Marianne Williamson Speaking on the Occupy Movement

The Occupy movement is an international protest movement against social and economic inequality, its primary goal being to make the economic structure and power relations in society fairer. Different local groups have different foci, but among the prime concerns is the claim that large corporations and the global financial system control the world in a way that disproportionately benefits a minority, undermines democracy and is unstable.

Occupy Wall Street was initiated by the Canadian activist group Adbusters, and partly inspired by the Arab Spring, especially Cairo’s Tahrir Square protests, and the Spanish Indignants. The movement commonly uses the slogan We are the 99%, the #Occupy hashtag format, and organizes through websites such as Occupy Together. According to the Washington Post, the movement, which has been described as a “democratic awakening” by Cornel West, is difficult to distill to a few demands. On October 12, the Los Angeles City Council became one of the first governmental bodies in the United States to adopt a resolution stating its informal support of the Occupy movement.

The first Occupy protest to receive wide coverage was Occupy Wall Street in New York City’s Zuccotti Park, which began on September 17, 2011. By October 9, Occupy protests had taken place or were ongoing in over 95 cities across 82 countries, and over 600 communities in the United States. Although most popular in the United States, Occupy has seen protests and occupations in dozens of other countries and on every continent. Each Occupy site set up a camp – including tents and outdoor kitchens – in a park or other public space, often near the city or town’s financial district, to establish a semi-permanent protest area.

For the first two months of the protest, authorities largely adopted a tolerant approach towards the movement, though this began to change in mid November with over a dozen camps being cleared in both the US and Europe. By the end of 2011 authorities had cleared out most of the major camps. The last remaining high profile camps – at Washington DC and at St Paul’s Cathedral in London – were cleared in February 2012. Yet protesters at many locations continue to organize and stage demonstrations.

The Occupy movement attracted less attention in the winter of 2011 compared with autumn, as participation and activity dropped. By February 2012 several journalists began suggesting that the movement was beginning to fade away, though this was frequently denied by occupiers themselves, who said that they had merely entered a less visible planning stage. By mid-March activity began to increase, with Occupy activists staging high profile rallies and attempting to re-occupy their original camp in Zuccotti Park.
Source – Wikipedia

Marianne Williamson Speaking About the Occupy Movement, Berkeley, CA November 2011

The Awakening Human Being: A Guide to the Power of Mind by Barbara Berger

Introduction to The Awakening Human Being – A Guide to the Power of Mind
by Barbara Berger

Ask yourself what is actually preventing you from being happy right now, right this very moment? If you are honest with yourself, you will probably say it’s because you don’t have what you want. You will probably say that the only thing that is preventing you from being happy right now is wanting something you don’t have. This could be better health, a partner who’s more understanding, more money in the bank, or a nicer apartment, or a million and one other things. But whatever it is, it’s something you don’t have at this very moment in time. And this is what’s making you unhappy right now. Isn’t this true?

Isn’t it true that you’re unhappy right now because you feel there is something you are lacking? What else could possibly make you unhappy at this very moment? It can only be the thought of what you don’t have. Because what else is there? You are sitting here right now, reading this book. And what’s wrong with that? The only thing that can be wrong with this moment is your own dissatisfaction with what is. It has to be this because there is absolutely nothing else is going on.

And this brings us to the crux of the matter which is all our experience – every single experience we are having – is just a thought in our minds. There is reality, in other words what is, and then there are your thoughts about what is going on – and this is your experience. That’s all that is going on. You’re sitting here, reading this book. Nothing else is happening. And you’re either liking what’s going on or you’re not liking it. And that’s always the case and this is always true for all of us. We live and things happen and then we think some experiences are good and other experiences are bad or at least less good. We live and things happen and then we think the experiences, events and people live up to our expectations or they don’t. And that’s what we get to live, that’s our experience. It’s as simple as that. There is nothing else going on.

It’s all just thoughts in our minds. Always. All the time.

Just look at your own experience. Either you are thinking you like something or you are thinking you dislike it. And that’s about it. The situations in themselves, the specific events, circumstances and people are just what they are. In and of themselves, they have no inherent value. We can like them or we don’t but they’re still just what they are. Our preferences don’t really have much to do with it at all. Life is unfolding before us, for us, and everything we see, hear, touch, taste are just the happenings of being alive. It’s our preferences that make us happy or sad.

