 What are the psychological and spiritual roots of our global challenges? How can we awaken from the cultural hypnosis of consumerism and materialism?
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I can fully relate to what Pete and Duane are saying especially the Greed and Fear aspects. In my life, after experiencing multiple counts of bullying on the work front, I gave up on society and became a recluse. As creativity has always been my forte, I tried on many occasions to help other people less fortunate than myself (as I am spiritually mature), yet nobody was in the slightest way interested by what I had to offer; it would seem that one needs an official function or place in today’s world to be credible. This “waking up” is certainly apparent more and more among the enlightened ones yet those who govern us are still caught up in this technocratic dreamworld they call “progress”. Having their existences modified to encompass empathy and social responsibility is probably the only way that things will change on this planet, yet as the moral corruption is so deeply entrenched, I doubt whether this will happen in my lifetime. We do have one ally and this is the weather. When the going gets tough, the tough will get going. At least this is what I hope for humanity.
I enjoyed this discussion very much. I was especially glad to hear there are millions of people around the world waking up – gosh! 46% now. When 46% of the people begin changing to natural mind, their life-styles and general well-being will naturally gravitate toward change in a positive way. When that happens it will certainly have an impact on the rest of society, and thus a much better future for everyone and everything on this planet. Win or lose, this is an exciting time to be on earth.
Warm wishes,
Sherry
Sherry, I think you are probably referring to Duane’s comment that 48% of the American adult population have had some kind of “mystical” experience (up from 22% in 1962–more than a doubling) which suggests there is a genuine “awakening” occurring. However, the percentage of the world population that has had a mystical or awakening experience is unknown (but we are sure curious). Is there a measurable global awakening underway? Duane and Coleen did pioneering research on this back in 1997. See their report, Global Consciousness Change:
http://www.duaneelgin.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/global_consciousness.pdf
I place high regard toward your inclusion of all creatures as it relates consciousness.
Thanks for posting the link to Global Consciousness Change doc by Duane and Coleen. Great resource.
I give good reason to think that the main cause of humanity’s problems is the assumption that the cosmos is a matter of objective fact. Everything that we do and think about is based on this assumtion and if it happens to be incorrect it is not surprising that all civilisations eventually end in total demise.
Well, it was a nice high-level discussion gentlemen. But where are the specifics of how we might begin to reverse the traumas inflicted by Western Culture on our natural mind? Like it or not, we all must live in this rat race, so where are the alternative community structures that can shield growing minds from the toxic effects of our current culture that glorifes violence, wealth, and power? What lifestyle is atractive enough to young minds, which would cause them to turn away from this maelstrom of desire, hatred, and greed?
You raise a critical question Dave: “What lifestyle is attractive enough”…to take us beyond lives of consumerism. I’ve tried to respond to this fundamental question over decades in my writing on simplicity and sustainable prosperity.
Thanks Duane for link to your wonderful book. Great to hear you have updated the information.
Also, to add to Dave’s remarks and inquiry …. I have to start with me. If I ask a question … what are alternatives … I first must explore within myself and ask … what am I doing … what tangible actions am I taking to address this concern? Examples for me … I’m looking at my spending habits and seek to find ways to spend that support a sustainable lifestyle (that’s a whole other conversation!). I’m also looking at how I hold my thoughts regarding the whole world condition. Am I holding enemy images, or am I embracing the awareness that the planet body is ONE and that the world is a mirror of my interior beliefs (another whole conversation!)
As far as turning away from the maelstrom of desire, hatred and greed … I’m seeking to transform those parts of me … I have plenty of those qualities in me. I eagerly face the challenge daily for ways to bring awareness to when I am out of integrity with my core values and how to realign to them.
If in fact we are all ONE in the larger sense, then if one person changes towards an expression of greater wholeness and goodness, then the whole planet body is supported and strengthened in that regard.
I don’t know if there is scientific proof of this, but I believe that LIGHT and LOVE vibrate at a higher frequency than hatred and evil, so if the planet body has both light and darkness coming at it, the light frequency will absorb the dark frequency. Yet, we are a planet of duality … so get’s confusing for me.
