lies the power of God consciousness
Healing, love and unification
It reminds its possessor of a positive past
The mercy of God, on humanity, nature and the joy in humility
It flourishes on the radiating light of inclusiveness

Oh man and Woman, fellow conference participants
We need to choose, we need to decide
Between the spirit of egocentrism
And the spirit of forgiveness
Which would help us: uplift humanity
Out of the danger of global disintegration

Oh for me and my household
We reject the spirit of ego
We embrace the spirit of forgiveness
In it lies the new radiating light of positivity
So was I taught by my great teacher Muhammad
We have tasted it: It is the sweetest honey
That elevates humanity to God consciousness

Oh!

For Diane and Jerry Jampolsky
For James Wuye and Imam Ashafa
For Miranda, Ben Fuchs and Robin
For men of wisdom and women of intellect
They have chosen the path of honour
They have embraced the spirit of forgiveness
Which has elevated them to God consciousness

Oh!

They represent our symbol of hope
That in a world full of hatred and guilt
Where the spirit of ego is in total control
Where attitudinal changes become the greatest challenge
They gave hope to the hopeless
That the spirit of forgiveness is winning the battle.

Mohammed Imam Ashafa

Reconciliation in Northern Ireland

The final story I want to share from the Conference is about Northern Ireland.

In a divided country the Corrymeela community is an experiment in creating a space for people where ‘no side can claim it as their own’. At the time of the Conference, Colin Craig was the director of the project and his deep understanding of the Catholic / Protestant divide was delivered with a humility befitting a man working for peace in a country synonymous with violence and bloodshed, bigotry and sectarianism.

Corrymeela is a place where members from all walks of life, from both sides of the sectarian divide can be encouraged to reveal their humanity to each other. The challenge is to facilitate ways in which people can see beyond the messages and the ‘story’ that play automatically as soon as the ‘other’ is labelled as Catholic or Protestant. Experience showed that it is better in the early stages for each group to meet separately, helping to create a sense of safety and freeing up in which they could explore issues about ‘the other’.

Experience also revealed that sitting down and sharing stories in an attempt to achieve empathy is naive in a country which has experienced so much bloodshed and partisanship. Moving out of dialogue and into direct experience of each other is more effective.

In our culture, Colin Craig pointed out, we seek individual freedom which produces rivalry, and a fear that if the other becomes free then ‘I’ cannot. So we seek to eradicate the ‘other’, to stamp out diversity. To escape this way of thinking we have to engage with our fears. We have to learn how to embrace the enemy. “After all”, he pointed out, “it is the gunmen who are leading the peace-process now”.

************

I invite you to share your stories of the power of reconciliation and forgiveness in “On the Wisdom Trail”. First one in, start a new thread please!

Tags: healing, reconciliation, forgiveness, conflict, war, murder, violence, peace, trauma, Northern Ireland, Nigeria

A New Paradigm for Trauma Healing

http://malcolmhollick.gaia.com — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 16:28:38 GMT

I’ve just returned from a 10-day training run by the Institute for the Study of Peak States (ISPS). I’ve been studying their ideas for some time, and this was an opportunity not only to clarify my understanding of their approach, but also to experience their healing methods first hand.

So how did it go? It was an intense and amazing experience. At times, I had to suspend my critical mind and immerse myself in processes that would appear weird and wacky to an outsider – at one point another participant dissolved into helpless laughter at the thought of a hidden camera! But the bottom line for me is ‘does it work?’ And my conclusion has to be ‘yes’. I shifted a lot of ‘stuff’, including some of my deepest fears, patterns and blocks. I had some beautiful mystical experiences unlike any I’ve had before. I came away with a kit of tools for tuning into and healing my own traumas as well as for helping others. And I watched in awe at the deep transformations taking place in those around me who were mostly experienced therapists with many years of work on their personal issues behind them.

Background

I want to share more about my experience, but first I need to back up and summarise key points of ISPS theory and practice. Central is the effect of trauma on our development. According to standard medical definitions, trauma is an emotionally painful, distressing or shocking experience that has lasting mental and physical effects. Well-known examples include post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and the effects of accidents and child abuse. (more information on trauma) Between late June and early September, I wrote a series of blog entries arguing that trauma is a root cause of the planetary crisis. This perception is complemented by the core purpose of ISPS, which is to find ways to improve the quality of life of all humanity through its work in healing trauma.

ISPS believe that what we regard as normal consciousness is actually well below par. If we weren’t blocked by traumas, we would all be in permanent peak states of consciousness – of which ISPS has identified many different types. For most of us, however, we get no more than brief glimpses of what is possible that last from a few seconds to several hours during meditation, in nature, or on other occasions. The most important blocking traumas happen before birth. They include injuries at well-known developmental events such as conception and implantation, but, according to ISPS, extend right back to the time when the egg and sperm that eventually become us first start to form. This is inside our grandmothers, soon after our parents are conceived!

According to ISPS we all have hundreds of thousands of traumas, and it would take lifetimes to clear them one by one. Fortunately, this is not necessary. When we first experience a particular type of trauma, the way we respond becomes stored in the body. This ‘memory’ is then re-enacted every time an event evokes similar sensations – the well-known ‘button’ or ‘trigger’ effect. In other words, we develop an unconscious, automatic response which is activated every time something happens that our bodies identify as similar to the original trauma. In this way, we acquire ‘strings’ of connected traumas over time. If we can find and heal the original injury, or root trauma, then the whole associated string is also healed at the same time. However, even this shortcut doesn’t guarantee rapid healing of all traumas as most of us apparently have thousands of strings!

Most trauma therapies are based on reliving the traumatic event in some way, usually through talking or emotional release. However, ISPS believe that all traumas that occur before birth (and hence almost all root traumas) involve physical injury of some kind due to bumps, squashing, loud noises, toxins from smoking or food, and so on. It is only after birth that traumas can be caused by emotions. This is a vital point because it means that healing of root traumas must be physical/biological rather than mental or emotional.

From this perspective, the stories and emotional feelings on which most therapies focus are irrelevant! Rather, we should concentrate on the physical sensations we felt at the moment the trauma occurred. This is the basis for the “Whole-Hearted Healing” (WHH) approach developed by ISPS, which is described on their website and in a publicly available manual. This method is based on regression from a current trauma or issue, back to the earliest moment at which a similar sensation was experienced. Once this moment has been located, healing is achieved by focusing awareness on the sensations until they dissipate and we feel calm, peaceful, and physically light, bright and large. Other ‘power therapies’, particularly EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique), are often used to support and speed up the healing process.

WHH is relatively slow, and ISPS researchers are continuing the search for faster, more reliable, and safer methods. Details of many of these are still confidential because they have not yet been tested on enough clients to be sure that they work and are safe for general release. They include rapid WHH, taught to us in the training workshop, and more advanced techniques that rely on the therapist being in particular peak states of consciousness (more information). We experienced one of these, the “Gaia Command Process”, which combines regression to specific developmental events with repeated phrases (like mantra) accompanied by a recurring short piece of evocative music.

