"Q. Swami, how do we avoid earthquakes?
A: Easy. When you find a fault, don't dwell on it."
                                                  -- Swami Beyondananda

I now call the 4th of July "Independents Day" as I've come to realize that the only way we the people can take our country back -- and forward -- is by declaring our independence from the two political parties, the two-party duopoly, and the two competing narratives that keep us divided ... and conquered.

Unfortunately, the more I've sought to weave together the threads of the contemporary progressive narrative and the contemporary conservative one, the more I realize that these two tribes are not only "divided", they dwell in two distinct realities. That is not a joke, folks.

From The Caterpillar of the Past to the Butterfly of Our Future

Bruce Lipton would compare our current state to the chrysalis as the caterpillar is deconstructing and the butterfly emerging. Inside the chrysalis, there appears to be chaos as the past and future each seek to establish primacy. The good news -- in nature at least -- the future always wins.

What makes the shituation even more vexing and complex is that BOTH the current political narratives represent the past. The future -- if there is one -- is in integrating the two into a common narrative that reflects what we ALL want.

Do Not Dwell On The Faults

As long as we dwell on the faults of our perceived adversaries (and conveniently avoid noticing our own blind spots), the less likely we are to avoid the "earthquake" of societal upheaval and worse yet, "downheaval". 

I was myself dwelling on these frustrating thoughts this weekend when I received a timely email from a wise colleague. It contained only this quote:

You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.  --Buckminster Fuller

It was then I remembered a piece I wrote several years ago that points us toward that new model, one that could miraculously save us from the death spiral we seem to be on now.

We do indeed face a life-or-death choice, and which way we go will likely depend on whether we continue with what John Perkins calls "the death economy" or shift course towards a "life economy" -- sustainable, renewable, in harmony with the web of life, and the Golden Rule. So even though this piece isn't new, I invite you to look at it anew and take Buckminster Fuller's challenge ... the Bucky starts here.

The Bucky Starts Here

Time to Gather Under One Big Intent -- Thrival for All

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 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 -- Spontaneous Re-Missioning

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. Can it be done? 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.

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 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 that is why we are calling forth individuals, communities, organizations, 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.

This article was originally published in 2010 (original article here)

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Spontaneous Evolution: Our Positive Future and a Way to Get There From Here
by Bruce H. Lipton and Steve Bhaerman.

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About the Author

Steve Bhaerman is an internationally known author, humorist, and workshop leader. For the past 23 years, he has written and performed as Swami Beyondananda, the "Cosmic Comic." Swami's comedy has been called "irreverently uplifting" and has been described both as "comedy disguised as wisdom" and "wisdom disguised as comedy." A political science major, Steve has written - since 2005 - a political blog with a spiritual perspective, Notes From the Trail, hailed as an encouraging voice "in the bewilderness." Steve is active in transpartisan politics and the practical application of Spontaneous Evolution. He can be found online at www.wakeuplaughing.com.