The truth of the matter is there is reality… and then there’s our thinking. And these are two different things.

Now I know this is very radical stuff but it’s true nevertheless. And this brings us to the startling conclusion that you and I can lead happy lives regardless of our circumstances, regardless of what we have or don’t have. Because when we drop our interpretation of events, we find ourselves living here and now in this present moment. And that’s about it. With no stories, no comparisons, no expectations, life just is and we are just here. And what could possibly be wrong with that? And so we find, to our great and eternal delight, that at this very moment, when we drop our stories and beliefs and stand quietly in the now, we’re quite happy! We find that right this very moment everything is ok. And that strangely enough, happiness is what we are. Happiness is our nature, our natural state.

So now you understand why this whole book and all my other books are about the nature of consciousness and the mechanics of how our minds work. Because it is here you will find the key to your own happiness, the key which will set you free – regardless of your circumstances. So read the material in this book carefully and contemplate it every single day of your life.

If we can see and understand the mechanics of consciousness and the way the mind works and how this shapes our lives, we will find the key we’ve been looking for. And it’s not a mystery. Understanding the way the mind works is a matter of impersonal law. It’s something everyone can observe. And this means it’s something you can observe and test for yourself. So check out the things I write about in this book and see for yourself if they are true or not.

View Here to listen to the Radio interview

Sydney Peace Prize

Give Mother Earth A Chance

30 Nov 2010, 11:00

“If commerce starts to undermine life support, then commerce must stop, because life has to carry on.” This is the central premise Dr Vandana Shiva’s passionate address for the 2010 City of Sydney Peace Prize Lecture, in which she lambasts global corporations for waging war against nature in the name of profits.

Shiva argues that when commonly used agricultural herbicides have names like “Round Up”, “Squadron”, “Avenge”, one can see there is war being waged against nature…and the humans are winning at the cost of their own future. To Vandana Shiva, fighting for peace for ‘Mother Earth’ is the broadest peace movement we can engage in.

She calls for a form of ‘Earth Democracy’, that re-imagines the biosphere as a citizen, that has universal rights that need protecting and defending.

Dr Vandana Shiva is speaking at the Sydney Opera House for the City of Sydney Peace Prize.

The Sydney Peace Prize was established by the Sydney Peace Foundation in 1998. Each year a prize is awarded to an organisation or individual who has made significant contributions to global peace. Previous winners include Patrick Dodson, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Mary Robinson, Arundhati Roy, Hans Blix and more.

Dr Vandana Shiva is a physicist, environmental activist, author and eco-feminist. As a physicist she trained at the University of Western Ontario and specialised in Quantum Theory. As an environmental activist she has worked for campaigns that focus on the issues of bio-piracy, genetic engineering, sustainable agriculture, intellectual property rights and biodiversity. She has written many books on environmental issues including “The Violence of Green Revolution”, “Bio-piracy: the Plunder of Nature and Knowledge”, “Water, Wars: Privatization, Pollution and Profit”, “Earth Democracy: Justice, Sustainability and Peace” and her most recent book “Soil Not Oil” released in 2008. In 1991, Shiva established “Navdanya” a food security movement based in over 16 states in India, it aims to empower farmers to protect their economic livelihoods and natural resources, especially native seeds. Shiva has been awarded several awards for her efforts including the Right Livelihood Award and the United Nations Environment Program [UNEP] Global 500 Award in 1993, and most recently the 2010 City of Sydney Peace Prize.

Vandana Shiva has been recognised for her work on the empowerment of women in developing countries, her advocacy of the human rights of small farming communities, and her scientific analysis of environmental sustainability.

Vandana is founder of the Navdanya movement and the Bija Vidyapeeth learning centre in India, recognized as a school of the future.

Sydney Peace Foundation director, Professor Stuart Rees, said Dr Shiva was an inspiring recipient of the award. “Many communities are threatened by the consequences of global warming, yet in Australia the movement to address this issue has gone to sleep,” he said. “Vandana’s presence in Sydney in November should wake them up.”

Other distinguished recipients of Australia’s only international prize for peace have included previous Nobel recipients Professor Muhammad Yunus, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and Aboriginal leader Patrick Dodson.