My experience

With this background, I can now return to my workshop experience. In the first four days, theory and methods of WHH were presented in the mornings and evenings, with practice in pairs in the afternoons. Fundamental was the rapid creation of a sense of loving support, trust and security that enabled us to go deep into our fears, patterns and blocks. This sense of safety was produced not only by the methods, but also by the two instructors who were advanced practitioners, the 3 assistants who were recently certified therapists, and the 16 participants who were mostly experienced therapists in other modalities.

At first, I had difficulty with the regression process as I do not get visual images of past events, only body sensations. However, in time I learned to relax and trust that when I felt a sinking sensation I was in fact regressing to a similar earlier trauma. I chose to work on several life-long fears that I realised were all related to a dominant core belief that “I’ll die if I don’t get this right.” As I think about those issues now, the emotional ‘charge’ has gone from most of them, and I’m working on another.

After this introduction, the workshop changed gears to focus on enhancing our states of consciousness using the “Gaia Command Process” in various ways. For me, the most powerful was the Brain Light Process, which was run over several sessions. The music was incredibly powerful. I never tired of the constant repetition, and felt I could have stayed there forever! The first two sessions seemed to be about clearing shit. I spent most of the first one twitching, choking and sobbing. In the second session came repeated, violent physical ejection of what felt like a stone from the centre of my solar plexus, followed by deep relaxation and a sense of emptiness in that part of my body.

Having cleared the way, I ‘saw’ a beautiful golden being who was me rising up out of a grey mist in the third session. This being began to emerge again in the next session, and my hands involuntarily rose from my lap very, very slowly to a ‘blessing’ position from which they seemed to release a golden ball that was me. I sobbed for a long time at what felt like separation from God, but at the same time had a deep sense of knowing that I and the Being releasing me were One. It was very beautiful. In the final session, I felt like a large balloon slowly being filled and released into the deep waters of a gently undulating ocean. I was moving effortlessly towards freedom and independence as my healing continued, and yet I was still One with the Source. Later, I had a similar deep sense of Unity with the other ‘balloons’ around me that were my fellow participants in the workshop. Again, it was very beautiful, and I didn’t want to leave.

I’m not given to such mystical visions. This is one of the most beautiful and significant experiences of my life. And the imagery was not ‘seeded’ by introductory descriptions.

Evaluation

ISPS research is currently undertaken by a small core group of dedicated people who risk exploring new territory and trying potentially dangerous new processes. As with any research into the inner realms of consciousness, the methods are subjective. They rely on the inner vision of trained and gifted people with particular peak states of consciousness. And the theories depend on interpretation of experiences which may be totally different to the world of normal sensation and perception.

Having said that, ISPS apply these tools as rigorously as possible by carefully comparing their experiences with each other and with those of other investigators, and by seeking valid biological interpretations of them. Some of their theories have a solid basis in modern molecular and cellular biology, but others represent a new paradigm which may or may not prove biologically correct. Once a method is well-enough developed, it is tried on a wider group of volunteers, and eventually tested on clients under carefully supervised conditions. Only when its effectiveness and safety are well-established is it released for use by certified therapists, and, eventually, made widely available in publications and on the website.

My critical, rational, intellectual self is challenged in at least three ways by the ISPS approach. First, I find some aspects of their biological theory hard to swallow from my perspective, particularly the primary cell theory. I am not alone in this questioning, and am looking for alternative interpretations that don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. Second, as I commented earlier, some of the processes appear weird and wacky from a mainstream perspective, with no obvious reason why they should work. However, in my experience they do work, although I need to reserve final judgement until I see how their effects survive return to the ‘normal’ world – both for myself and other participants. Third, in principle I am open to the existence of special powers of consciousness such as those of some psychics and healers. In practice, I find it a little ‘spooky’ to see such powers being used. The instructors in this workshop jokingly referred to themselves as the ‘Harry Potter Committee’ when they used special ‘sight’ to assess participants on issues such as inner peace and good-evil.

If the claims of ISPS are correct, the advanced methods they are developing constitute a very powerful ‘technology’ for changing consciousness, even without the permission of the client. In order to avoid misuse of this power, ISPS require advanced trainees to achieve a high score for ‘good’ in the Brain Light process. However, this does not eliminate the risk, only reduce its probability. This leaves me with serious ethical concerns, similar to those I have about the application of many advanced technologies. The potential for harm is great, and history suggests that all technologies are used in harmful as well as beneficial ways.

Having said that, the potential for good is immense. Not only do ISPS have powerful methods for healing ‘normal’ people, but also they are developing ways to heal many specific conditions. Already, they have begun training practitioners in specific techniques for curing addictions of all kinds. Early trials indicate that they will soon be able to cure schizophrenia, and a few trials on autism have been successful. They are also targeting other conditions, including multiple sclerosis and diabetes.

A final point. ISPS is committed to introducing a ‘pay for results’ system – a revolutionary first in therapeutic work. This shifts the incentive for therapists from hanging onto regular clients, to getting them healed as quickly as possible. And it provides a financially viable basis for applying advanced techniques which, it is claimed, can often cure traumas in less than 5 minutes. Above all, this approach signals strongly the confidence of ISPS in the power of its techniques.

Conclusions

It is very early days yet. ISPS is only just beginning to emerge from the research phase into practical application, and their theories and methods are evolving rapidly as fresh results come in. In the last couple of years they have established an international training programme for therapists, although there are still very few certified practitioners. As noted above, they have just instituted a specialist training in addiction therapy, and are aiming to set up clinics in several locations as human and financial resources become available.

If you feel drawn to this work, I strongly recommend that you explore the ISPS website and publications, and sign up for a training if possible.

Tags: Institute for the Study of Peak States, ISPS, Whole-Hearted Healing, WHH, EFT, emotional freedom technique, peak states, consciousness, trauma, healing, therapy

On small, sensible, rapidly achievable actions

http://malcolmhollick.gaia.com — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 17:07:20 GMT

I shall be at a 10 day training run by the Institute for the Study of Peak States from 26 October to 5 November. So this will be my last post until I get back. I hope by then there'll be lots of discussion on our Pod “On the Wisdom Trail" for me to respond to. Take care!

In my entry of 4th September, I wrote about strategies for creating a better future. In this one, I want to focus more on what Humanly Possible (aka Rachel) calls “the small sensible, rapidly achievable adjustments we can all make in our day to day lives that will take us, as individuals, as well as humanity as a whole, further along the wisdom trail.” Once again, I invite and challenge you to share your ideas in our Pod.

Those small, sensible changes ...

