TITLE:  Crisis of Spirit: Effecting a New World View                                      (1)

Coordinator:  (each chapter needs at least one coordinator.  Two is better)
  • Prof. Scott Carlin,  Long Island University, scott.carlin@liu.edu

Description of Issue:

Marrying technology to greed is destroying the fabric of life.  Our modern world rests on some important falsehoods: we humans are separate from nature, we have a right to overexploit natural resources, nature has no intrinsic value, and nature’s machinery is comprised of interchangeable parts. We wrongly define energy consumption as a human need that takes precedence over long-term pollution problems. There is a grave danger in defining the climate change crisis in technocratic terms.  Adaptation, mitigation, finance, and technology define the problem too narrowly, because they attack this crisis with the same kind of thinking that created the problem in the first place.  If we are to save the planet from destruction, we need to add a fifth area: developing a new view of earth. 

 

We humans cannot bring extinguished species back to life, restore depleted stocks of resources, but if we act rapidly, we can hopefully slow and reverse global warming.  As Gandhi instructed, “The Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed.”  We must use our bodies, minds, and spirit to end ecological destruction carried out by institutions large and small.

Solving the climate change crisis requires shifting our consciousness to an entirely different and more truthful reality.  We are nature; our bodies are mostly water.  Our highest calling is to love and nurture life.  It is our sense of spirit that gives us courage, motivates, inspires, and empowers us to build earth-healing technologies and communities.  The principals of love, hope, and charity are universal, and are essential tools in transcending our destructive patterns.  

This shift in spirit also requires that we reexamine the balance between the masculine and the feminine in our world cultures. In many cultures the masculine spirit of control and possessiveness is too dominant.  The shift we seek requires strengthening the nurturing and giving feminine voice.

Institutional change is vital to this process.  Institutions in the 21st century must be legally required to work with and not against nature.  Institutions and their technologies must stop over-exploiting and polluting natural systems.  We must ensure that institutions and modern technologies clean, restore, and enhance natural systems.

For all these reasons, we redefine the hero as “one who heals not harms”.  All of humanity is part of a larger living system on earth, Gaia.  We each need to recenter our lives on this larger reality; we need to effect a global cultural shift away from the ego-centered I and champion the interdependence of humanity and all living systems. 

 

 

Draft Chapter Text :

Working Group Participants:
  • John Bolling, MD, New York City; Director of Mandala Soul-Centered Cultural Institute, Associate Professor of Psychology at College of New Rochelle and Empire State College; jlbolling@netzero.com

 

  • Dr. Georgina Galanis, VP, Association for Spirituality and Psychotherapy, and NGO Institute for InterBalkan Relations; geocolors@gmail.com

 

  • Dr. William Gellermann, (retired, Cornell School of Industrial and Labor Relations), Co-Chair of Communications Coordination Committee for the UN (CCC/UN), Member of Climate Caucus Editorial Group for Report from 2007 DPI/NGO Conference on "Climate Change: How It Affects Us All and Co-Chair of Working Group for Chapter "Tipping Points, Leverage and the Climate Change Crisis," gmann@earthlink.net

 

  • Imam Yahya Hendi, Muslim Chaplain at Georgetown University; ymh@georgetown.edu

 

  • Dr. Ani Kalayjian, Prof. of Psychology, Fordham University, and UN, NGO Human Rights Committee Board Member, Kalayjiana@aol.com

 

  • Dr. Michelle Kim, Prof. of Philosophy, SUNY Westchester Community College, and UN Eco-Spirituality Working Group, mymikim@gmail.com

 

  • Dr. Clive Lipchin, Director of Research for Arava Institute for Environmental Studies; clivearava@gmail.com

 

  • Kathleen Quain, LCSW, UN NGO Representative for Information Habitat; globalpeace4u@aol.com 

 

  • Dr. Eleanor Rae, Founder and President, Centre for Women, the Earth, the Divine; Founder and Co-Chair, Earth Values Caucus at the UN, Cwed@aol.com

 

  • Daniel Salau Rogei, founder of Simba Maasai Outreach Organization (SIMOO), Kenya, rogeioleng@yahoo.com

 

  • Rabbi Lawrence Troster, Greenfaith: Interfaith Partners in Action for the Earth, rabbiltroster@greenfaith.org

 

  • Chera Van Burg, Executive Director Species Alliance; cherav@earthlink.net

 

Chapter Working Group News:
  • The group has been meeting twice a month, alternating meetings in NYC and on conference calls.

  • Additional paper "We Are the Solution," submitted as part of the Working Group product by William Gellermann.