Mary Kostakidis, chair of the Sydney Peace Foundation, said governments around the world sought Dr Shiva’s counsel on issues of sustainable development. “Vandana Shiva’s work highlights the fundamental connection between human rights and the protection of the environment,” Ms Kostakidis said. “She offers solutions to some of the most critical problems posed by the effects of globalisation and climate change on the poorest and most populous nations.”

Emissary of Love The Psychic Children Speak to the World ~James Twyman

James Twyman travels around the world singing his songs of peace and harmony to people of all races, cultures, and beliefs. Inspired by the life of St. Francis of Assisi, he has been to every war-torn country in the world, often at great personal risk. But this is the story of a different kind of journey.

One night, while giving a talk in a private home in San Francisco, Twyman met a ten-year-old boy. When the boy touched Twyman’s finger, suddenly Twyman could bend spoons with the power of his mind, could read thoughts, and could transmit images to others. Yet, later, no one who had been in the room could remember seeing the child!

The boy had said his name was Marco, and that other special children like him could be found in a monastery in the mountains of Bulgaria. Without knowing who or where they were, or how he would find them, Jimmy Twyman began an extraordinary journey to find Marco and the psychic children. In the process, he learned that the children had a message for all the world-and learned, too, that he was the one to deliver that message.

This is that message.

“The Indigo Evolution” is a documentary that attempts to answer the question – Are these ‘Indigos’ only the fanciful notions of a few individuals embracing new-age, metaphysical beliefs, or is there real evidence that they truly do exist? Most importantly, why are they here and how can we help them achieve their goal of creating a world based upon the laws of compassion and peace? Interviews with some of the most profound children on the planet today combined with discussions with authorities in the fields of medicine, psychology, education, philosophy, and religion will provide information for the viewer to draw their own conclusions to these questions.

‘The Indigo Evolution‘ is a documentary about the shifting human, evolving beyond the five sensory perceptions into a multi-sensory being of light ! The term Indigo refers to the Indigo color Aura seen around certain individuals who exhibit certain enhanced abilities well beyond their age and learning. Commonly labeled as suffering from some kind of deficit (ADD, ADHD, Dyslexia …) these children clearly have more of something most of us fail to recognize. Their non conformance to authority and the social conditioning sometimes earns them the label of being problem children.

Indigo Evolution, a feature-length documentary by James Twyman, was released Jan. 28, 2006 in more than 350 churches and wellness and spiritual centers around the world. The attendance far exceeded expectations, demonstrating how interest in understanding the “Indigo phenomenon” has grown. Indigo Evolution illuminates the lives of children who are referred to as “Indigos.” The movie describes them as creative, eccentric and independent. Impatient with the status quo, these children possess a high degree of integrity and intuition. Many are both intelligent and gifted, often in the areas of art and technology, and some are said to bring healing gifts.

According to Indigo Evolution, Indigos often sound very wise for their age; however, they are very sensitive physically, emotionally and spiritually, and not always comfortable in their own bodies. They easily experience sensory overload to lights, smells, sounds, touching and toxins, and need help in becoming grounded. Many Indigos have attention and social problems in school and may frequently correct the teacher. While their behaviors vary, their philosophy of life is consistent; they have a high level of social consciousness and desire to make the world a better place. They are here to bring the Dawn of the Golden Age!

Hopi Elders reveal ancient prophecies:
After the premiere test screening of “The Indigo Evolution”, the Hopi nation contacted James Twyman, and told him that they were willing to reveal their ancient and guarded secrets about the children of the planet in this movie. The new section containing interviews with Hopi elders about their ancient prophesies and how they relate to the Indigos was added to the documentary. Their message was astounding, and has now become the central theme for the entire film. The Hopi elders shared that it is not too late to reverse the tide of earth cleansing, but only if we come together, and the children have a critical role to play.

About the Filmmakers:
James Twyman (Producer / Director) is a singer/songwriter and the author of “Emissary of Love-The Psychic Children Speak” and “Messages from Thomas: Raising Psychic Children.” James wrote and was the Executive Producer for the movie INDIGO which premiered in January 2005.

Stephen Simon (Executive Producer) has produced such films as “Somewhere in Time” and “What Dreams May Come” and is the author of “The Force is With You: Mystical Movie Messages That Inspire Our Lives.”