The focus of my writing tends always to be on the big picture; on strategies rather than little personal actions. But in our daily lives, Christine and I do our best to contribute in myriad little ways. There’s still plenty of room for improvement. We’re far from consistent or models of perfect Earth citizenship. We’re still, inevitably, creatures of our time and society, even if we’re on the edge in many ways.

But I don’t want to write about my personal actions. That would invite comparisons, and, as I was taught as a child, “Comparisons are odious.” And there are hundreds of web sites where you can get information and practical suggestions on what you can do, much of it repetitive and overlapping. Want to reduce your carbon footprint? Save energy? Save forests? Save indigenous peoples? Support ethical businesses? Support local organic food production? End exploitation of majority-world workers? End sex slavery? Make peace? No problem. Just follow these lists of actions ...

I don’t think I need to give examples here – I’m sure every Zaadster is aware of the possibilities and is already doing their bit. But just for completeness, here’s a sample you can skip if you wish:

• Travel less and when you do:

o    Walk and cycle for local trips; use bus or train for longer ones.
o    Trade the SUV for a mini-Honda.
o    Holiday at home instead of flying abroad.

• When at home:

o    Turn off lights and stand-by power.
o    Turn down the thermostat in winter and put on a sweater
o    Turn up the thermostat in summer
o    Install more insulation, and energy efficient lights and appliances
o    Wash clothes and yourself less often.
o    Get a smaller house

• When you ‘need’ things:

o    Reuse, reduce, recycle, repair, resist advertising, and other ‘R’ words before reluctantly arriving at retail.
o    Leave excess packaging at the supermarket.
o    Watch food miles; buy at the farmers’ market or join a box scheme.
o    Compost organic wastes.

These are all vitally important, and could make a huge difference. Not only because of the impact of these particular actions, but also because of their flow-on effect to other similar actions and to our attitudes of mind. Every person who does these things becomes a model, a trendsetter, a fashion leader; helps to make it cool. 100,000 Zaadsters are a pool of cool for Gaia.

And the more our actions become visible to family, friends, neighbours and colleagues, the more powerful that lead becomes. Kids hassling parents, and peer pressure are two of the most powerful motivating forces for change.

Community Action

All the things listed above are individual actions, or family things at best. Much more is possible when we cooperate with each other, finding community solutions to common issues.

One of my favourite examples is the walking school bus, first dreamed up in Australia but now in many places. All over the rich world the dangers of road traffic and strangers have led parents to take their children to school by car. This creates congestion at school rush-hours, reduces the children’s fitness compared with walking or cycling, costs the parents a lot of time and money, creates urban pollution, and wastes a huge amount of energy.

One community alternative is the Walking School Bus. This is a group of children who are supervised by parents or adult volunteers. The adults, dressed in identifiable clothing, walk a predetermined route making stops along the way at set pick-up times. The bus can run daily or less frequently depending on the needs of the community. It is a way of building community by bringing parents and children together whilst reducing several social and environmental problems. All it takes is leadership and organization.

Where the distances are greater, parents can jointly purchase a mini-bus carrying, say, 15 children per vehicle instead of 2 or 3. Again this can greatly reduce congestion and pollution and save parents time and money, especially if it removes the need for a second or third car for some families. This is similar to the many car- and van-pooling schemes for commuters that emerged in the energy crisis of the 1970’s, but which have been largely forgotten since. Now that so many people are linked via the internet, organizing such pools is relatively simple, although there may still be legal issues in some countries around ownership and insurance. One of the most popular arrangements is for one person to be the driver in return for use of the van at other times.

Another simple way to save money and the environment is to get together with neighbours for shopping trips, especially the longer ones to out-of-town malls. If each car had four shoppers, suddenly that congested parking lot would be almost empty. And think of the fun. You’d get to know your neighbours. Instead of being stressed by the traffic, you could be talking with friends. There could be a good cup of coffee together after the shopping’s done ... And again, all it takes is organization.

What else can communities do? The potential is limited only by our imagination. A key here is ways to share ideas. Are you a computer whiz? How about organising an interactive community website and discussion forum for the locality where you live?

Important skills in building community initiatives include communication (listening as well as telling!), organisation, meeting facilitation, and conflict management. So other great ways to contribute as an individual are to:
• Get trained in these skills, and/or
• Lobby your local government to employ a professional community facilitator to work with neighbourhoods to help them identify and resolve issues.

Cohousing communities

This is just scratching the surface of what community cooperation can do. Perhaps the next step is cohousing, but this requires a larger commitment than organising people in a traditional neighbourhood. If you don’t already know about cohousing, take a look at the website of the Cohousing Association of the United States, or leave a comment asking me to write more about it.

Cohousing residents actively participate in the design and operation of their own neighborhoods, and are committed to living as a community. Most are custom built, but others are created by adapting existing buildings or residences in urban settings.

Cohousing communities are usually 20 – 40 homes along one or more pedestrian streets or clustered around a courtyard. Regardless of the size of the community, such designs provide many opportunities for casual meetings between neighbors, as well as for deliberate gatherings such as celebrations, clubs and business meetings.

The common house is the social center, where optional shared meals are served at least two or three times a week. The common house usually has a large dining room and kitchen, lounge, recreational facilities, children’s spaces, and frequently a guest room, workshop and laundry room. These common facilities reduce the need for every home to have them, and so houses are typically smaller than normal and individual ownership of appliances, machines and tools is less.

“The need for community members to take care of common property builds a sense of working together, trust and support. Because neighbors hold a commitment to a relationship with one another, almost all cohousing communities use consensus as the basis for group decision-making.

In a cohousing community, you know who lives six houses down because you eat common meals with them, decide how to allocate homeowners dues and gratefully accept a ride from them when your car’s in the shop. You begin to trust them enough to leave your 4-year-old with them. You listen to what they have to say, even if you don’t agree with them at first, and you sense that you, too, are being heard.”
(Quote from the Cohousing Association of the United States website)

******

I think we would all be amazed how fast the world would change if more of us got together like this. All it takes is the willingness to talk to family, friends and neighbours, and to start organizing.

Please share your ideas on our Pod.

Tags: community, cohousing, walking school bus, cooperation, leadership, facilitation, conflict management, commuting, car pool, shopping, energy conservation

Ode to Pan

http://malcolmhollick.gaia.com — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 15:30:46 GMT

Over the months since I joined Zaadz, quite a few people have commented on my Green Man photo and the other tree spirits in my album. Several have suggested that I make them into a book. A few months ago I made a DVD slide show with them and showed it to about 200 Community members here at Findhorn. They loved it. Then in September my wife had an exhibition of her textile art that included some of my tree pictures. A few people on leaving said "I'll never see a tree the same again." And now, since my post about trees a couple of weeks ago, I've had more encouraging messages.

To cut a long story short, I've finally been persuaded to take the book idea seriously. The concept I'm working on is a slim, cheap but high quality volume with 20-30 photos illustrating a poem. Each opening will have a photo on one page and a line or two of the poem on the other. I hope to inspire a deeper connection with nature, and with trees in particular. If it sells, I have ideas for a series of such books.