 

 

Bibliography and Links:

Abram, David, The Spell of the Sensuous, Pantheon Press, 1996.

 

Bateson, Gregory, Steps to an Ecology of Mind, Ballantine Books, 1972.

 

Benyus, Janine, Biomimicry, William Morrow, 1997.

 

Berry, Thomas, The Dream of the Earth, Sierra Club Books, 1990.

                                                                                 

Capra, Fritjof & Brother David Steindl-Rast, Belonging to the Universe: Explorations on the Frontiers of Science and Spirituality, Harper SF, 1992

 

Capra, Fritjof, The Turning Point, Bantam, 1981.

 

DiCarlo, Russell, Towards A New World View: Conversations at the Leading Edge, Epic Publishing, 1996.

 

Eisler, Riane, The Chalice and the Blade, Harper, 1987.

 

Fox, Warwick, Toward A Transpersonal Ecology, Shambhala, 1990.

 

Glendinning, Chellis, "My Name Is Chellis and I'm in Recovery from Western Civilization," Shambhala, Publications, Inc., 1994.

 

Gottlieb, Roger, ed., This Sacred Earth: Religion, Nature and the Environment, Routledge, New York, 1996.

 

Griffin, Susan, Woman and Nature, Harper & Row, 1978.

 

Harman, Willis, Global Mind Change, Institute of Noetic Sciences, 1998.

 

Kaza, Stephanie, The Attentive Heart: Conversations with Trees, Ballantine Books, 1993.

 

Kellert, Stephen & Edward Wilson, eds. The Biophilia Hypothesis, Island Press, l993.

 

Lonergan, Anne & Caroline Richards, Thomas Berry and the New Cosmology, Twenty-Third Publications, 1987.

 

Macy, Joanna & Pat Fleming, Arne Naess, John Seed, Thinking Like A Mountain, New Society Publishers, 1988.

 

Macy, Joanna, World as Lover, World As Self, Parallax Press, 1991.

 

Macy, Joanna, Mutual Causality: Buddhism & General Systems Theory, State University of New York Press, 1991.

 

McTaggart, Lynn, The Field: The Quest for the Secret Force of the Universe, Harper, 2008 (updated edition).

 

Meadows, Donela H., Ed., Beyond the Limits, American Forum, 1992

 

Merchant, Carolyn, The Death of Nature, Harper & Row, 1980.

 

Plant, Judith, ed., Healing the Wounds: The Promise of Ecofeminism, New Society Publishers, 1989.

 

Rae, Eleanor, Women, the Earth, the Divine, Maryknoll, 1994

 

Rockefeller, Steven C. & John Elder, Spirit and Nature, Beacon Press, 1992.

 

Roszak, Theodore, Person/Planet, Doubleday, 1979.

 

Roszak, Theodore, The Voice of the Earth, Simon and Schuster, 1992.

 

Roszak, Theodore, Mary Gomes and Allen Kanner, ed. Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, Healing the Mind, Sierra Club Books, 1995.

 

Russell, Peter, The Global Brain: Speculations on the Evolutionary Leap to Planetary Consciousness, J.P. Tarcher, 1983.

 

Shepard, Paul, Nature and Madness, Sierra Club Books, 1982.

 

Shiva, Vandana, Earth Democracy.  South End Press 2007.

 

Spretnak, Charlene, States of Grace, HarperSanFrancisco, 1993.

 

Swimme, Brian & Berry, Tom, The Universe Story, HarperCollins, 1992.

 

Swimme, Brian, The Universe is a Green Dragon, Bear & Company, 1986.

 

Teilhard, de Chardin, Hymn of the Universe,  Harper & Row, 1961.

 

Tempest, Williams-Terry, An Unspoken Hunger, First Vintage Books, 1995.

 

Thomashow, Mitchell, Ecological Identity, M. I. T., 1995.

 

White, Lynn, The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis,  in Science, Vol. 155, pp.1203-1207 (10 March 1967).

 

Willers, Bill., ed., Learning to Listen to the Land, Island Press, 1991

 

Pictures and Charts:
  • Human Happiness Charts

Working Group Recommendations and Solutions

Humanity has been living in its caterpillar stage of development.  We have been very busy devouring resources to feed our hungers.  We are now at the precipice of a global transformation.  As caterpillars, we grow increasingly aware of our clumsy feet.   We have begun to measure the size of these footprints and are alarmed to learn that our collective footprints have grown large indeed.  We despair that we lack the abilities to shrink all these footprints. 

