Paradigm Change
Resources related to Paradigm Change
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Creation 2005 by Gerald McDermott
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Readings: Classic Dharmagaian perspecives
on paradigm change
The
Western World View: Past, Present And Future,
Interview with Richard Tarnas by Russell E. DiCarlo - A world view is a set of values, of conceptual structures, of
implicit assumptions or pre-suppositions about the nature of reality –
about human beings, about the relationship between humans and nature, about
history, the divine, the cosmos – which constellate an entire culture's
way of being and acting. A world-view shift reflects a very profound archetypal
dynamic in the psyche that closely resembles a perinatal process – a
birth process. One has been within a "womb," a matrix of thought, a
conceptual matrix, a conceptual womb for quite a while. You've developed within
it until that conceptual matrix is no longer large enough to contain your
evolving mind. It becomes seen as a problem, or constriction, as something to
be overcome, and a crisis is created. After a very critical period of
transition, of tension, of deconstruction, of disorientation, a sudden new
birth is precipitated into a new conceptual matrix. There is a sudden
revelation of a new Universe, which seems to open up. In this experience of a
shift in world view, one re-experiences one's own birth on an intellectual
level. It involves a very deep archetypal death and re-birth process.
Ecocentrism: the
Chord that Harmonizes Humans and Earth by J. Stan Rowe 1994 - The integrity and health of wholes require
that their parts serve them. Since
humanity is a part derived from the whole of the ecosphere of Earth, humanity's mission is to beautify and keep the Earth. The ecocentric
argument is grounded in the belief that, compared to the undoubted importance
of the human part, the whole Ecosphere is even more significant and
consequential: more inclusive, more complex, more integrated, more creative,
more beautiful, more mysterious, and older than time. In the ecocentric view people are inseparable from the
inorganic/organic nature that encapsulates them. Most of us will be burdened throughout
our lives with an indissoluble kernel of egocentrism and, by extension,
anthropocentrism. This should not deter people of good will from proclaiming
the truth that, relative to Earth, humanity is not the center. A few hundred
years ago, with some reluctance, Western people admitted that the planets, sun
and stars did not circle around their abode. In short, our thoughts and
concepts though irreducibly anthropomorphic need not be anthropocentric. Wherever our sense of greatest
importance lies, there also will our ethics be.
Nature
is Not a Paradigm by Morris Berman 1987: surveys the landscape of paradigm
change, points out a few dangers, and cautions us not to latch too quickly onto
a new paradigm, because after all, “nature is not a paradigm.”
Jean Houston and James O'Dea on the Essential
Shifts 5/8/06 - In this dialogue, the former President of IONS and Jean Houston engage
in a passionate inquiry into the peril and promise of these times on Earth.
They feed mind, heart, and soul with discussions of archetypes and essence,
myth and ritual, meaning and healing. They see us experiencing a blazing sunset
of one era and moving into a new, Ecozoic era, a time in which we care more
deeply for the planet and each other. A renewal of our mythic imagination is
required to make the shift and activate our full potential as a species; story
connects to the archetypal world and fertilizes the sense of what is possible.
Their discussion is an Indra’s net of insight, humor, and synthesis, all
leading towards a new planetary psychology.
Earth
System Science and Gaian Science by Stephan Harding 2001 - Gaian scientists,
recognising that science cannot and should not be separated from moral,
political and economic concerns, seek to deeply question and remould themselves
and society based on their deep experiences of studying, living in and
identifying with Gaia. A guiding principle for them is that human vital needs
should be satisfied with as little disruption as possible with Gaian processes
at all levels. Gaian science can thus be distinguished from Earth System
science by its striving to bring a sound science of the Earth together with
ecological wisdom and action.
Diversity,
Health and Creativity: Lessons for
Living from New Science by Brian Goodwin - The truth of creativity is that it needs to be
appropriate to context, to now. This is where we need to cultivate our
sensitivities, to feel our way from here to a healthy, whole, healed future by
a path that is at present invisible but is revealed as we walk it. This is the
path of what is sometimes called ‘right action’. To get to a future in which
things are better, the only reliable way to go is by fully tuning in to the
present so that the future arrives as an unexpected revelation from engaged
action now, not from prediction and planning.
From
Gaia Theory to Deep Ecology by Stephan Harding - To understand Gaia, we must
let go of the mechanistic, compartmentalising conditioning imposed on us since
childhood by our society. From an early age nearly all Westerners (and
especially young scientists) are exposed to the concept that life has come
about due to the operation of blind, meaningless laws of physics and chemistry,
and that selfishness underpins the behaviour and evolution of all plants and
animals. Gaian perception connects us with the seamless nature of existence,
and opens up a new approach to scientific research arising from scientists’
personal, deeply subjective ecological experience.
