Can Humanity Choose What's Next?

As I peel back the layers of my own understanding, I find myself declaring things like: I believe we could simply 'see' or 'witness' into being the world our hearts know is possible. Generative Journalism is a Social Art that heads in that direction. This recentpodcast conversation between Nate Hagens and Charles Eisensteintouches, in profound ways, on this notion. This post is about that podcast, and aninvitation into dialogue about it later this week. But it is also an experiment. As some of you will know, I was there when the practice of Generative Journalism (GJ) was born. Some will also have heard me say GJ is:the act of publishingnon-fictionnarrative artifacts reflecting a current or unfolding event and which have the capacity to create something new. That leaves a lot of room for different forms of creative expression. I'm trying one here. Please bear with me for a sec. Wolfgang von Goethe's way of science was phenomenological. He would 'draw' or 'sketch' a plant, say, as a way to attend it, and to focus his attention. The point of the drawing was not to re-present the subject, but tobe presentand attentive to it. Through this practice insights arose and truths were revealed. There was something of 'reflection' at work where the observed can be found in the observer and vice versa. The witness is changed by the encounter. Made more whole. What I have done is to pay careful attention to the conversation between Nate and Charles. I noted what was said that spoke to me with the most aliveness and in the way in which it was expressed during the conversation. Those notes are shared below in a way that almost comes across as poetical, and maybe even prophetical. I've not built in any transitions. I have not attempted to make meaning, or to make sense. I moved but one line out from its order of appearance, as far as I can remember. The lines often jar, one from the next. And while this isn't a 'report' about what happened in that conversation, it is all within context … it's own and that context holds. Much meaning can be drawn from what is in each line, but perhaps even more so from what's between them.I added two lines,in green, which whispered through me while I was Being With. This remains a non-fiction account… as the right hemisphere might perceive it. I'm hosting a Café Conversation this Thursday with this podcast and my sketch below as conversation starters.You can learn more and RSVP here. There might be, in this narrative experiment, the roots of a very accessible form of Generative Journalism, one anyone could learn, and might already be doing naturally. A great way to Go Slow and Make Things. It seems a bit bizarre that this has to be said … but the experiment is qualitatively different from an AI summary. I did not even download the podcast transcript for easy pickings. I sat and wrote, in my own hand, every line that struckmeasIwitnessed it. I am changed by the experience. I'd be interested in how this strikes you. Enjoy. Reflections of Episode 232 ofThe Great Simplificationwith Nate Hagens, featuring Charles Eisenstein. The purpose of humanity is to contribute to the continuing unfolding of Life and Beauty on Earth and the Cosmos. What do you think a society organized around Inter Being, rather than separation, would look like? How would people relate to money, to each other, and to world? How would money change? We are working on changing the conditions. Let's not measure, but Attend. Attend, appreciate, and enjoy. Simply enjoying and receiving the gifts of creation widens the channel of creation. This accords with my spiritual intuition. We can bring consciousness to decisions that have been unconscious. That is what we have to do now. Scale requires abstraction. To some, storytelling is too abstract. That criticism is valid if you'rejust talking abouttelling stories. If you are actually telling new storiesand serving the emergence of new stories thenyou are changing the world. How else does human behaviour change? Anything you want to accomplish beyond the power of your hands involves communication. It involves symbols. Money itself is a symbol and gets its power from the stories we tell about these symbols.The whole human world is based on agreements, and the way agreements are shared and transmitted is through stories. There is a sacrifice that we all need to make, and that is of something we thought we knew in order to pass the Guardian of the Threshold. Every act has cosmic significance. We know that. What is mine to do? Grief is the process of coming to terms with loss. Rituals stop working when people stop believing the stories from which they come, which happens with the hollowing out of a culture. We don't reallycreaterituals. Wediscoverthem by being humble, honest, and precise. We're looking for something we believe in. People are asking, 'why am I doing this'. People will never wholly participate in something they are being coerced into. If you want to bring something new into the world, a new truth, that comes through relationship. It's pulled through me by the person speaking to me. Conversations are robust. They are a lot like improv. Deeply listening, full attention to the other. Speaker and Listener have an equal power to bring truth into manifestation. It is a joint process, the process of creation, the exercise of the power offiat. Let us reclaim that term because it refers to a primal creative principle, the Power of Word.Fiat means: To speak something into existence. It comes from attending to the human being in front of me. This is very mundane. But, when you pay attention to someone it actually changes what you say.It changesyou. Many of us are at the point where we are ready to stop being afraid of things we've been afraid of for a long time. Who you are as Chooser will be different. Bring in that thing that you've sequestered. Bring it in. Trust your sense, trust your intuition. Know Thyself. What do you care most about in the world? We are completing an arc of human development. If I had a magic wand? I wouldn't interfere. If I could, I suppose, I would whisper into everyone's ear when they are at that point of making an unconscious decision, 'What is really going on here? Here is something to add to your field of awareness.' When you have access to new information, who you are changes. If we objectify each other, seeing someone, say, as a customer, we treat them as a customer and objectify their value on that basis. We treat them as such. By contrast, when you tune into someone's subjectivity you realize, 'Woah, there is a human being here. They feel. Just as I feel'. How many of the exiled phenomenon are actually ready to come into conscious reality? Which are we ready for, and which are we not yet ready? What of My Self is ready to share with the world. What is the world ready for? Everybody has these questions, this yearning to be received and to be useful.To make a Meaningful Contribution. VisitCafé Indiewyldeand look forThe Collapse of Our Mythology,Café Conversation No. 3. Café Indiewylde