Kent Romney – (Co-Producer / Co-Director) This is Kent’s first feature documentary as a Director and Producer. In recent years, traveling to distant lands and cultures of our world, he worked on production teams that created film and television projects shown on The Discovery Channel, National Geographic, ABC Primetime and other broadcast networks. As a filmmaker, he creates video and film projects reflecting his interests in adventure travel, social topics, cultural issues and spiritual growth.

Doreen Virtue – (Associate Producer) holds M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in counseling psychology, is the author of more than 20 books about angels, chakras, Crystal Children, Indigo Children, health and diet, and other mind-body-spirit issues. She is recognized as an expert in the area of Indigo Children and her books on the subject include “The Care and Feeding of Indigo Children” and “The Crystal Children.”

How to get out of this world alive: The Ultimate Self Empowerment Handbook ~ Alain Forget

How to Get Out of this World Alive Alain Forget, a French philosopher working within the non-dualistic tradition, has developed a remarkably practical and rapid method that can usher in a more conscious life, liberated from fear and anxiety. This method, the 4Ds, which he presents in his forthcoming book, How To Get Out of this World Alive, dismantles the illusory guilt-generating foundations on which the sense of identity is built. As he has repeatedly demonstrated to his own students, it is only if the individual dismantles these mechanisms that he can move from making unconscious losing choices to making conscious winning choices.

The 4Ds is designed to send the student towards the deepest parts of himself. It is paradoxically by going to these depths that consciousness can raise itself, revealing the individual’s talents and his ability to make them manifest. Only if the individual can connect to a richer, happier and more abundant life can he surrender to a process of metaphysical enquiry that can, in turn, trigger awakening. This is the unconditioned freedom that the awakened Teachers of the great philosophic and religious traditions have been discussing for millennia.

Alain Forget ‘How To Get Out Of This World ALIVE’ Interview by Iain McNay

Author of the book ‘How To Get Out Of This World ALIVE’ Alain talks about his awakening in Chartres Cathedral when he was 25: ‘It is nothing else but our natural state, always there but masked by our psychological entity.’ He worked for many year to integrate the awakening and has now created a system, The 4 D’s. DISTANCING; DISCERNMENT; DIS-IDENTIFICATION; DISCRIMINATION

About Alain Forget

Awakening occurred one winter’s afternoon in the half-light of the 12th century Gothic cathedral of Chartres. In the winter of 1977-1978, I used to travel to this beautiful medieval town that lies about an hour away from Paris where I would settle down to read certain metaphysical texts. I would then meditate for an hour and return home.

3 Keys to Living the Life You Want ~ Dr. Jean Houston

As I travel around the globe speaking and training, I have consistently found that most people ask me the same question, “How do I discover my purpose in life?” In the past, who you became was determined by your family and circumstances. You didn’t have much choice. But now there is an open moment in history where you have the chance to tap into the soul of your purpose.

Millions of people right now are experiencing a yearning and desire to awaken to their unique gifts and offer them in service to the world — while living a life of joy and fulfillment. It’s a surging of the human spirit, a virtual global awakening, at a scale that no one has ever seen before. Simply put, people are longing to finally feel fully alive and to fulfill their unique purpose in life.

So then why is living a life of meaning and purpose so difficult? It is because our current social systems have not been set up to prepare us to live a life of true purpose. That’s because today’s culture exists not to nurture our highest aspirations, but to ensure our basic survival. Our educational system is designed to create good workers who will slot into jobs and careers later in life — not to empower fiery, creative people who are forging the path ahead together. Our social contracts exist to perpetuate the status quo — not to encourage our highest potentials to blossom. Is it any wonder why so many people’s best attempts to evolve themselves and our culture fall short of the goal? We simply haven’t been trained in how to bring the possible future into the present.

It’s not that they don’t have the talent or interest to live a purposeful, meaningful life. The issue is far simpler. People struggle to activate their “purpose code” because they haven’t woken up to — or are only partially awake to — our situation as a human race. Most people hold on to old, limiting beliefs of themselves and our human story. Overwhelmed by all the changes in the world around them, most people live their lives within a “small story” and therefore confine themselves to a “small self.” That’s why so many people feel that they don’t have a purpose, or that they aren’t able to actually live the life they were born to live.

