Evolutionary Leaders Conference at UCLA
Posted: September 1, 2010 by: MikeBara
Mike Bara and Bruce Lipton
I attended Michael Bernard Beckwith’s “Evolutionary Leaders” conference last night at Royce Hall on the campus at UCLA. My observation was that far too many spiritual leaders (MBB excluded) are locked into a left-wing, liberal “woe is us” mindset that in my opinion inhibits true progress in changing our consciousness. For people who are supposed leaders in the “new thought” movement, I was disappointed at how many of them are simply locked into an antiquated 1960’s mindset that has never solved a single human problem or helped an individual overcome adversity. I came away thinking that my new book, The Choice, is a desperately needed voice in a movement that has lost its way.
Beckwith started the evening with an eloquent (as usual) invocation, but then the evening got derailed by Deepak Chopra, who lectured us ad-nauseam on how we are the problem, the Earth is rejecting us as a virus, and the future is all gloom and doom because of our mismanagement of the planet.
Bullshit.
The problem I have with Chopra and many of the other speakers is that so many of them base their philosophies on discredited liberal axioms like the idea that we are on the verge of some environmental catastrophe. Yes, there is a danger to planet Earth, but it is not man-made nor is it because of our conduct, it is part of a natural cycle that we can influence (see The Choice). Other ideas (the world is overpopulated, we have limited natural resources, we must embrace group-think at the expense of the individual, etc.) are scarcity based and exactly the opposite of the abundance mentality they supposedly espouse. Yes we are coming upon a Choice point, as Greg Braden likes to say, yes we are having a struggle transitioning, but the idea that these issues are somehow insoluble is ridiculous.
The Gulf oil spill is prime example. It’s been capped for a month, and despite the best efforts of some in the media to keep it alive, the “ecological disaster” is no worse than a run of the mill category 3 hurricane. Clean-up crews are giving up because there is simply no oil to be found. The Earth, which is far more resilient and powerful than we give her credit for, has cleansed the Gulf of the oil. Bacteria have consumed most of it as the Earth adapts to a slight uptick in the natural process of oil leakage which is always on-going in the Gulf. Contrary to what I heard last night, the Earth is not in danger because of us, she’s here to support us, and she does a marvelous job of it.
In a sense, I can’t blame most of the “evolutionary leaders” for buying into this mindset, because they simply aren’t bright enough to question the science they are spoon fed by the mainstream media. The truth is, if the leak had remained uncapped, it would have taken 750 million years to fill the Gulf with oil, not exactly the stuff of immediate ecological disaster. But with nobody in the group (save maybe the aforementioned Mr. Braden) sharp enough to point this out, they all end up falling into lock-step and repeating the same mantras over and over again. Then they sit down to “solve” problems that don’t actually exist, like man-made global warming.
The cause of this mis-directional thinking is that in spite of their reputations as out-of-the-box thinkers, the majority of these evolutionary leaders are much like the rest of the public; authority figure driven. My belief is that there are two kinds of thinkers in the world, those that are authority figure driven and those that are data-driven. If you are driven by an authority figure, whether it is a “scientist,” a spiritual guru or the Pope, you run the risk of placing too much faith in the pontifications of flawed creation; the human being. Once you fail to seek your own answers and simply accept what “scientists” say without question because it fits your pre-existing world view, you are giving up your right to be a leader, in my opinion. How can you lead if you are dependent on the frequently wrong assumptions of others to make your judgments?
Greg Braden and Mike Bara
Even Braden, who was probably the best of the lot, talks about stuff he simply doesn’t completely understand. Yes, he gets that there are cycles of change, and he gets that we are in such a cycle now, but he hasn’t a clue as to what is driving the cycles, how they can be controlled, or when they are going to happen. I do, and it really frustrated me to have to sit there and hear so much that was incorrect and misleading being spewed forth as fact.
Don’t get me wrong; most of these speakers have their hearts in the right place, but if you are coming from a place of self-imposed ignorance of the facts, how can you provide a solution to those who are anxiously looking for some relief from the problems of the day? The truth is, you can’t.
One of the little exercises we did was to tell someone near us what we were going to do to change the way people think and to move the “evolutionary thought” process forward. I already know what that is for me; write The Choice and get people to start talking about it, because after my experience last night, I came away convinced that it is exactly what this movement needs.
Categories: Hank Moody, Lightbringer