Materialism
- An Addictive Meme by
Peter Russell: describes the costs of
our culture’s materialism to the wellbeing of the planet, society, and
ourselves, suggesting that it is an addiction that can change only with inner
work, by examining our personal lives.
Is the
Modern Psyche Undergoing a Rite of Passage? By Richard Tarnas - We
have sought ever deeper insight into our individual biographies, seeking to
recover the often hidden sources of our present condition, to render conscious
those unconscious forces and complexes that shape our lives. Many now recognize
that same task as critical for our entire civilization. What individuals and
psychologists have long been doing has now become the collective responsibility
of our culture: to make the unconscious conscious.
Understanding Our
Moment In History: An Interview with Richard Tarnas
by Scott London
The Holonic Shift and How to Take Part in It by Joanna Macy - Our time calls
for a “holonic shift.” Macy outlines the attitudes and behaviors that can help
to make it to happen.
The Great
Turning as Compass and Lens by
Joanna Macy
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Personal Guidelines for the Great Turning by
Joanna Macy
From Mechanics to
Organics interview with Elisabet Sahtouris: explains our current paradigm change as a
transition from a mechanistic worldview to an organic worldview.
Knowing
Only One Story by John
Michael Greer – On the deadliness
of knowing only one story. Knowing many stories is
wisdom. Knowing no stories is
ignorance. Knowing only one story
is death.
Getting Beyond The Narratives: An Open Letter To
The Activist Community by John Michael Greer - Magical
combat is a struggle between storytellers, in which each mage tries to define a
common reality in terms of the story that best serves his or her purposes. The
struggle between the global corporate system and the activist community can be
seen as a
conflict of magicians telling opposing stories. Which of these
stories fosters more hope, gives more encouragement to alternative visions of
society, and more effectively cuts at the mental foundations of today’s
economic and political systems?
Waking
Our Animal Senses: Language and
the Ecology of Sensory Experience by David Abram - If we
continue to speak of other animals as less mysterious than ourselves, if we
speak of the forests as insentient systems, and of rivers and winds as
basically passive elements, then we deny our direct, visceral experience of
those forces. And so we close down our senses, and come to live more and more
in our heads. We seal our intelligence in on itself, and begin look out at the
world only as spectators — never as participants.
Comprehensive Compassion, an
Interview with Brian Swimme:
Earthquakes Of
Consciousness by Jerry Mander: How I
moved from advertising glamour to anti-globalisation fervour
A Manifesto for Earth by Ted Mosquin and J. Stan Rowe 1/2004
A
trusting attachment to the Ecosphere, an aesthetic empathy with surrounding
Nature, a feeling of awe for the miracle of the Living Earth and its mysterious
harmonies, is humanity's largely unrecognized heritage. Affectionately realized
again, our connections with the natural world will begin to fill the gap in
lives lived in the industrialized world. Important ecological purposes that
civilization and urbanization have obscured will re-emerge. The goal is
restoration of Earth's diversity and beauty, with our prodigal species once
again a cooperative, responsible, ethical member.
The Mystique Of The Earth - Thomas Berry is
interviewed by Caroline Webb 11/02 - Thomas Berry's vision for an Earth Democracy
recognizes the unity between humans and the planet.
Recent Articles
Would We Listen to Nature if Our Lives Depended on
It? by Derrick Jensen 11/6/09 - What would a society look like that was planning on being in that
particular place five hundred years from now? What would an economics look
like? If you knew for a fact that your descendants five hundred years from now
would live on the same landbase you inhabit now, how would that affect your
relationship to sources of water? How would that affect your relationship with
topsoil? With forests? Would you produce waste products that are detrimental to
the soil? Would you poison your water sources (or allow them to be poisoned)?
Would you allow global warming to continue? If the very lives of your children
and their children depended on your current actions—and of course they
do—how would you act differently than you do?
The Air Aware: Mind and mood on a breathing planet by David Abram
9/09 - I suggest that
mind is not at all a human possession, but is rather a property of the earthly
biosphere—a property in which we, along with the other animals and the
plants, all participate. Mind, in this sense, is very much like a medium in
which we’re situated, like the ineffable air or atmosphere, from which we are
simply unable to extricate ourselves without ceasing to exist. Everything we
know or sense of ourselves is conditioned by this atmosphere. If we allow that
mind is a biospheric quality, an attribute endemic to the wide sphere that
surrounds and sustains us, we swiftly notice this consequence: each
region—each topography, each uniquely patterned ecosystem—has its
own particular awareness, its unique style of intelligence.