So ... in the last little while, instead of writing more serious blog articles I've been composing the poem for this book. And I'm writing a proposal to organisations that conserve and regenerate woodlands in the UK hoping that they will support publication and marketing in return for a share of the proceeds.

I'd like to share my draft poem with you all. I haven't yet chosen the photos for inclusion in the book, and have just stuck a few in here to show the idea. Please let me know what you think. Suggestions for improvement are very welcome!

Ode to Pan

Great Pan
Green Man
Inspiration of the woods!

Green Man of Gaunts

You reveal yourself to few
yet touch the hearts of many
with Pantheistic awe
and Panic fear
and love in a Panegyric.

Gentle giant

Your touch is immortalised
in story and art
in ritual and in worship.
Christians buried you under the weight
of their churches and of sin
yet like the Son of God
you rose again.

Your face
long forgotten
in church and cathedral
looks down
on new pilgrims
seeking your groves.

Great Pan!
You touch my shoulder
and beckon me to your woods
where ancient trees
bespeak me as I wander.

One of the Ents of Kingston Lacy

The Deva of each species
has a quality all its own
that flows from secret places
deeper far than genes.
The maternal beech
The kingly oak
The graceful birch
The loving yew
Loving you.

A wise old friend

Within the devic aura
dwell the spirits of each tree
taking many guises
if you’ve heart and eye to see.

Their shapes are formed by life
their features marked by time.

Surprise, surprise!

Watch for them in hollow boles
and the scars of boughs long gone
in swirling burls
and lightning slashes
in the texture of peeling bark.

Search them out
in pattern and colour
and lichens’ abstract art.

Or catch a glimpse
from the corner of an eye
in the play of dappling light.

A yew of Ickworth

These beings invite us
and incite us
to join their joyful dance
to commune and reflect
and deeply connect
with their nature spirit realm.

So with open eyes
and loving hearts
and gentle caressing hands
let’s step through the veil
of our unbelief
and meet their motley band.

With blessings from Malcolm

Tags: trees, photography, woodland, forest, conservation, reforestation, deep ecology, tree spirits, nature spirits, devas, Pan

Evolution and Spirituality

http://malcolmhollick.gaia.com — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 12:33:33 GMT

Introduction

The theory of evolution has set scientists against conservative Christians ever since Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species in 1859. Recent skirmishes reported in New Scientist magazine include:
•    A US Federal Court ruling in 2005 that the alternative theory of intelligent design, put forward by believers in creation by God, is a religious belief and should not be taught in Pennsylvania schools;
•    The distribution less than a year later of intelligent design resource packs to all secondary schools in Britain; and
•    The convening by the Pope last year of a seminar to resolve growing divisions on evolution within the Catholic Church.
This on-going war of attrition prompts several questions: Why is evolution so controversial? What is the theory of evolution, and how is it changing in the light of recent research? Is the theory really incompatible with religious belief? Or is there a middle-ground in which science and spirituality can live harmoniously together?

Why is evolution such a hot issue?

To fundamentalist Christians, the Bible is the inspired Word of God which should be interpreted literally. It tells us that God created the universe in 6 days, and some analyses of biblical texts suggest that this happened just several thousand years ago. These ‘truths’ are challenged by the idea that the cosmos and life have evolved in a continuous creative process over billions of years. Worse, most scientists seek to explain existence and life without reference to a designer or creator, thus undermining faith in God. Less directly, the religious backlash may reflect rejection of the scientific doctrine that life is a meaningless, purposeless accident. In the face of this nihilism, fundamentalism provides reassuringly certain answers to life’s big questions.

To scientists, evolution has become the final battleground on which they must defend the freedom from religious dogmatism, bigotry and intellectual repression that they have fought so hard to win over the last few centuries. There is fear of a return to the dark days when truth was determined by priestly authority rather than reason and experiment, and even, perhaps, of renewed persecution by a modern Inquisition. Sadly, in their crusading zeal scientists such as Richard Dawkins – author of The Selfish Gene and The God Delusion - often mount the platform of dogma and authority from which religion has so recently been displaced.
At one level, then, this is a turf war between rival High Priests. At another level, it’s a debate about life’s greatest questions: Who am I? Where did I come from? and Why am I here?

Evolution and Intelligent Design

As our scientific understanding grows, it seems more and more evident that evolution is a fundamental principle of the cosmos – but not necessarily in the way we currently think of it. The term is actually used in two different senses. The first refers to a gradual process of development or growth that leads to a more advanced or complex form. Thus, the universe is said to have evolved to its current state from the intense energy of the Big Bang. The second meaning relates to the biological process first described by Darwin by which species of living things change from generation to generation, leading to the emergence of new species.
In the last few decades, systems sciences have revealed that many quite simple non-living systems have the ability to organize themselves into new structures and processes. Good examples are mixtures of chemical reagents which develop spatial patterns of concentration, or ‘chemical clocks’ in which the concentration varies rhythmically over time. In such systems, tiny disturbances may be sufficient to trigger evolution to a new, but unpredictable, stable state. At the cosmic scale, self-organization led to the emergence of matter, stars and galaxies, life and consciousness in a process of continuous creation. Many scientists now believe this reflects an as-yet undiscovered ‘law of complexification’ that drives cosmic evolution.

Most controversy, however, centers on the evolution of living things, which Darwinian theory portrays as a two-stage process. First, random genetic mutations create variations amongst the organisms in a species. Second, natural selection weeds out those variants which are less well suited to their environment. In this way, new traits arise by chance that either die out or spread through the population. Individual organisms and species are powerless victims of this process.

This picture of evolution is being challenged from within science as well as by creationists. Research is revealing that organisms have considerable influence over their destiny, and continually strive to transcend their current forms and environmental constraints. It has been demonstrated that not all mutations are chance events, many arising from ‘experiments’ in which the organism switches specific genes on or off, or even modifies its own genes. And some learned behaviours actually may become encoded in the genes and be inherited by offspring – an idea that was branded as rank heresy until recently.

Similar challenges are emerging with regards to natural selection. It is now clear that, rather than being passive victims of environmental conditions, organisms actively modify their environments and pass on those changes to their offspring just as human parents may pass on the house they have built to their children. For example, countless generations of earthworms created the soil which now forms a perfect habitat for earthworms.
Further, studies of development from single cell to maturity are showing that the process is not controlled by master genes as current theory suggests, but is coordinated by self-organising processes that involve the organism’s structure, biochemistry, electromagnetic fields and environment as well as its genes and gene expression. Thus natural selection is not an all-powerful creative force as it is usually portrayed. Rather, it can do no more than select from a menu of alternatives made possible by self-organization, and then fine-tune these structures and processes.

