Spring 2008 (Issue 34)    

     Consciousness in Politics    |     Frequency Meditation     |     Past Lives     |    Judi Dean     |     Meditation Link-Up

“One day we will wake up and find out we are family."

—Desmond Tutu

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MIND BEFORE MATTER:
The Primacy of Consciousness in Politics
 © 2007 Corinne McLaughlin and Gordon Davidson

“Nothing is as powerful as an idea whose time has come,” Victor Hugo wrote centuries ago.  Ideas have changed the world – great ideas such as “love your neighbor as yourself” or “all men are created equal.” Why are ideas so powerful?  Because consciousness – not physical form – is primal.  Consciousness is the causal factor.  Consciousness refers here to the mind, the emotions, the intuition and the soul (or higher self, monad, Buddha mind, etc.)  As Buddha said, “With our thoughts we create the world.”  Christ said, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so he is.”

How would our politics be different if citizens personally understood that consciousness is primal and thoughts are the cause of everything that manifests in our lives and in the physical world?

If we knew consciousness was primary, we’d recognize that separateness is an illusion and that everyone and everything is interconnected.  We would all feel the suffering of the poor and the sick as our own and would naturally make sure they are taken care of.  We would feel our essential oneness with all of the human family and so would treat the peoples of other nations as we treat our own citizens. We would feel our interconnection with nature and all of life and so would prioritize environmental protection and sustainable agricultural and forestry policies.

We’d help people expand their consciousness and identify with ever more inclusive groups—from family to community to nation to world, and finally, to all life on earth.  With each expansion of identify, there would be a new focus on finding a sense of unity amidst the diversity and developing a shared sense of purpose.

If we experientially knew the reality of oneness, we could also avoid the “tragedy of the commons” problem, where each individual acting in rational self-interest creates a catastrophe for the community as a whole. Everything is related to everything else, so we cannot solve a problem in isolation from its context.  We’d realize, for example, that an unfair socio-economic system breeds poverty (as liberals argue), but also that an individual’s personal choices contribute to poverty (as conservatives maintain).

We’d train people in how to transcend dualistic thinking and find a true third way in politics beyond left and right. In ancient Greece, initiates to the Mysteries were trained in paradoxical thinking, in understanding how something could be “both/and” rather than “either/or.”  This type of thinking would transform all our political debates and help us find more effective, long term policy solutions to every problem.

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Spiritual Practice FREQUENCY ADJUSTMENT MEDITATION By Corinne McLaughlin     Begin by finding a quiet place to sit.  Take a few deep breaths and exhale deeply to relax.  Bring your attention more fully into the present moment.  Notice the quality of the sound inside your head. Now imagine that you are sitting at a control panel for frequency adjustment.  You see in front of you a lever that moves up and down and looks like a volume control for sound, but instead it controls the frequency and harmony of vibrations. Move the lever down to the lowest position.  Notice the vibrational frequency, the resonance, you experience at this level.  You may experience frequency as sound, light, sensation, etc. Does the frequency seem dense, heavy and slow?  Or perhaps dissonant and chaotic?  Now with each breath you inhale, raise the lever higher and see what you experience.  Notice how the frequency rises and becomes more resonant and harmonic, like a wall of sound surrounding you.  Feel all the cells in your body vibrating in resonance. As the frequency keeps rising, feel it vibrating your chakras or energy centers, especially the crown center at the top of your head. Raise the lever to its highest point until all sound and frequency seem to disappear into a deep silence… lose all sense of self….and expand into infinity….the infinite heart of the universe….  Stay in this place for as long as feels appropriate. Then listen for a faint sound, becoming closer and closer, a quiet heartbeat… It’s your own heart pulsing in resonance with the universe. When you’re ready to bring your meditation to a close, reset the lever to the position where it feels most comfortable to go about your daily life.  Then open your eyes and take a few deep breaths. Print Meditation

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CHILDREN'S REPORTS OF PREVIOUS LIVES

By Jim B. Tucker, M.D., University of Virginia

 

“Mom, when you were a little girl and I was your daddy, you were bad a lot of times, and I never hit you!” With these words, William, then a rambunctious three-year-old responding to his mother’s warning about a spanking, proclaimed that he had been his maternal grandfather, John.

His mother, Doreen, was initially taken aback by this, but as William talked more, she began to feel comforted by the idea that her father had returned. John had been close to his family and had frequently told Doreen, “No matter what, I’m always going to take care of you.” William talked a number of times about being his grandfather and also discussed his death. He demonstrated knowledge that amazed his mother, such as the nickname only his grandfather used for a family cat and the day of the week when his grandfather had died.

