By Steve Bhaerman
No matter how you look at it, these are extraordinary times where we seem to face crisis at every turn. Interestingly, the word “crisis” first came into the English language in a translation of Chauliac’s Grande Chirurgie (Major Surgery) and it meant “the turning point in a disease.”
Well, folks, the body politic – and indeed the biosphere – is one sick puppy. We are at a pivotal moment where things can take a turn for the worse, or the better. Looking at the magnitude of the crises, it becomes clear that—to paraphrase Einstein—these problems cannot be solved at the same level of thinking from which they were created. Inside-the-box economic fixes aren’t fixing anything, nor can technological fixes alone repair the excesses of technology.
Meanwhile, we have an intransigent system invested in remaining the same, doing everything it can do to keep people asleep – or roused up in anger against the wrong enemy. It really doesn’t look good for the home team. In fact, it looks more and more like the world needs a miracle.
A Template for Miracles?
So, where do we go to find a template for miracles? Well, we can begin with the phenomenon called spontaneous remission. We read about these seemingly anomalous healings all the time, or perhaps we know someone who has had one. One day, the individual is on death’s door with a “fatal illness.” The next day, they are inexplicably symptom-free. This kind of miraculous change that cannot be explained through ordinary science is often deemed a Divine intervention, part of the unknowable mystery.
But there might be more to it.
Dr. Lewis Mehl-Madrona, author of Coyote Medicine, tells us that spontaneous remission is often preceded by “a change of story.” In other words, our feelings, thoughts, beliefs, and the meaning we attribute to our situation may actually change the “field” in such a way that it impacts our physical reality. Can this also be true of our collective story and beliefs, and our collective reality? That’s what my book with Bruce Lipton, Spontaneous Evolution, is all about. As we say in the book:
The spontaneous remission we seek appears to be contingent upon a spontaneous re-missioning of civilization through which we change our mission from one based on survival of the individual to one that encompasses survival of the species.
In other words, we must spontaneously change our mission from dominate-or-be-dominated to thrival of all. From a deeper perspective, we are living in an Einsteinian universe where science has come to recognize that all is related. Yet we are still collectively living from an obsolete (and “obsolethal”) Newtonian operating system of opposing force with force.
It’s notable that a hundred years after Copernicus proved mathematically that the earth revolves around the sun, Galileo was imprisoned for asserting the very same thing. Now here we are, more than 110 years after Einstein put forth his special theory of relativity, and the implications haven’t yet truly impacted how we treat one another and the web of life.
Simultaneously, we have to cultivate urgency AND patience, as we acknowledge how much of our intellectual and physical infrastructure is geared toward “dominate or be dominated.” As agents of conscious evolution, we must constantly relate what is happening “on the ground” to the meta-conversation that all is related.
From this view, what we have segmented as … economics … ecology … politics … spirituality … personal fulfillment … are in fact all ONE conversation: Does the thought, word, deed, meme, or institution honor “we’re all in this together” or revert to “dominate or be dominated”? This may sound counter-intuitive, but in these times of crisis and opportunity, having our President as a poster-child (emphasis on “child”) for the dominator / exploiter society makes it easier for us to see how all the little pictures relate to this one big picture.
This is also a time like never-before for the generations—from those who got it all started in the 60s to those who now inherit both the world as it is and the world as it can be—begin to cooperate and collaborate. Youthful energy and elder wisdom are our new “unbeatable” combination for survival in the short-term, and thrival longer-term.
Can we reach critical mass before we hit critical massacre? We don’t know, but that’s what we’re playing the game to find out.
The World Game or the End-of-the-World Game: The Choice Is Ours
And if you’re wondering what the game is, consider the one proposed by R. Buckminster Fuller more than 50 years ago. He called his game The World Game, and if played successfully, everyone can win. The challenge:
“To make the world work for 100% of humanity in the shortest possible time through spontaneous cooperation without ecological damage or disadvantage to anyone.”
Now, that’s a game! Forget reality TV, folks, we’ve got reality, a once-in-many-lifetimes hero’s journey with the entire species in the hero’s role. Bucky Fuller, who also coined the term “Spaceship Earth,” predicted that the 50-year period beginning in 1975 would be about aligning the planetary resources to insure abundance for all. Now, Bucky was a visionary, but he was also a scientist and mathematician. So he knew it could be done. And he knew his visionary call for mass functionality would be termed “utopian,” which is why he titled one of his other books, Utopia or Oblivion.
“Utopia,” which means “nowhere” is generally seen as the impossible dream, and the way to get there is … oh, that’s right, you can’t get there from here. But if we reframe utopia as health, harmony, and sanity, then it becomes a little easier to imagine. We have healthy cells, healthy individuals, and healthy families. We even have some healthy communities and healthy organizations. What is it that creates that field of health? How can we bring more of that to bear on more aspects of our lives? How can we create a healthier world?
Bucky Fuller’s audacious challenge is pointing the way.
There are hundreds of thousands of well-meaning organizations focused on one specific aspect or another of creating a healthier, happier world. There are tens of millions of humans dedicated to countless causes that promote one or more of these worthy goals.
What has been missing up until now is a movement, a singular focus and mission, an over-arching, under-truthing idea that unites all the ideas, organizations, and individuals into a formidable power that creates critical mass and critical momentum.
And how might each of us contribute to the creation of critical momentum and re-missioning of our collective story? By knowing that every action we take influences the “field of relativity” that truly unites us all, and the daily imagining of ourselves as vital members, gathered together, in this field of relational empowerment. This is the template from which miracles arise. And, it is within reach of every one of us.
And that is why we are calling forth individuals, communities, organizations, and companies who share this passion for a loving, functional world to gather “under one big intent,” to play a game worth playing. Our children’s children, and our grandparents’ grandparents are rooting for us.
Here, once again, is Buckminster Fuller’s challenge:
“To make the world work for 100% of humanity in the shortest possible time through spontaneous cooperation without ecological damage or disadvantage to anyone.”
Are you inspired?
The Bucky starts here.
Steve Bhaerman is an internationally known author, humorist, and workshop leader. For over 30 years, he has written and performed as Swami Beyondananda, the “Cosmic Comic.” Swami’s comedy has been described both as “comedy disguised as wisdom” and “wisdom disguised as comedy.” Marianne Williamson has called him “The Mark Twain of our generation.”
On the “serious” side, Steve has co-authored Spontaneous Evolution: Our Positive Future and a Way to Get There From Here with cellular biologist Bruce H. Lipton. His show, Wiki Politiki launches on Om Times Radio November 7th. Steve can be found online at http://www.wakeuplaughing.com
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