Terence Kemp McKenna was a modern philosopher, whose main interest was psychedelics and their role in society and existence beyond the physical body.
Terence teaches us to think for ourselves and to enjoy every moment of our lives.
Terence made people realize how we can enjoy our lives at it’s full capacity by enjoying every little thing that happens through our everyday life. “What blinds us, or what makes historical progress very difficult, is our lack of awareness of our ignorance.” – Terence McKenna
“The world is like a ride in an amusement park, and when you choose to go on it you think it’s real because that’s how powerful our minds are.
The ride goes up and down, around and around, it has thrills and chills, and it’s very brightly colored, and it’s very loud, and it’s fun for a while.
Many people have been on the ride a long time, and they begin to wonder, “Hey, is this real, or is this just a ride?”
And other people have remembered, and they come back to us and say, “Hey, don’t worry; don’t be afraid, ever, because this is just a ride.”
And we … kill those people. “Shut him up! I’ve got a lot invested in this ride, shut him up! Look at my furrows of worry, look at my big bank account, and my family. This has to be real.” It’s just a ride.
But we always kill the good guys who try and tell us that, you ever notice that? And let the demons run amok … But it doesn’t matter, because it’s just a ride.
And we can change it any time we want. It’s only a choice. No effort, no work, no job, no savings of money. Just a simple choice, right now, between fear and love.
The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your doors, buy guns, close yourself off. The eyes of love instead see all of us as one.
Here’s what we can do to change the world, right now, to a better ride.
Take all that money we spend on weapons and defenses each year and instead spend it feeding and clothing and educating the poor of the world, which it would pay for many times over, not one human being excluded, and we could explore space, together, both inner and outer, forever, in peace.”
“All the left brain thinking and figuring out, can’t ever replace the shear mystery of being alive”
With poetic flair, author John Marshall Roberts tells the history of human thinking from the caveman days forward. In so doing he links more than 4 decades of data driven developmental psychology research (based upon the work of Clare W. Graves) to the dramatic narrative of human evolution.
Astonishing video by Jean Russell aka @nurturegirl capturing the essence and importance of why we must create a ‘thrivable’ future.
Transcript
Introduction
Jean Russell, Founder of Thrivable
There’s all this talk about breakdown when actually there’s also a breakthrough happening at the same time. It’s a thrivable world that emerges even as this old industrial order collapses. We’re making a world that works; that promises for more people better opportunities; and creates better futures for individuals, communities, organizations, and our whole collective. That old order? It’s destabilizing and there’s more and more uncertainty. We don’t really know what to do. All this stuff is happening at faster and faster rates but it’s also connecting people, ideas, and actions. We play in new possibilities, and that makes room for serendipity. Something else is emerging: a thrivable world.
From Stories to Action
The story that we’re telling ourselves? It’s really crucial. What we tell, the stories that we tell about ourselves, they determine the actions that we think work, what we think is possible. If we tell ourselves stories about breakdown, we start to limit what we think might be possible. What happens when we say, “What’s the future that we want to create? How can we co-create that?” and then open our possibilities to make that happen? The stories of collapse aren’t making this new world. We have to speak our thriving into being and create stories of this emerging world.
The Human Mind: Our Social Wiring
There are several key aspects of this emerging world. The first one I want to talk about is: how do our brains really work? Who are we? There’s a whole bunch of brain science showing up to tell us what we’re motivated by, what makes us happy. It turns out we’re actually predictably irrational instead of that rational, self-interested actor that economics tells us we are. And we’re easily nudged and swayed to do different things. This is really self-empowering for us because it brings an element of self-awareness to how humans work that enables something new to emerge. We need to think of ourselves as not so much wired for self-interest – which is true, we are that – but we are also wired to connect and share.
Marcia Shenk, Business Anthropologist: A neuroscientist would say to you, “The human brain is wired, organized, completely triggered for sociality.” What they mean by that is that a little force we call emotions keeps us oriented to other people and what we are doing with other people. As the research gets richer and deeper – it’s happening right now as we’re speaking – they’re discovering, for example, that one of the major pleasure centers in the brain (as powerful as sex and chocolate) is the pleasure that comes from contributing to another human being.
Network Organisms: The Me/We Dynamic
Another key aspect of the thrivable world that is emerging right now is the shift in group dynamics, or our social structures. We’ve come through a period where we’ve treated those things in a very mechanistic fashion. There are pyramidal structures. Leaders are dictating orders to the people below. We’re shifting to an open network or an open culture in which people organically come together. They serve each others’ needs and their own. They produce things together. This is really exciting. We see things like Wikipedia, and we have new group processes like wikis. I call this the great rebalancing of the “me/we dynamic.” The way that we handle this is really crucial to being able to increase network health and individual health in a way that’s going to open up more and more possibilities for a thrivable world.