A
Struggle of Paradigms by John Michael Greer 4/22/09 - Perhaps the most fascinating
factor shaping today’s debates about the future of industrial society is the
rapidity with which any such debate plunges into territory outside the reach of
rational argument. For example, the way that
communications break down over the subject of environmental limits. It’s no exaggeration to say that either
you believe in limits or you don’t. The difference between the believers and the disbelievers in
limits is, at root, a difference in paradigms.
Toward
Ecosophy by John Michael Greer 2/11/09 - Every culture draws on the
techniques it finds most useful to provide it with its worldview. Industrial
civilization thus drew most of the ideas of scientism, and even more of its
symbolism and emotional appeal, from the world revealed by Galileo and Newton
in the seventeenth century and embodied in the first wave of industrial
technology a century later. In the same way, the crucial role ecological
knowledge will likely play in the wake of the industrial age makes the
emergence of a broader way of thinking modeled on ecological science a
near-certainty over the centuries immediately ahead of us.
Language
Separates Us from Nature by Chuck Burr 12/7/08 -
Every day, the global
communication revolution moves us further away from
nature. We have
sacrificed a deep intimate experience with nature, a household level of
knowledge of plants and animals, and a rich hunter-gatherer language. We have
gained something with no intrinsic value -- information and data experienced in
isolation. Once we realize how
poor we are in our detachment from nature -- the Garden of Eden, we may well
yearn for a way back to a deep, whole, connected, wordless experience of life.
The Rights
of the Land: The Onondaga Nation of central New York proposes a
radical new vision of property rights by Robin Kimmerer
11-12/08 - When they finally got
their day in court, members of the Onondaga Nation argued that the land title
they’re seeking is not for possession, not to exclude, but for the right to
participate in the well-being of the land. Against the backdrop of
Euro-American thinking, which treats land as a bundle of property rights, the
Onondaga are asking for freedom to exercise their responsibility to the land.
This is unheard of in American property law. Above all, the land rights action
seeks title for the purpose of ecological restoration. The legal action
concerns not only rights to the land, but also the rights of the land, its right to be whole and healthy.
Technology
Traps by
Peter Crabb 11/08 - In
our blind pursuit of immediate gratifications from our countless gadgets, we
have run headlong into a number of “technology traps” that are destroying human
potential and the prospects for sustainable cultures. What is needed is a
wholesale ratcheting-down of culture to small, low-tech communities that live
harmoniously and respectfully in local ecosystems.
Ecuador Leads The
Way; Now It's Pennsylvania's Turn To Protect The Environment by
Cyril Mychalejko 10/14/08 - Dr. Mario Melo, an Ecuadorian lawyer specializing in Environmental
Law and Human Rights, told me that the new constitution redefines people's
relationship with nature by asserting that nature is not just an object to be
appropriated and exploited by people, but is rather a rights-bearing entity
that should be treated with parity under the law. "In this sense, the
new constitution reflects the traditions of indigenous peoples living in
Ecuador, who see nature as a mother and call her by a proper name,
Pachamama," said Melo.
The New Facts of Life: Connecting the Dots on
Food, Health, and the Environment by Fritjof Capra Summer 2008 - A
discussion of the interrelations between food, health, and the environment is
extremely topical today. Rising food prices together with the price of oil and
a series of so-called "natural" catastrophes dominate the news every
day. All these problems,
ultimately, must be seen as just different facets of one single crisis, which
is largely a crisis of perception. It derives from the fact that most people in
our society, and especially our political and corporate leaders, subscribe to
the concepts of an outdated worldview, a perception of reality inadequate for
dealing with our overpopulated, globally interconnected world.
The
Same New Ideas by John
Michael Greer 5/14/08 - There’s a way out of the paradox of unoriginal
originality that besets so much of modern thought: the way to get genuinely new
ideas is to learn and value old ones. Partially that’s a matter of avoiding old
mistakes, but it has other dimensions. Creativity, as Arthur Koestler pointed
out, comes from the collision of incommensurable realities; it’s when the mind
encounters two or more sharply different ways of making sense of the same thing
that it can leap to a new level of understanding and come up with something
authentically new.