There is a saying that “What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.” I believe that it is butterfly time. Just as the guidance cells in the mush that is the caterpillar in its cocoon suddenly begin to activate the transformation of mush into butterfly, so too this is the time when we realize that the guidance or imaginal cells of our bodies, our communities, and, yes, even of the cells of our planet are calling us to come together in all our parts to form something gorgeous, interdependent, living lightly on the earth, cross pollinating cultures, ideas, spiritual forms, glowing with the light that suffuses us, becoming transparent to transcendence. And to rise out of the mush we have been caught in these many hundreds of years and to take flight in the air of the new story which is emerging in our time.

For the fields we traverse, the many flowers of mind states and soul knowings we now enter are those that belong to the whole earth, to many cultures, to what I am calling “PanGaia.” And as the butterfly pollinates and cross pollinates from place to place, flower to flower, so do we also if we have the will and the willingness to discover our purpose and be part of this extraordinary moment in time.

Three Keys to Empowering New Beliefs

The first key to activating your life’s purpose is to hold new beliefs about yourself and about your role in the great story of where humanity is headed.

Living a great life requires that you understand the challenges and opportunities of our moment in history. To understand this for myself, I’ve gathered information from my work in over 100 countries and 40 different cultures, and what I’ve discovered has served as a sure guide on my path. Specifically, I have found five great shifts in our understanding of the story of our time that are affecting everything we do today. I believe that awakening to the power of these shifts will help you cultivate your sense of compassion and of the infinite possibilities of this moment.

The Five Shifts Are:

1. Our understanding of who and what we are and what we need to become in order to be able to deal with the complexity of our time is evolving.

2. Human societies are in the process of re-patterning. Social constructs are dissolving and whole new stories are trying to emerge, such as the rise of women to a full partnership with men across the globe, and many others.

3. How we conduct business and governance is shifting in the midst of vast ecological and financial changes. This is perhaps the most important social event of the last 5,000 years, because these issues impact almost everything in our lives.

4. The rise and fusion of different cultures — we are swiftly moving toward a planetary civilization that accentuates the uniqueness of each culture while blending them together. Think of the great fusions of food, of music and of beliefs.

5. Whole new orders of spirituality are emerging that are not about religion. The new cosmologies are giving us a view of ourselves that we never had before. For the first time ever, we find that we don’t just live in the universe, but that the universe lives in us.

6. This journey begins by letting go of old beliefs and patterns to make room for the new beliefs and capacities that will empower you to awaken to and live your higher purpose.

The second key allows you to discover and realize the vast field of inner intelligences — using multiple means of knowing and being in order to gain insight into life at a level to which most people rarely have access. These skills are to be found on four levels of your human capacity, sensory-physical, psychological-emotional, mythic-symbolic and unitive-spiritual. As you learn how to utilize the extraordinary capacities to be found at each of these levels, you literally move into new ways of being. For example, you will learn how to play with time in such a way as to take five minutes and experience it internally as hours — these are “hours” you can use to develop a skill or move a project forward.

You will learn to access “inner experts” — willing helpers or personas that will help you navigate the complexity of life with elegance and confidence.

The third key gives you the means to break free from unconscious, habitual ways of reacting to life that were born thousands of years ago, and embrace higher ways of being for a new era. You will discover ways to move through life with ebullience in your bones and an appetite for celebration — seeing everything as an expression of the creator. You will move through life, motivated not by guilt or obligation, but by gratitude and an abiding zest for doing the things that are called forth by living out of your higher purpose.

Dr. Jean Houston is presenting a free 75-minute downloadable audio seminar titled “3 Keys to Discovering and Living Your True Purpose Available Now” at www.DestinyandYou.com.

Dr. Jean Houston is a scholar, philosopher and one of the foremost visionary thinkers and doers of our time. She is considered one of the principal founders of the Human Potential Movement. A powerful and dynamic speaker, she has served as consultant to several agencies of United Nations, including UNICEF and the UNDP. She has worked in more than 100 countries training leadership at every level to enhance skills and purpose so as to bring a new mind to bear upon challenging issues. A prolific writer and author of 26 books, including “A Passion for the Possible and The Mythic Life,” Dr. Houston has recently joined the faculty of Evolving Wisdom, today’s fastest growing global e-learning company specializing in transformative education, to provide her wisdom online in a cutting edge format. www.DestinyandYou.com.