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Foundation for Mind-Being Research |
AN ENLIGHTENED WISDOM SOCIETY
Our
May speakers will be Drs. Oliver Markley and Dean Brown who will describe their
project to inspire the emergence of "ascending" world views and life
styles for a more compassionate, just and enlightened "global wisdom society".
Ascension is considered to be the process and result of the vital life force
behind all manifestation. Oliver and Dean believe that there exists an energy
vector that expresses itself in the creation and evolutionary development of
matter, life, mind, and spirit. It is guided by a series of Cosmic Laws that
are invariant, that is, they never change. These Laws underlie manifestation
of reality at all levels. Oliver and Dean will focus on ascension as a "deeper"
and therefore "higher leverage" way to accelerate personal and collective
progress toward lives of joyous fulfillment and a more just and abundant society.
Their goal is to mount a multi-media web site for the integrated hot-linking
of all project documents, including a digitized gallery portraying ascension-related
works of art and science.
Educated as a design engineer and social psychologist, Dr. Oliver Markley is
a futurist. He was Senior Policy Analyst and Principal Investigator at SRI International,
working with Dr. Willis Harman and others on alternative future histories for
society. More recently he was Professor of Futures Research at the University
of Houston-Clear Lake. Dr. Dean Brown is a theoretical physicist. He received
a B.S. in Mathematics and Chemistry at South Dakota State College and an M.A.
and Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Kansas. He has been a student of
Sufism, reads Sanskrit and has translated ancient sacred texts of Hinduism.
Their joint effort is to incorporate the "Cosmic Laws" that Dean presented
to FMBR in November 1997 into visions for the future. Dr. Dean Brown has recently
published his book on Cosmic Laws . It will soon be available on the
FMBR Web site.
TIME:
Friday, May. 23, 2003 8:00 p.m.
PLACE: Auditorium of the O'Connor
Medical Office Building (MOB)
2101 Forest Ave., San Jose, CA
SPEAKER: Dr. Oliver Markley, Futurist
Dr. Dean Brown, Theoretical Physicist
EDITORIAL
ASCENSION
Ascension
is typically thought of as going from the physical body to a higher level after
death of the body. However, the wisdom traditions of the world have for millennia
told us that ascension should begin while we live in our physical body. Ascension
emerges from a three-fold miracle of creation. The first miracle is that anything
at all exists, rather than nothing-ness. The second miracle is that some of
what is, is alive. The third miracle is that some of what is alive is self-aware,
including awareness of the three miracles. Ascension becomes the application
of this self-referencing capability -- a journey inward to the Source. In effect
you ascend to a "higher zone" of consciousness that transforms
your perception of critical problems into opportunities. The movement
from each major zone to the next represents the equivalent of a quantum shift
in how one perceives reality.
Dr. Oliver Markley proposes a gradient model of ascension that maps three profoundly
differing levels or zones. At the first level an individual's motivation is
primarily based upon a "win-lose" competition between "I and
it." Polar opposites are the norm. There is a defined good and an evil.
Relationships follow a pattern of domination and/or submission. At the second
level a proactive "win/win" collaboration between "I and Thou"
prevails. This strategy of conflict resolution has been researched under the
mathematics of game theory . The path to success is through the practice
of compassionate acceptance, cooperation and sharing. All polar opposites integrate
holistically. At the third level there exists a knowingness that we are a part
of a Unity Consciousness originating within an eternal now-ness -- beyond space
and time. One experiences a total awareness that no separation of self exists
and encounters a peace and love that passes understanding. At this level there
is a transcendence of all polar opposites including good and evil -- the ultimate
motivation resides in the One -- the Unity Consciousness.
Lets apply this gradient model of ascension to the issue of good and evil. We
will use the war in Iraq as a specific example. At the first level of ascendance,
we never get away from evil -- it is absolutely necessary for ascendance and
evolutionary transformation. It provides the rungs of a ladder on which we climb.
Our President perceives Iraq and Saddam as part of an "Axis of Evil."
Equally, the peace activists who indulge in violent protests against the evil
of President Bush's action are also participants at this first level of ascendance.
At the second level, however, evil becomes perceived as an integral part of
all that is, to be accepted with compassion, rather than resisted or merely
tolerated. Thus, evil is experienced as more of a negation of good rather than
an opposite. The goal is to address this negation of good through universal
law process established by consensus. Examples would be the United Nations Charter
and mutually agreed upon use of force and humanitarian actions. Peace activists
following the non-violent principles of Gandhi and Martin Luther King represent
examples of second level perceptions -- a move from confrontational activism
to interactive activism.
At the third and highest level, all is transcendentally "non-dual"
without consideration of hierarchical distinctions. The model assumes that there
are reliable spiritual paths to action through which the higher wisdom resident
in all of us can be accessed and used. These include sudden transitions such
as near death experiences. Such paths exist even though we experience our lives,
for the most part, at lower levels of ascension. The traditional concept of
performing the "right action" necessarily involves the making of judgments
regarding right vs. wrong and good vs. evil. This is appropriate at the lower
levels of ascension. However, the wisdom literature of the world is clear that
"right action" involves more than just that which is in conformity
with conventional ideas of right and wrong. It represents action that is in
harmony with Cosmic Law and the evolutionary flow of reality. These Cosmic Laws
are at the root of, and encompass, the physical laws of material and biological
science, ethics, logic, and esthetics -- they are invariant.
At level three one becomes a conscious participant in the co-creation process;
and with the underlying love that is at its core. The individual actions chosen
to address the Iraq situation might be meditations to facilitate a universal
field change for the highest good (a type of hundredth monkey effect), as well
as service actions based upon unconditional love. However, to individuals at
level one, actions originating at level two and three are found to be confusing,
ineffective or unrealistic. Yet, level three could well represent the maximum
possibility for affecting physical reality since it is closest to the creating
process and therefore the most efficient for producing change.
William C. Gough, FMBR Chairman of the Board
(Based upon the writings of Drs. Oliver Markley and Dean Brown.)