Darwinian theory also represents natural selection as a fierce competition for survival between organisms. But organisms depend totally for their survival on being part of a harmoniously cooperative ecosystem – the interactive whole that provides their nutrition, shelter from harsh weather, conditions for reproduction and so on. From this perspective it is the most cooperative, or symbiotic, that survive, not the most competitive.

Intelligent Design theory challenges Darwinian evolution on different grounds. It focuses on characteristics of organisms that appear to be too complex to have evolved by chance, and hence require the involvement of an intelligent designer. This ‘God of the gaps’ strategy has been used by supporters of divine creation ever since Darwin’s day. And it is a story of forced retreat, step by step, as science’s understanding has increased.
Intelligent Design gains indirect support from a number of mainstream studies that have concluded there has not been enough time for random mutations and natural selection to produce life as we know it today. However, as we have seen, the emerging evolutionary science does not rely on chance and necessity but includes the active involvement of organisms themselves. It seems likely that, in time, science will be able to explain all aspects of the evolution of life – but the explanation will be very different to the simplistic Darwinian theory.

So where does this leave us? To me at least, the evidence is overwhelming that evolution is a fundamental property of the cosmos; that life has evolved, and is still evolving, in a continuing creative process; and that, far from being at the mercy of blind forces, life is substantially master of its own destiny. Does this mean that there is no room for belief in a creative God or Spirit? Far from it. By combining ancient spiritual wisdom with the insights of modern science, we can reveal a far richer and more complete picture of the cosmos.

The Ultimate Mystery and Gnostic Cosmology

In their book Jesus and the Goddess, Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy describe Gnostic beliefs about creation. The Gnostics, who were contemporaneous with the early Christians, recognised that there is a Mystery at the heart of existence; that, no matter how far back scientists trace cause and effect, there will always remain the questions: “Why is there something rather than nothing?” and “Where did that come from?”

Gnostics believed that the ultimate Mystery is One; an undivided whole that is pregnant with potential consciousness. In some indefinable way, this Mystery wanted to know itself, to become self-aware. But consciousness and self-awareness require both a knower and what is known, an observer and what is observed, a subject and object, a witness and experience. Hence, in order to know itself, the Mystery had to split into two, thus introducing duality into the primal Oneness. This has variously been described as the split between God and Goddess, Spirit and soul, One and many, Being and becoming, Eternal Perfection and evolution. This first split was followed by a cascade of further divisions through which Cosmic Consciousness brought the universe into existence, shaping the potential of the mysterious One into energy, matter, life and consciousness as we know it.

This myth suggests that the purpose of the universe is to achieve full self-awareness. What this means can be illustrated by analogy with a wheel that has a central hub connected by spokes to many separate segments of rim. Cosmic Consciousness is fully aware of itself as the hub at the centre, and of all the conscious beings in the universe represented by the segments of the rim to which it is connected by the spokes. But each segment of the rim, each separate being, is aware only of itself and the hub to which it is linked by a spoke. Complete self-knowledge would require all parts of the rim, all beings, to awaken to their true nature as integral parts of the one wheel.

The exact way in which this evolutionary goal will be achieved was left undefined by the One at creation because true self-awareness would not be possible if the nature of spirituality and the path to this cosmic goal were predetermined. There are many possible forms that cosmic self-knowledge can take, and the One left us with creative freedom to choose our own ways.
From this Gnostic perspective, the universe is in continual creation. Rather than making the universe according to a fixed and final design, the One set in motion an exploratory, experimental process. Not only is the outcome of this process unknown, but also we and all other evolving creatures are co-creators with the One, and all matter is imbued with the Spirit and Consciousness of the One.

Conclusion

As far as we can tell, evolution is one of the most fundamental characteristics of our universe. It is a process of continual, creative change, development and transformation; a continual striving of matter and life to transcend its present state, to become something more than it is – more complex, more diverse, more conscious.

How is it that such a wonderful, creative process has come to be seen as anti-religious, non-spiritual? Evolution is a beautiful, mystical process that, for me, reveals all the wonder and power and creativity of Spirit. It is a way of creating that leaves us genuine freedom to understand the universe, and to co-create it by working with the processes and laws of nature. It reveals the hand and mind of God, whilst leaving us free to create our own myths and metaphors of the ineffable Mystery.

Tags: science, spirituality, evolution, Darwin, intelligent design, creation, religion, fundamentalism

The message of trees

http://malcolmhollick.gaia.com — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 09:33:07 GMT

Hi, everyone

Holidays are over and it's time for me to get back to writing. I feel reluctant to re-engage, and unsure what to write. So I thought I’d start with an entry about a passion that’s occupied quite a bit of my holiday.

The main reason for burning fuel to get from northern Scotland to southern England and back was to visit my mother. At 93, she lives in a Nursing Home, largely confined to her room, and alternately lying in bed or sitting in her chair. She was in good health, being very well cared for, but drifting through the days, and slowly becoming more confused.

The real joy of the journey, however, was visiting and photographing remnants of old forests and ancient trees. This has become a passion, and we're still finding places we haven't been before. One of the better-known sites on this trip was Sherwood Forest, haunt of the legendary Robin Hood. About a square mile of ancient oak forest still stands much as it would have been centuries ago if you close your eyes to the gravelled paths for a million visitors a year. We found a similar area of ancient oak woodland in Dalkeith Country Park, just south of Edinburgh. And we met many other old trees in the grounds of several mansions and castles.

Every time we leave our peaceful haven in the north of Scotland and venture into England we are overwhelmed by the crazy mainstream world. The rushing, impatient, endless streams of traffic on the motorways (freeways). The congestion. The focus on consumption and money. ...

And then we diverge to visit ancient trees. The energy changes. A timeless quality takes over. Or at least a time beyond human concerns. There is a peace and healing in the ancient trees. A place to slow down and go inwards. To discover what it is to BE rather than DO.

I’ve always loved trees.

I spent most of my adult life in Western Australia. There, I fell in love with the patchy-peely grey and orange bark of the Karri – second or third tallest tree in the world. With the knobbly, twisted forms of Marri laden with honey-sweet flowers and woody ‘honky’ nuts. With grey-white Wandoo as hard and heavy as iron. With stringy-bark Jarrah whose blocks once paved the streets of London and supported the underground railway. With the huge creamy-yellow conical flower cones of Bull Banksia. With weeping, aromatic peppermint trees. With pungent heath, ablaze with colour in spring. With all these ancient beings, survivors of fire and drought, rent by storm and lightning bolts, bloody but unbowed.

Yes, I’ve always loved trees.

In Australia, you can watch a tree grow to young maturity in a few short years. Yet it was in Scotland, where far greater patience is needed, that I really learned to communicate with them; to tune in to their spirit and be truly captivated by them. The Scottish Highlands are crying out for trees. Only a few percent of the native forests are left, and without their shelter the bare hills are washing away. From a distance, the mountain landscape is amongst the most beautiful in the world. But the closer we get, the more that beauty fades and the more we are left with images of exposed peat soils collapsing before our eyes. One of the most exciting things for me is to see the forest returning through fencing, control of grazing, and replanting. As the seedlings raise their heads above the heather, the landscape starts to transform.