Eco-Anger: A Worldview Under Threat, Part 1: An Eye-Opening Personal Experience by Sarah Anne Edwards 5/13/08
Eco-Anger: A Worldview under Threat, Part 2: Personal Insights into What’s Up by Sarah Anne Edwards 5/13/08
The Waking Up Syndrome by
Sarah Anne Edwards and Linda Buzzell 4/08 - While the sky may not be falling,
the day-after-day onslaught of alarming news is making it more difficult simply
to overlook the triple threat of environmental, climatic and economic concerns.
It's leaving many of us feeling like Alice in Wonderland, being sucked down a
Rabbit Hole into some frighteningly grotesque and unfamiliar world that's
anything but wonderful.
Revolution
of the Snails: Encounters with the
Zapatistas by
Rebecca Solnit 1/15/08
Our Storied
Future: Never underestimate the
power of an idea
By Rebecca Solnit 1/08
The
Secret Library of Hope: 12 Books to Stiffen Your Resolve by Rebecca Solnit 12/17/07
Stepping Into
A New Paradigm As The Old One Crumbles by Carolyn Baker 12/12/07: Industrial civilization is one story in the human
experience. Meanwhile, there are other stories that cry out to be written. I
believe that until we change the stories, we can't change the paradigm.
The
familiarity of an idea by
Sharon Astyk 11/15/07
A compassionate guide to dealing with others’ resistance to a new idea.
Read, Watch and/or Listen
Shift: At
the Frontiers of Consciousness – a magazine from the
Institute of Noetic Sciences that explores ways of knowing and being that open
us to transformations in our beliefs, values, and actions.
The 2007
Shift Report: Evidence of a World Transforming, attempts to chart the
transition we believe is underway from a rigid, mechanistic, and materialistic
worldview to one that is built on a foundation of interconnectedness,
cooperation, and the intersection of science and spirituality. This 80-page
document, highlighted with sidebars, charts, and quotations, is organized into
four major sections.
The 2008 Shift Report: Changing the Story of
Our Future - Over the past several decades, new scientific discoveries
along with a surge in grassroots initiatives addressing social and economic
injustices have begun calling into question the view of the universe—and
essentially of ourselves—as ultimately cold and mechanistic. Revealing
both the mysterious directionality of the evolving cosmos and the irrepressible
humanity within our own natures, new evidence is emerging that we are innately
capable of far more than we realize. Yes, the evidence is compelling that the
arc of the human species is on a self-destructive decline. And yet once the
pieces are put together, there is no denying that another reality is fighting
through the cracks of the dominant narrative. We are just beginning to tap into
our potential as human beings despite, or perhaps because of, the multiple
crises that we are facing. 82 pages.
Joanna
Macy: The Work That Reconnects - Double DVD 2007
Group work, the Great
Turning, Deep Ecology, Living Systems, Deep Time Work
Reconnecting with Life – A web-based course that maps ways into the
vitality and determination that enable us to take part in the healing of our
world. Developed by many people over the past thirty years, this body of work
has helped hundreds of thousands of people find solidarity and the courage to
act, despite rapidly worsening social and ecological conditions.
The Insight Course: Be the Change You Want To See in the
World
A Walk through Time: From Stardust to US - The Walk Through Time unfolds a scientific understanding of the
five-billion year evolution of life on Earth. The Walk progresses from the formation of the solar system to the
present. The Walk offers a rich
context for exploring fundamental issues regarding humanity and the future of
all life on Earth.
The Art
of Hosting - The challenges of these times call for
collective intelligence gained through collaborative learning. We must
co-create the solutions we seek. The Art of Hosting pattern and practice is based on our assumption that
it is common sense to bring stakeholders together in conversation when you seek
new solutions for the common good. We believe that when human beings are invited to work together on what
truly matters to them, they will take ownership and responsibility for moving
their issues and ideas into wiser actions that last.
The Art of Hosting TV – Video clips of Art of Hosting
processes and conversations about the art of hosting ‘conversations that
matter,’ new ways that people are working together to find answers to the
questions that concern the common good.
Global Mindshift with Brian Swimme, Duane Elgin and others.
The New
Story by Brian Swimme
Our
Current Moment by Brian Swimme
Crash or Bounce? with
Duane Elgin
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Barbara Marx Hubbard &
Michael Dowd
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The Conversation
of the Century –
free email newsletter from Barbara Marx Hubbard profiling
what she terms her “extraordinary evolutionary colleagues.”
The Darwin Project — What Darwin said about the evolution of the human
mind and species that has been suppressed!