William also talked about the period between lives. “When you die, you don’t go right to heaven,” he told his mother. “You go to different levels—here, then here, then here,” he explained, with his hand moving up at each level. He said that animals are reborn as well as humans and that he saw animals in heaven that did not bite or scratch. John had been a practicing Roman Catholic, but he had believed in reincarnation and had said he would take care of animals in his next life. William said he would be an animal doctor and would take care of large animals at a zoo. He also had a birth defect that seemed to match the fatal wound his grandfather had suffered…

Researchers at the University of Virginia have been studying cases like William’s for more than 45 years. Dr. Ian Stevenson, who passed away in 2007, started the work when he was chairman of the Department of Psychiatry. When he came to the university, Stevenson had published extensively in medical and psychiatric journals, but he also harbored an interest in parapsychology.

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The following is a beautiful tribute written by a close friend of Judi’s:

The Inspirational Life and Death of Judi Dean

Judi Blair Dean, a former board member and dedicated supporter of the Center for Visionary Leadership, passed away at her home in Washington, DC on Christmas Day, 2007 at the age of 63. 

Judi had been struggling with breast cancer for the past nine years, although to those who did not know her well, her condition for most of those years was imperceptible. Strong-willed and positive to the end, Judi refused to let her disease take control of her life or prevent her from continuing to be of service to others, through the causes that were dear to her. 

Although Judi had tried many therapies over these years, none had been able to ultimately halt the spread of her cancer.  She did not dwell upon it nor did she want to be treated any differently because of it.  Judi did not want pity, but she opened up more to others as a result of their loving compassion.  During this time, those who knew her commented on the fact that she seemed to become more radiant and more at peace as her physical body weakened.  Until the very end of her life, Judi’s quiet joy and cheerfulness, and her high-energy dedication to the causes and activities that mattered most to her, demonstrated to all who knew her the strong foundation of her deeply aligned inner life. 

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Letters from the Editor....

“I was very happy to be able to join you, your team and friends on the recent CVL national conference call. I was especially touched by the meditation--pretty amazing to do that on the telephone. Your work is a great support to mine, especially as I am now taking a bigger leadership role … in creating a department of peace at the state level with the Department of Peace Initiative, New Mexico….My passion in all of this activist peacemaking is to put my art in service of it. I have always appreciated your work and am very grateful to be a tiny bit closer to it. It is a joy and inspiration navigating your web site--I just printed your article on Mastering Time to send along with some New Year correspondence.” –Dominique Mazeaud, Sante Fe, NM 
 

WHAT'S NEW Recommended books, films, newspapers: The Great Awakening, an important book by our friend Jim Wallis (author of New York Times’ bestseller God’s Politics and editor of Sojourner magazine), who traveled around the country and found a spiritual revival.  People of moral conviction are hungry for solutions and hope, and he found common ground around a concrete plan for change. (www.sojo.net ) Working on Yourself by our friend Joleen Dianne DuBois, founder of the White Mountain Education Association, is based on her Sunday talks on The Ageless Wisdom and offers inspirational stories and practical approaches for deepening your spiritual growth, listening to your heart, and overcoming obstacles to transformation. (www.wmea-world.org) Illusion is a metaphysical film starring Kirk Douglas as a dying filmmaker who reviews his life and his karma, as his deceased former editor acts his projectionist.  He spends a fantastical night watching movies from the akashic records that depict various stages in his estranged son's life, hoping to give him the happy ending he deserves. (Available on DVD and from www.netflix.com) Positive News is a free newspaper published quarterly and a website that reports on successful projects around the world in the areas of sustainability, education, social justice and happiness, with a clear message that “another world is possible.”  (www.positivenewsus.org.)

CONSULTING AND TRAINING The Center for Visionary Leadership offers consulting, training, coaching and facilitation services to a wide variety of clients in business, government and the non-profit sector.  The strength and sustainability of organizations today are achieved through clear vision, sound business practices, principle-centered leadership, commitment to employees, mastery of change, and service to the community. Our goal is to help you create a healthy, thriving organization --infused with shared vision and innovative solutions, attracting and retaining the best people, and being highly successful in achieving your goals.  Our highly trained professional staff will review your company’s individual needs and create a custom-made package to help you actualize your goals. MORE INFO

MIND BEFORE MATTER: Visions of a New Science of Consciousness Edited by Trish Pfeiffer and John E. Mack, M.D. Foreword by Larry Dossey, M.D. The first anthology of eminent scientists and philosophers outlining a new model of reality based on the primacy of consciousness rather than of matter—which is so needed for survival on our planet today. Chapters by CVL co-founders Corinne McLaughlin and Gordon Davidson, Paul Devereux, Amit Goswami, Ph.D., David Korten, Ph.D., Richard Tarnas, Ph.D., Ervin Lazlo, Ph.D., Elisabet Sahtouris, Ph.D., Duane Elgin, etc., explain pioneering ideas like non-locality, entanglement, and zero-point energy from quantuum physics and apply these findings to politics, medicine, the economy. (Available from http://www.amazon.com.)

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