Several years ago, I watched, fascinated, as someone bent old fence wire into rough divining rods, and demonstrated the human energy field. I found my own bits of wire, and discovered that I could sense it too. Then, I wondered if I could sense the energies of earth, trees and smaller plants. I could. And I found that what I sensed depended on where my mind was focused. One day, when tracing an energy line through the local hills, the rods began repeatedly to swing outwards and then point forwards again as I walked. It dawned on me that this was a response to the avenue of trees I was following, and that my attention had slipped from the earth beneath to the trees.

In time, I lost interest in the rods although I still have a lovely copper pair given me by a friend. But my ability to attune to trees remained. If I’m not too distracted, I can feel the shift in ‘energy’ as a physical sensation when I walk beneath the canopy. Sometimes, when I’m inattentive, a tree will literally stop me in my tracks, asking me to say ‘hello’. The energy is particularly strong in old yews. These are perhaps the longest living trees on earth, one in Scotland being thought to be at least 7,000 years old. And different trees have different ‘energies’. The beech feels feminine; the oak masculine. Yews exude a loving, caring feeling. The old apple trees in the orchard where we work seem to enjoy being cared for and collaborating with humans.

Later, my wife and I began to see and photograph beings in the forms of trees and the patterns of bark. Gradually we came to see them everywhere: in the foliage and in rocks as well as tree trunks. Often, we catch a fleeting glimpse from the corner of an eye, gone as soon as looked at. Another world communicating with us? Many of these beings cannot be captured with the lens, but many can. Mostly they’re just faces, but some are whole creatures. Animals, birds, strange gargoyles. Graceful dancers are common. Tall Ents – if you know Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings”. Beings who beckon, or give blessings. Messengers who lean forward to whisper in my ear ...

My favourites are the ancient ones. Bloody but unbowed. Survivors. Often half dead, hollowed ... hallowed. Their stories written in their forms. Oak, ash, beech, chestnut, yew, lime, alder, elm (yes there are still some elms in Britain despite Dutch elm disease) ... .

Pure anthropomorphism, perhaps. A dirty word in these days of scientific rationality. And yet, why not? Poets, philosophers and mystics down through the ages have sung the praises of trees; sung of their beauty, wisdom, love, spirit. Mythology in many cultures is full of tree beings: green men, tree spirits, fairies devas ... And trees are amongst the most ancient and enduring of spiritual symbols. The Bodhi tree under which the Buddha was enlightened. The tree on which Christ was crucified. The tree of life in the Kabbala. The sacred groves of the Druids. The Green Man. Native American traditions.

In a more pragmatic vein, trees are important to the planet and our future in many, many ways. Regulating the atmosphere, climate, and hydrological cycle; controlling soil and coastal erosion; providing habitat for myriad other species, and stabilising many ecosystems; giving us shelter, food, timber and energy; nurturing us with their beauty, healing powers, love and wisdom; inspiring great works of literature and art.

We have learned and can learn so much from trees if only we will look and listen. Here are a few one-liners:

A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.

Keats

I think that I shall never see
A poem as lovely as a tree.

Joyce Kilmer

Verily by beauty it is that we come to wisdom.

Plato

Be still, my heart, these great trees are prayers.

Tagore

Love flows most through ancient trees

Christine Connelly

My tree photographs are unashamedly anthropomorphic. But not anthropocentric. They are a celebration of trees. An inducement to deeper connection, greater love. And, through this, a path to living more lightly on the Earth.

I use my favourite photo of a Green Man as my self-portrait on Zaadz. And there are a few of my other tree photos in my album. A number of Zaadsters have told me how much they like these photos, and some have encouraged me to turn them into a book. A few months ago, I created a slide show of about 40 images on DVD and showed it to about 200 people in the Universal Hall here at Findhorn. They loved it. And just before we went on holiday, 8 of these images formed part of an exhibition of Christine’s textile art – also focused on trees. They proved to be one of the biggest attractions. So now I’m wanting to make a slim volume of pictures and poetry about tree spirits. A very different project to my usual intellectual writings, but one that I hope may also contribute to creating a better future.

What is the message of the trees? The ancient ones? It is about what is important in life. About what we need – and don’t need. About Being rather than Doing. About the wisdom of the past, and building for the future. About slowing down and taking time. About growth and maturity; death, decay and renewal.

Our forebears cared for their trees, as shown by ancient coppices, pollards and other practices. And so should we. Lets step beyond utility into the faery world of the trees.

Tags: Trees, forest, woodland, tree creatures, Bodhi tree, tree of life, Druids, Green Man, wisdom, spirit, fairies

God’s in His Heaven

http://malcolmhollick.gaia.com — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 17:17:35 GMT

I'm off for two weeks holiday, and won't be back on-line until 24th September. I look forward to catching up with you all then.

As a parting gift, I offer you a short science-fiction story. Light (or perhaps not so light) holiday reading!

Over a decade ago, I had been studying the behaviour of complex systems. This relatively new field of knowledge, as it was then, clearly had major implications for government, planners, and all those seeking to bring some kind of order to the creative, sensitive, self-organising, evolving world we live in. I also came across articles about ways to control the brain, a plan to implant micro-chips in criminals so they could be tracked by satellite, and other ideas that seemed to come straight out of George Orwell’s “1984”. My imagination took off, and out poured this story that seems as relevant today as it was then. Perhaps even more relevant.

I hope you enjoy it, and perhaps pause for thought too.

God’s in His Heaven

The Global Order Director, or GOD for short, leant forward in his chair, gazing intently at the swirling holographic patterns of colour before him. Following the movement of his eyes, the image rotated and expanded so that he could see the present state of the planetery system more clearly. He noted with satisfaction that it was near the middle of the undulating green plateau of a large stability zone, well away from the rugged brown mountains and black crevasses of bordering catastrophes. Even as he watched, an eddying whirlpool of chaos dissipated and drifted away in response to incoming data from the all-seeing satellites and myriad sensors.

Content that there was no immediate danger, he asked to be shown projections of the future. His brow furrowed as the computer revealed a tree-like structure, each branch of which depicted an alternative future for the earth. For weeks now, he had been agonizing over a parting of the ways that was drawing rapidly nearer. The model showed two dramatically different paths for humanity. And, once that fork was passed, there would be no second chance because nowhere in the future did the branches rejoin. Left to itself, there was no telling which way the system would go. It would depend on tiny random events close to the division. Only GOD could ensure that it would go one way or the other, by introducing his own, deliberate disturbance. But should he? And which path should he choose?