 

A first step forward is not focus obsessively on our own individual footprints.  Instead, transform this focus of “I” to “We.”  Share with others.  Many individuals are not yet attuned to the growing size of their footprints.  Raise their awareness.  Others need technical and financial assistance to shrink their footprint; help them find those resources. 

 

Focus some of your efforts on the largest commercial, nonprofit, and governmental institutions in your life.  As you assist these larger institutions in transformation, you will quickly reach many thousands more individuals.

 

Learn to see this process as a path of spiritual and emotional development.  Be attuned to how your hope inspires others and how your love brings out the love in others.  Help them to inspire and love.   This path allows our energies to rise.  It allows us to connect with the spirit of the butterfly.   For us humans, the transformation from caterpillar will not be morphological, but it is a shift in spirit.  This is our first steps toward creating world cultures that resonate with nature’s beauty, simplicity, health, and prosperity. 

 

  • New world Hero –
    • One who is here to heal and not to harm
    • The hero’s story
  • Earth Consciousness
    • How do we shift our consciousness from personal adaptation to global adaptation?
    • Thomas Berry – Either we progress together as species, or we will pray for our own extinction.  We will not want to live alone without the world’s biodiversity.  This is a deep and profound global spiritual and existential question.  Why do we even have to debate this?
    • Rediscover a new meaning into ‘Mother Earth,’ and ‘Mother world.’
    • Tune into the global spirit; use it to guide the way we live our lives and as our source of inspiration.
  • Shifting from I to We
    • Personal Practices
      • Meditation, prayer, and reflection – tapping into our hearts and souls; tapping into our collective mind and spirit
      • Reduce Consumption – treading more softly on earth
        • Simple Living Movements
    • Institutional Practices
      • "In every deliberation we must consider the impact on the seventh generation... even if it requires having skin as thick as the bark of a pine."  - Great Law of the Iroquois
      • Corporate Responsibility Reporting
        • Role of NGOs
      • Practicing Earth Democracy
        • We the world.org
        • We can solve it.org  – Al Gore
        • Wiser Earth.org  – 1700 organizations
      • Fair trade culture. 
  • Shifting our Technologies
    • Biomimicry – OceanArks.org technology transform sewage to clean water. Industry to develop that. Industry support nature.  Masculine energies – create wars; put energy into health. Shift from Pollute to clean the earth.
  • Gender Empowerment
    • Gender Empowerment Organization (Ani’s group)
    • Education and Counseling
      • Kathleen – Masculine energies will support the feminine energies (and not exploit the feminine.)  – they do a lot of things on that issue. Eleanor –
    • Most of my life haven’t even consider that – ego v. inspiration.
    • Acknowledge existence of collective spirit and be guided by our choices in how we live.
  • Education
    • Whole brain learning
      • Education based on a human values system that includes critical thinking skills garnered from the authentic self, the innate multiple intelligences each child possesses can flourish through a revamping of our educational curriculum.   
      • When a child’s creativity and imagination is supported through innovative learning approaches, their genius flourishes.
      • The current "industrialized" education system is an insult to the integrity and sheer genius of our children.   
      • Alternative Education, eco-education and a transparent influence through mentoring and example can allow for inner growth and a culture of global citizens.
    • Mentoring Work
      • Be the love you want to see
      • Embrace spiritual approaches for climate change and integrate it into your life.
      • Coach your family, neighbors and friends in this approach
      • Be the guiding mentor and change agent
  • Climate Change Adapting to Disaster
    • Counseling: Disasters require emotional as well as physical support services.  (Grief work - Denial, anger, acceptance, recovery).
    • The Climate Crisis will provoke spiritual crises in hard hit communities (disasters, food, disease).  How will the world respond?  What new spiritual lessons does climate change teach us?  We are one people, on one ecological and geophysical earth.
    • Victor Frankel – spiritual vacuum.
    • Groups will want to take advantage of this spiritual vacuum. Individual get lost to the group; they are exploited. 
  • Climate Change Mitigation
  • The precautionary principle
    • Protect the well- being of every aspect of the Earth community.
    • Promote diversity (biological, ethnic, racial and cultural) as fundamental for the vitality of the Earth community and human society.
  • Compassion
    • The hardest and most important journey we must all make is the one from our minds, to our hearts. Awaken the balance of the feminine and allow the masculine to find its natural power. Compassion in action is a daily pathway. 
  • Diet and Food
    • The livestock business generates more greenhouse gas emissions than all forms of transportation combined. Eating meat is worse for the environment than driving.  Giving thanks to the earth’s abundance can bring about balance and a mutual eco spiritual exchange. We must feed the earth and the earth will return its grace filled abundance to us.

 

(1) ceramic  "Eternal Life" by Larry Roeder