Link for this Post: The Current Global Crisis and the Future of Humanity by Stan Grof on Reality Sandwich
The essay I am posting about is by Dr. Stanislav Grof, who needs no introduction to most readers.
The subject of the essay is something close to my own passion, the idea that advanced techniques and technologies of consciousnesses change could play an inportant part in dealing with the multiple crisis currently threatening the planet and the life that depends on it.
Here is how he describes the context in which the presentation of the ideas in the essay were
delivered
Stanislav Grof was invited to a weekend think-tank held on January 26 and 27 of 2005, at Tomales Bay Institute in Point Reyes Station, California. The meeting was convened by Tomales Bay fellows and writers Jonathan Rowe and Peter Barne; additional participants besides Stanislav Grof were filmmakers/storytellers/story analysts Jim Bonnet, Gene Hines, John Korty and Cornelia Durrant, Susan Strong from the Metaphor Project, and Jason Salfi from Earth Island Institute.
The question discussed was: “What is the implicit narrative/drama or myth that is framing the public arena these days and what new counter-narratives are needed?” The task of the group was to outline a vision for USA that would have the power to inspire American people and successfully compete with the "American Dream" vision, which no longer seems to work, and with the dangerous "Left Behind" (Christian rapture) vision that currently dominates the thinking of tens of millions of Americans. The following is Grof’s suggestion for such a vision, based on observations from consciousness research.
Both this prelude and Stan’s paper are up on the Reality Sandwich link at the top of this post.
Thanks for the link to Stanislav Grof’s paper at Reality Sandwich.
I just posted a short comment about Grof’s presentation on my SU pages. In substance:
- I fully subscribe with the “worldview” thing.
- but I deplore the epistemological weaknesses in the argumentation that are severely weakening the reach of the “worldview” thing:
1. limiting modernity (Western technological civilization) to its ideological form (Newtonian-Cartesian paradigm and monistic materialism) is like putting a blind on our eyes that impeaches us to understand how and why humanity is in the spell of modernity.
2. the assertion that “spiritual hunger and needs are important and powerful forces inherent in human nature, more powerful than sex” shall never reach convincing force. Where is the “why it is so”? Only a clear understanding of why the sharing of a worldview is so crucial (to the metal health of the individuals and the harmonious working of societies) could catapult the idea as a recognized operational principle.
3. “A New Vision of Reality and a New Myth to Live By” are indeed starting to emerge but this new worldview shall not be shared by all on earth through the magic of “systematic experiential self-exploration and inner quest”. In other words all the citizens of the earth don’t have to transform into shaman (or Buddhas or mystics) for a “post-modern” worldview to be shared by all.
laodan