Rachel Botsman, Author and Social Innovator: I actually think this is driven by self-interest, and that sharing is the new self-interest. What’s happening is we’re actually finding this common ground where self-interest can meet collective-interest. It’s utopian to believe that most of the world are going to put collective-interest before self-interest. It’s just not the way we’re wired. It’s ok if people go into these things because they’re better – they’re more convenient, they’re offering more choice, they can make money, they can save money — but it benefits the whole. That actually becomes a sustainable economy.
Ward Cunningham, Inventor of the Wiki: A collaboration among possibly strangers that, self organized, produces something of surprising value… Some people might say, “We’re going to have a meeting in real space. This is going to be a wiki-style meeting. We’re going to plan what we’re going to do on the day we meet with the people that we have.” And they turn out to be very good. What they’re really saying is, “We bring something and we know we do. We’re willing to share. We’ll dynamically organize. We’ll organize our efforts by paying attention to each others’ needs, and [by] bringing hope but not necessarily too many preconceived notions about where this is heading. And at the end of the day we’ll have something we can be proud of.
Metrics Matter: Feedback for Behavior Change
So the next key aspect of creating this thrivable world is about seeing ourselves: how do we get the information that we need in order to adjust the behaviors that we’ve got? We’ve got to be able to know where we are. There are all of these breakthroughs in data visualization, and metrics and feedback loops, that allow us to know what we’re doing. We’ve moved away from GDP and measures of the economy towards Gross National Happiness. And we’re even creating games that give us immediate feedback so that we can adjust our behaviors. That opens up room for us to change our course and create the thrivable world we want.
Kevin Kelly, Founding Editor, Wired Magazine: The main event happening is that we’re becoming more pluralistic in how money is made. There’s no longer a single business model for whatever industry. There are multiple business models. Mom and pop stores will never go away – they’ll remain as a way to make money – but every other possible way of running a business is still out there. We’re inventing newer and newer ways of having a business. When we look to the future, what we want to imagine is not that there’s a single way of doing it but that we’re going to continue to increase the variety of ways of having and doing a business. Increasing the variety of ways in which the economy is organized. Increasing the variety of ways in which things are monetized. Increasing the variety of ways in which things are demonetized. All those things are happening. I think that gives us great hope and we should look forward to that, because its means there are more possibilities for more choice and freedom for all of us.
In Sum
Together, we can create a great world that works. First we have to tell ourselves stories about a world that we want. Stories of possibility. Then we have to have faith in how people are connected. We’re wired to be empathic and altruistic. We want to care and share. Next, give people an opportunity to be a contribution to something larger than themselves. Form network organisms of purpose. Lastly, design data visualization and metrics and feedback loops so we can see themselves. Have fun in that process. Invite play. Make games. Together, we can co-create a world that works.
I heard the poem, “Pursue your Passion” by Kirk Nugent. I was so impressed by this marvelous piece of work, I thought I would share it with you. Enjoy!
PURSUE YOUR PASSION (Kirk Nugent)
This is your life,
Your purpose on this Earth is not to please me.
Nor is it to fulfill your parents unrealized dreams.
You were not placed here to make concessions so that they could be proud,
So they could brag about their seed,
Fulfill some unfulfilled childhood emotional need
Let them be proud of their very own deeds
This is your life!
I came to shine light into the dark
And like a dog against a hydrant, I am leaving my mark!
We were not sent here to invest in someone else’s idea of what we should be
The complacent life does not stimulate me.
So forgive me if I feel no compassion
For those poor souls who live to follow the fashion.
Because if you want to live a life that’s neither limited nor ration,
Then by God you must pursue your passion.
They will tell you that it can’t be done
As though you were delivered unto this world for your song to go unsung.
Let the world scream that unattainable theme
But for you, there is no such thing as an impossible dream.
Ain’t no mystery, check the history
Examine the life of Oprah Winfrey,
Muhammad Ali, Mahatma Gandhi.
Remember what they told Walt Disney?
They said, “Young man you must be blind
You must have lost your rodent loving mind!
No one would ever pay to be entertained by a mouse
Or anything of that kind.”
Now Disney is worth more than everyone in this room…combined!
Pursue your passion!
Steven Spielberg was kicked out of the University of Southern California
Film School because his grades weren’t good enough.
Pursue your passion!
Russell Simmons refused to sign Madonna
Because he thought she had no talent.