At any rate, what I do know is that I feel better when I’m in light and love. That I experience as true for me.
Would enjoy hearing how others are taking steps to live in sustainable prosperity (I love that phrase Duane!).
Dear Duane,
This post serves as an idea generating download of ideas/wishes/desires.
Ideas for ways to leverage interaction with the material in your book, Voluntary Simplicity, updated version.
Invite people to form discussion groups (via the website for the book).
Have book be part of reading material in school classrooms (and post on book’s website which schools are using it) – and encourage students to participate online with how the book is impacting them.
Set up a facebook page for people to discuss the book.
Create audio / MP3 version of each chapter. So people can listen to and study a chapter at a time.
Nighingale-Conant has a purchase model where you can buy one audio chapter on it’s own. That’s a great model too.
Amazon offers those purchase opportunities. For those that have interest in just a particular topic … (one reason for this option).
Duane, are any of these ideas in the works already?
What I’d enjoy participating in right away are the following … just for feedback …
I’d join a Facebook page for the book.
I’d purchase an audio version of the book, especially if I could download each chapter individually.
I’d love to be informed of students engaged with the book in classroom settings. That would really stimulate my imagination for expanded learning potentials.
Would anyone else here find value in the implementation of any of these ideas? If so, what would you enjoy participating in?
Thanks for the suggestions and nudge as I’ve considered many of these but they are not currently in the works.
Peter, you have hit the nail on the head. Sales Marketing and Advertisement create “wants” when no “wants” exist. They create discontent and jealously and greed with the “one up on the Joneses” syndrome, and it goes on and on. Mahatma Gandhi had truly said, “Nature has sufficient for our needs but not for our greeds.” When we learn to say and feel that “Enough is Enough” and we turn the searchlights inwards, then all the problems in society will dissolve.
Vijay Asrani
This makes such sense. Thank you for articulating our human context in a current, calmly concerned, respectful, and on-going manner.
One of the systems processes that creates & maintains the hypnotism Pete referred to is how our financial system works. We have “Fiat Money Systems” just about everywhere on the planet now. That is, money is only money because we all agree that it is money. The only way money is created, at all levels, is that it is LOANED into existence. When the Federal Reserve has money printed, the US Government buys it with bonds. Someday, the government is expected to pay this money back – redeem the bonds – WITH INTEREST. When any of us buys something with a credit card, or takes out a bank loan, we are creating money that didn’t exist a moment before. We are expected to pay it back — WITH INTEREST. In such a system, by definition the economy must grow perpetually, since the debt is growing perpetually, in order to create more money to pay back all the principles AND INTERESTS. So we are constantly bombarded with messages to “BUY OUR STUFF” as a reflection of an economic structure that is required to grow to infinity. And all this is taking place on a finite planet with finite resources — and THIS is the awareness that I find growing in more and more people! There is growing awareness: that horrendous debt levels now exist that can’t be paid back; that we continue to consume more cheap abundant energy, even as it gets less cheap and less abundant; that we are using up our natural capital at ever increasing rates, even as we move past peak extraction on more and more of these nonrenewable resources; that we are “operating” our planet as if it were a business in liquidation. Our short term-reactive thinking lulls us into the false belief that the stuff won’t really hit the fan, and that someone somewhere will figure it all out for us.
It shows how well you understand this subject. Bookmarked this page,thanks god someone that actually knows what they are talking about – thank you!2
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This is such a great post. I will be coming back for sure
Excellent discussion. The idea that the relaxed, “natural mind” is actually the cosmic consciousness or god consciousness acting through an individual is quite remarkable. It reminds me of Kevin Kelly’s “What Technology Wants”
Hi Pete and Duane,
Thanks a lot.
You guys have a really clear vision of what reality is, like old Sages from the far East
disguised in post-modern mystics. And, it is what humanity need, now.
Reading, listening or watching your work is a great delight.
Two quotes comes to my mind after a listening session of “The Roots of our Crisis”.
“No amount of human having or human doing can make up for a deficit in human being”
John Adams
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”
Leonardo Da Vinci
Namaste
FR33L0RD
PS: Sorry for my bad english semantic, it is not my first language.
thanks