As he gazed vacantly before him, pondering his dilemma, a part of his mind recited the old nursery rhyme:

“For the want of a nail the shoe was lost,
For the want of a shoe the horse was lost,
For the want of a horse the rider was lost,
For the want of a rider the battle was lost,
For the want of a battle the kingdom was lost,
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.”

Starting out of his revery, he zoomed in for a closer look just before the division of the lines. As he had done so many times already, he tried changing this or that, desperately searching for a way out, a way of avoiding this irrevocable choice. But it was no use. He could change the pattern of the branches after the trunk had split, but he could find no way of preventing the split, or of getting from one branch to the other afterwards.

Frustrated, GOD sank back in his chair and called up a picture of the global weather. After a moment’s study, he quietly removed a butterfly from the air above Beijing, and watched as the simulation showed a wild storm developing above New York. He grinned to himself, and brushed his hand through his hair. His skill had not deserted him. And serve those b’s right if they got soaked next week.

Returning to his problem, GOD began the tedious search for the key to the future. Starting some months before the fork, he slipped into virtual reality where he could experience the future as if he was there. For a while, he roamed aimlessly from place to place in high-speed time, observing what was happening, and studying the state of the world through the virtual-media. Every now and then, he would jump back and go through a period again, more slowly or in a different place. Gradually, understanding grew until he was sure where and when the critical events would take place. Slowing time to a more normal pace, he entered the simulation again and again until he could pin-point the tiny, unobtrusive interventions that would tip the balance one way or the other.

With a sigh, GOD realised he would have to consult the ANGELS, more correctly known as the Ambassadors of the Nations to the Global Environmental, Economic, Legal and Social System Simulation. Why did he have to be saddled with this quarrelsome tribe of politicians? They never seemed to understand what the simulation showed so clearly. Still less could they agree on what to do when real decisions were needed. And, of course, they couldn’t really control events despite being the elected global assembly. World affairs were simply too complex, and the means of control too subtle, for anyone who had not made global order his life. How could they possibly stop him making tiny, unauthorised, adjustments here or there?

And it wasn’t even as if he needed their help. He had trained for this job for three decades. He had been relentlessly watched and tested for any signs of racial or cultural prejudice, instability or megalomania. And he had passed. If he had a failing, it was being proud of having passed. Being proud of his skill, and of the responsibility he bore. After all, he was queen of the hive. The future of the world rested on his capable shoulders.

The meeting with the ANGELS was much as he’d anticipated. Some wanted to continue down the path towards a more efficient, productive, planned society. But others were attracted to the anarchic alternative. As usual, they couldn’t reach consensus, but the majority clearly favoured the status quo. After all, if anarchy took over, GOD and the very ANGELS themselves would be redundant, with all their privileges.

The decision made, GOD returned to his room and re-entered the future. Quickly he relocated the key point, and set the computer to make the necessary adjustment when the time came. It was all very simple really. Ever since genetic engineers had given everyone a SOUL, or Sensor Of hUman Life, satellites could keep track of the whole population. Introduced originally as a means of protecting health, fighting crime and catching tax cheats, it now provided the global simulation with the data it needed. Not only that, it enabled GOD to control the world. Signals from the computer could subtly change the mood of any individual. All he’d had to do was make John Smith more aggressive in a meeting next week to change the whole course of human history. John Smith would never know, and nor would anyone else.

Well satisfied with his efforts, GOD lay back and relaxed.

******************************

A few months later, GOD was far from relaxed. Something was wrong. John Smith had done just as expected, and the world had taken the chosen path. But now it was starting to deviate, and it wasn’t responding properly to GOD’s interventions. Somewhere, somehow, things must be happening that were not being monitored. Somewhere, somehow, there must be a human without a SOUL. And GOD was powerless to do anything about it. The DEViant IndividuaL wasn’t using banks, shops or transport, and so there wasn’t even the shadow of an invisible person in the database. GOD traced the source of the disturbances to central Africa, but the zone of uncertainty was so vast that his agents had little hope of finding the DEVIL.

Months passed. GOD became increasingly despondent. Everything he’d worked for all his life was disintegrating. The skill of which he’d been so proud was useless. His only solace was in the virtual world of the simulation - a world in which he was still in control. He spent more and more time there, wandering at will, enjoying the sights and sounds and smells; the friendships with virtual people. It was the first real holiday he’d had, and he didn’t want it to end, ever. His computer fed and cleaned him, and exercised his muscles. He had no need of the real world any more.

Tags: science fiction, future, control, self-organization, chaos, complexity, complex systems

Creating the Future

http://malcolmhollick.gaia.com — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 18:35:44 GMT

I’ve written quite a few entries arguing that trauma is a root cause of our problems as a civilization, species and planet. There are many other threads from this theme that I could discuss in more detail, but I want to change tack. I’d like to focus for a while on practical ways that we can create a better future. And for this, I need to draw you, my readers, into more active involvement. I hope this post will ignite a blaze of creative ideas for “Creating the Future” on our Pod “On the Wisdom Trail”. And I hope your ideas will inspire me with new topics for this blog that in turn will fuel your creativity ...

I actually wrote the draft of this entry before Humanly Possible started the thread about “Small, sensible adjustments we can all make” in “On the Wisdom Trail”. In that she posed the challenge slightly differently when she wrote: “I would like to discuss what small, sensible, rapidly achievable adjustments we can all make in our day to day lives that will take us, as individuals, as well as humanity as a whole, further along the wisdom trail. There is so much “out there” about the big changes that are needed/wanted, but just as charity begins at home, so does wisdom and change.”

In this post, I have focused on several big themes that I hope will help draw out the myriad “small, rapidly achievable adjustments we can all make.” In my next post, I plan to start looking at those little things in more detail.

Global awakening

The world is changing. Lots of wonderful things are happening. But the transformation is still too slow. The crisis of our civilization and planet is deepening rapidly whilst most people bury their heads in the sands of denial. It’s imperative that those of us who are aware of the seriousness of our situation break through the wall of denial, wake up others, and take the lead before it is too late.

I’m reminded of a story. A man went to borrow his neighbour’s donkey. His friend assured him that this donkey was a great and willing worker. “All you have to do”, he said, “is speak nicely to him.” So the man led the donkey home, and loaded it for the journey to market. Then he picked up the lead rope and said “Come on, good donkey.” But the donkey just stood there. He tried again with the same result. He pulled and tugged on the rope and tried everything he could think of, but the donkey remained rooted to the spot, its head drooping and its eyes half closed.

So the man went back to his neighbour. “You said your donkey was a willing worker, but he won’t move.” “I’ll come and see what I can do” replied the neighbour. So he walked over to where the donkey stood gently dozing in the sunshine. He picked up a large piece of wood and hit him over the head with it. Then he said “Come on, good donkey”, and the donkey obediently started to walk. “But”, said the man, “I thought you said all you have to do is ask nicely.” “Ah yes,” was the reply, “but first you have to get his attention.”