Pursue your passion!
Brandy’s teacher told her she was too ugly to be an actress.
Pursue your passion!
Bill Cosby used to shine shoes in front of Temple University.
Pursue your passion!
Michael Jordan was benched on his basketball team in High school
Pursue your passion!
Larry Bird was benched his entire freshman year of college.
Pursue your passion!
Here is proof that greatness is born out of zero doubt
In 1962 Decca Records dismissed four young musicians
Told them that groups with guitars were on their way out.
They left without a contract
But refused to walk on pins and needles
Months later they released their first album
And called themselves, “The Beatles”
Pursue your passion!
Colonel Sanders was 65 when he fried his first piece of chicken,
Made millions after he convinced us that it was finger lickin’.
Pursue your passion!
Lauren Hill was booed at the Apollo
Pursue your passion!
Luther Vandross was booed off the Apollo
Not once, not twice, but three times!
You’ve got to keep coming back ladies and gentlemen.
Forget the limitations set by your fellow man,
Because when you pursue your passion,
Provision will be provided for your plan!
Let others lead small lives, but not you.
Let others be satisfied with the crumbs, but not you.
Let others sit around and be chronic complainers, but not you.
Let others be volunteers victims, but not you!
Let others be imprisoned by their fears, but not you.
Let others use their race, their gender,
Their sexual orientation as a crutch, but not you.
Let others be concerned about what the neighbors
Might think, say or do. but this is not for you!
Leave that for the politicians, the governors,
Start caring about other people’s opinion
And you’ll become their prisoner.
This is about a lifestyle that uniquely fits.
Life is God’s gift to you,
Style is what you make out of it.
Whatever you’re passionate about, the perfection of that craft can be learned
So with the obstacles of this world be not concerned
Because if you set yourself on fire
The world will come watch you burn.
So now that you know that impossible is a word
Found in the dictionary of fools.
What are you going to do?
What are you going to do with the rest of your life?
What two things do you want said about you when you die?
I never listened to what the pessimists are telling me
Because I know that the richest place on the planet is the cemetery.
There you will find books that were never written,
Loved ones that were never forgiven,
Ideas that were smitten
And dreams that were forbidden.
Soil that was never tilled, cathedrals that were never built!
Restaurants that were never opened
Chefs that never knew they were smoking.
Paintings that were never drawn nor hung,
Songs that were neither composed nor sung
Souls that never acted on what they really wanted to do
So don’t you dare die with your greatness buried within you!
The sperm that fertilized your egg
Survived the odds of 400 million to one.
Get it? Your sperm won!
As long as you live, you will never face such dramatic odds,
Now tell me that ain’t proof you’re favored by God.
You’re greater than any obstacle that can make you hysterical
So don’t you dare leave without your miracle.
It’s all an illusion, don’t you invest in their lies
Their forecast of economic woes and financial demise.
The Universe has an infinite supply, so no need to lie when I testify
That regardless of the economy, you cannot be denied!
It matters not if they raise the terrorist threat level
To hot pink, burgundy or fuchsia
You were born to control your future!
Don’t let ‘em fool you.
You were born to win, destined to be great
Magnificence was chiseled into your heart,
When God made you he was just showing off!
Discover your divine assignment and you’ll have no reason to retreat
Discover your passion and you’ll laugh in the face of defeat.
Indifferent to the pressures felt and you do not buckle like a belt.
Declare today that you refuse to lose
Because you can either live your dreams,
Or you can live your excuse!
So even when I’m old and grey,
I’ll still be commanding the stage,
Words still be smoking off the page.
So understand…this ain’t no phase!
Because everyday I learn a new lesson,
My best poem has yet to be written
And I’m not leaving until what I came to give has been given.
99 on the mic and I’ll still be spittin’ Still be rippin’
Still be giving, Still be driven So let my tombstone read:
Here lies Kirk and he died…LIVING
In 1997, one visionary young man, Efren Peñaflorida Jr., came up with an answer to the problem of educating underprivileged children. He was only 16 years old when inspiration struck. Having lived in a garbage dump in his early days, He knew too well the painful trials, fears, and perils of destitution. Now his Dynamic Teen Company offers an alternative to gangs through education.
Montage of Football for Hope Centre for Esperance in Kimisagara. Esperance are a local Football team that use the sport for youth development in relation to conflict resolution.
Just imagine. You do a favor that really helps someone and tell him or her not to pay it back, but to pay it forward to three other people who, in turn each pay it forward to three more – and on and on into a global outpouring of kindness and decency. Impossible? Junior high student Trevor McKinney won’t accept that.