Thank God for
Evolution by Michael Dowd – Book blog
Thank God for
Evolution by Michael Dowd – Book trailer
Thomas
Berry and the Earth Community - The Earth
Community website presents the far-reaching vision of American writer Thomas
Berry, a leading ecological and ethical thinker, about the role of humanity
within nature and about our relationship with the Earth and the Universe.
Eco-Ethics
International Union – Humanity
can survive only with a new concept of ethics: eco-ethics. Eco-ethics differs from historical
ethics. The roots of eco-ethics
are not revelation, faith and philosophy, but scientific research, knowledge
and compatibility between nature and humanity. The subject of eco-ethics is not a single species but
communities of different, co-existing forms of life.
Center
for Earth Jurisprudence - CEJ’s mission is to re-envision law and governance in ways that
support and protect the health and well being of the Earth community as a
whole. CEJ seeks to develop a philosophy and practice of law that respect the
rights of the natural world and recognize humans as an integral member of the
Earth community.
Eco-Anxiety by Sarah Anne Edwards - Feeling
concerned about the seriousness of what is taking place ecologically in the
world today and the personal, spiritual, and economic consequences is not a
mental illness. It’s a normal
reaction to a growing awareness of a real threat and a call for healing and
action by caring individuals and helping professionals.
Links to Other
Resonant Webs by Elisabet
Sahtouris
Biomimicry Institute - Promoting the transfer
of ideas inspired
by Nature to the design of our world, for a more
sustainable, healthier planet.
The World From A Plant's-Eye View with Michael Pollan 3/07 - The author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma leads us through a paradigm change. What if human consciousness isn't the
end-all and be-all of Darwinism? What if we are all just pawns in corn's clever
strategy game, the ultimate prize of which is world domination? Michael Pollan asks us to see things
from a plant's-eye view -- to consider the possibility that nature isn't
opposed to culture, that biochemistry rivals intellect as a survival tool. By
merely shifting our perspective, he argues, we can heal the Earth. (17 min
video)
The Story of Stuff by
Annie Leonard — a wonderful
little movie about the insanity of our economic system and its impact on the
Earth.
Derrick Jensen on
Identification – Endgame author discusses the
question of who and what we identify with – the “system” or the Earth?
– and how crucial our identification is to the struggle to protect the
environment. (3:49 min)
Living
Dialogues Podcasts with Duncan Campbell – Interviews with leaders of paradigm change.
It's
Not Too Late - Van
Jones Video (1 min)
The
Shift - 6 minute trailer for an upcoming movie
about the great Shift that is underway.
Earth Spirit Action - Vandana Shiva, Starhawk, Matthew Fox, Ruth Rosenhek and John Seed speak about Deep Ecology, Living
Democracy and Revolution in Consciousness in a fast moving discussion of the
type of change that needs to take place for a Sustainable Future. An
inspirational and stimulating film including beautiful nature footage and a
colourful array of global action shots. (16 min video)
Feeding Your Demons: Ancient Wisdom for Resolving
Inner Conflict by
Tsultrim Allione 2008 - Allione brings an eleventh-century Tibetan
woman's practice to the West for the first time with Feeding Your Demons, an accessible and effective approach for
dealing with negative emotions, fears, illness, and self-defeating patterns.
She translates this ancient Eastern practice into a workable form for today's
Western psyche, explaining that if we fight our demons, they only grow
stronger. But if we feed and nurture them, we can free ourselves from the
battle. She also applies these lessons to collective demons in the outer world.
Radical Simplicity: Small
Footprints on a Finite Earth by Jim Merkel - In the face of looming ecological disaster, many people feel the
need to change their own lifestyles as a necessary step in transforming our
unsustainable culture. Radical Simplicity is the first book that guides the reader
to a personal sustainability goal, then offers a process to monitor progress to
a lifestyle that is equitable amongst all people, species, and generations.
The
Power of Sustainable Thinking:
How to Create a Positive Future for the Climate, the Planet, Your Organization
and Your Life by Bob Doppelt 7/08 - Doppelt makes the case that global warming and
today's other ecological and socioeconomic problems are not technical in
nature, rather they represent a crisis of thought. Every society has a shared
“mental frame” – core beliefs and assumptions that shape the way people
make decisions and behave. Effective solutions will emerge only when new,
sustainable forms of thinking emerge. Sustainable thinking requires a clear understanding
of the systems humans are part of, the use of proven strategies for
facilitating personal, team, and organizational change, ethical rules to guide
behavior, and a creative rather than problem-solving orientation.
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Aztec Quetzaquatal
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For more on paradigm change, see Deep Ecology,
© 2010 Suzanne Duarte