That is the first challenge for those of us who are already aware. We have to awaken the mass of humanity to our danger. Once that is achieved, effective action will be relatively easy. When Britain finally confronted Hitler and declared war on Germany, the country moved to a war footing with incredible speed. Dramatic changes happened in months rather than decades. But the enemy and the danger it posed were obvious. We need to rediscover that kind of awareness and energy, and be willing to change and work together for a common goal. But this time, the danger is not so immediate and obvious, and, as cartoon character Pogo once said, “I have seen the enemy, and he is us.” Somehow, the whole of humanity needs to be united in a common cause.

In my less optimistic moments, I think it will take the equivalent of invasion or civil war to wake us - repeated disasters like New Orleans and the recent floods in England and South Asia; raging forest fires like in Greece; rapid, painful rises in energy costs that seriously affect our standard of living; and more terrorist attacks like 9/11. But if we wait for disaster, I fear the response will be the same as now: a climate of fear in which the haves retreat behind defensive walls, seeking to shut out the have-nots, and creating an even more deeply divided world still headed for catastrophe. So how can we stimulate the awakening to our common humanity and fate? What can we do as individuals and communities? Please post your ideas on the “Creating the Future” discussion thread.

Key strategies for change

Alongside the challenge of awakening humanity is that of working out what we can each do to create a better future. In recent posts, I’ve suggested a few broad strategies for tackling the planetary crisis, including the need to:

•    Adopt a new worldview that integrates modern science with ancient wisdom traditions, and returns meaning and purpose to life. This is discussed in depth in my book The Science of Oneness. Also see my blog articles on:
From Information to Wisdom,
The Danger of Truth,
Individualism and Violence,
Meaning, Purpose and Trauma,

•    Seek to follow a path of wisdom, not cleverness

•    Reduce the creation of fresh trauma by moving towards partnership parenting and a global partnership culture.

•    Heal existing trauma through individual therapy and growth work.

•    Re-create a culture in which relationships, not things, are primary.

•    Shift our individual and cultural goal from materialism to self-actualization.

To these I can add several other strategies as seed thoughts.

A holistic approach

Success will come only if we adopt a holistic approach in which all issues are tackled together. We will not achieve ecologically sustainable development or peaceful co-existence while many live in fear, poverty and ill-health, or are exploited, oppressed, and discriminated against.

Vision

We need a vision of the future that inspires people to action. As generally understood, “sustainability” is about constraints and forced adaptation for survival; about the minimum changes needed to avoid catastrophe. But sustainability will only come about if it is envisioned and promoted as an achievable path to a better, more fulfilling life. As a friend of mine is fond of saying: “If it ain’t fun, it ain’t sustainable.”

Leadership

Leadership is sadly lacking in our world of spin-doctors and sound-bites. I well remember how inspired even British students were by John Kennedy’s vision, and the devastation we felt when he was killed. Had he lived, his charisma may well have been tarnished by harsh political realities, but for a brief time he brought us hope.

Charisma in difficult times is a dangerous cocktail as history shows only too clearly. And yet we desperately need leaders who can project and inspire vision. But we need leaders who believe in returning power to the grassroots, rather than centralising power and control in faceless, unaccountable corporations and agencies. We need Taoist leaders who succeed when the people say “We did it ourselves.”

Empowerment

There is a great fount of energy, creativity and wisdom in ordinary people and communities. This must be stimulated and tapped through empowerment and facilitation. Our salvation, I deeply believe, lies in a mass movement of peaceful revolution and transformation that harnesses the power of intention (or manifestation) and meditation (or prayer). The vision and energy to create a better future is coming not from corporations and governments, but from an uprising of individuals and communities; and from a coalescence of NGO’s across national borders and myriad issues. (See my ‘future history’ on “How we beat climate change”.)

Often, as an individual, I feel powerless to change the world. I have to remind myself frequently that this is not true, and that a tiny seed of faith can move mountains. I find reassurance in the science of complex systems which shows how tiny disturbances can trigger mighty transformations. We will never know exactly what effect we have, but we can be sure that our little contribution might just be the pebble that starts the avalanche, or the last atom that ignites the explosive critical mass.

Balancing responsibilities and rights

Our culture puts a lot of emphasis on rights. Human rights in general, the rights of ethnic and racial groups, the rights of those with disabilities, the rights to privacy, freedom of expression, sexual orientation, and on and on. We tend to forget that rights bring responsibilities – not only to protect our own rights, but also the equal rights of others. We need to move back towards a culture in which assertion of rights is balanced by a universal acceptance and fulfilment of reciprocal responsibilities.

Release fear

It was US President Franklin D. Roosevelt who said, in his inaugural speech, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Fear has gripped the world in the wake of terrorist acts, and to that extent the terrorists have won. Fear is leading democracies ever-deeper into the denial of individual freedoms and rights, and the institution of police state methods. Fear is a product of trauma. As noted above, we need to heal trauma, release fear, and move forward boldly, with courage.

Reconciliation and forgiveness

Related to the release of fear and healing of trauma is the issue of reconciliation and forgiveness, at both the personal and social levels. I have already listed the need to heal individual trauma. But if we are to achieve peace, there is also a need to heal collective trauma through the processes of reconciliation and forgiveness. Without such healing, conflict can erupt again, sometimes many generations later, when old emotional wounds are reopened. A good example of a healing process, no matter what its limitations, is the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which has inspired many other efforts around the world. Many individuals and non-profit organisations are also working on reconciliation in trouble spots such as Northern Ireland and Croatia.

Alternative media.

The media are dominated by big corporations with vested interests in maintaining a culture of passive consumers. As a result, important information on world events is often swamped by a focus on titillating trivia. An important aspect of awakening and stimulating action is to promote existing alternative media and create new outlets.

Relationship with nature

Increasingly people live in cities, isolated from nature, unaware of her processes and the services she provides, and disconnected from her Spirit. When we do venture into the wild, we carry our technological security blankets in the form of clothing, shelter, food, phones and other gadgets. Shut off in this way, we are unobservant and insensitive to nature’s needs and the damage we are doing.

As Tom Brown Jr’s Apache ‘Grandfather’ said: “man does not hear the crying and bleeding of the earth, trees, and rocks, any more than he hears the crying of dying animals. He is too removed from the soils of Creation to communicate with that Creation, thus the pain of what he is doing goes unnoticed.” Ecological sustainability will be hard to achieve without renewing our relationship with Creation.

Conclusions

With a little more thought, I could extend this list of strategies for the future. But I prefer to hand over to you at this point. What do you think are the most important issues and strategies? What have I missed? What are you doing, or could you do, no matter how small, to promote your key issues and strategies? What would you like to encourage others to do?

Please share your ideas in “On the wisdom trail.”

Let’s go for it.

Tags: creating the future, futures, vision, trauma, healing, reconciliation, forgiveness, partnership, parenting, society, worldview