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Daniel Pinchbeck. Photo: Herwig Maurer (CC)

I wonder if this essay by Daniel Pinchbeck will, years hence, be looked upon as a seminal point in the transition of the “consciousness” movement, for lack of a better term, from an idealistic remove from the mainstream a la Burning Man (which of course is completely unsustainable despite it’s worthy goals), to a pragmatic vision of how to change the world. From his Reality Sandwich blog:

Now that the Evolver network and brand have established themselves to a certain extent, I want to look ahead to developments I hope to see in the near future, with this organization and other initiatives. For the next phase of development, I propose the term “business shamanism.” “Corporate alchemy” would be a viable alternative.

First, some context: As I write this, the ruling regime in our rotten republic of Obama-stan is seeking to ignore the pain of the sheeple and extend lavish tax breaks for the wealthy.The financial elite engineered a massive transfer of assets over the last decades, and they are now completing the procedure of creating a two-tier society resembling a serfdom. Champagne glasses are no doubt clinking in fancy hotel rooms and private clubs to celebrate the selling out of the people, as the unemployed and dispossessed roam the streets. We witness, as spectacle,the slow-motion dismantling of the American republic — though nobody can say how the story will play out this time.

We tend to forget that Roosevelt’s New Deal was not a good-hearted gift to the working classes but a compromise to stave off mass uprising. The current oligarchy has determined that it will make no such deal this time around. I suspect they assume that the pulverizing of the populace with mind-numbing media, psychotropic drugs, police state tactics, and poison food had the desired effect. And they may be right.

From the viewpoint of those seeking a deeper level of transformation, however, the political gridlock, social polarization, and extremism of the right wing are all positive signs. The increasing rigidity of the system suggests it is soon going to crack. Perhaps the spirit of insurrection and liberty will reawaken in the people as it does so. But perhaps not.

We don’t know when or if we will reach the critical threshold where a current of rebellion becomes a wave and then a mass movement…

[continues at Reality Sandwich]

The film opens in New York this weekend. Apologies if you don’t live in the area – we will soon offer video on demand and DVDs for sale. You can also work with us to organize a screening where you live.

I apologize for this promotional outburst – the film is a true labor of love, intended to inspire people with new ideas and visions. If you would like to help spread the word, please send this info out to your friends and networks.

I believe it is really important that New Yorkers go and see this film and consider the ideas in it. We are seeking to compete in NYC without the level of marketing budget of Hollywood films. We are therefore counting on our extended community to recognize the importance of supporting a film that offers a counterculture message, presents clear solutions for contemporary crises, explores shamanism and ecological design, promotes consciousness, etc. This weekend is critical for us, as we need a strong attendance to get the film extended.

If you can send out an email to your friends, networks, and greater community today or tomorrow about our film this weekend, that would be extremely helpful. If you can bring friends with you to the film over the weekend, that would be most amazing. I will be there after the evening screenings and at other times.

It opens Friday at the AMC Loews Village 7 at 66 3rd Avenue (11th St). We will be having panels and Q & As with the filmmakers, subjects of the film, and other co-conspirators after the evening screenings. Check out our Facebook page for full info.

–Daniel

If you enjoyed my other work, I hope you will take the plunge and pre-order this new book before its official release on October 14. Apparently, in today’s anxious publishing climate, pre-orders from Amazon and other sites determine how much attention the publisher’s sales and marketing departments will give to a book. If you plan to pick up a copy of this book in any case, please pre-order it now so that Tarcher/Penguin, my publisher, gets behind it and gives it a push, thereby helping the ideas and initiatives I explore — the subjects we cover daily on Reality Sandwich and Evolver.net – to creep and slither deeper into the mainstream.

While the book is a collection of essays, organized chronologically, I believe that, taken in total, it makes a coherent argument. The antidote to the suicide system we have unleashed requires a systemic, whole systems approach, along with a new underlying paradigm on which to base our individual and collective actions. As the back cover quote states, “If our consumer-based, materialism-driven model of society is dissolving, what can we offer in its place? Why not begin with the most elevated intentions? Why not offer the most imaginatively fabulous systemic redesign?”

Notes from the Edge Times proposes that the new paradigm for the next epoch includes a reinvented financial system. We will reject the domination by one single form of money, controlled by a cabal of private banking interests, and adopt a range of currency instruments that support collaboration over competition. In many areas, we will take a design science approach to solve our current problems. We will also integrate a new understanding of the psyche and accept the existence of paranormal capabilities. I offer the thesis that our evolution as a species has shifted from the physical to the psychic level, and we could transition rapidly from a post-everything culture of information overload to a “Wisdom Age” where art has replaced money as the ruling value.

While scanning many indicators that our post-industrial civilization is hitting the skids and could collapse as resources become scarce, Notes from the Edge Times remains optimistic about the transformation. The book proposes that we can overcome cynicism and defeatism — forms of cultural programming — in order to participate creatively in our rapidly changing world.

Advance readers tell me that Notes from the Edge Times is my most accessible work, with the potential to reach both old and new audiences. I know, as well as anyone, how distracting our current culture is, and how difficult it is to separate out signal from noise. I believe my little book contains crucial new ideas and nuggets of information that will help people grasp our situation and prepare for what may soon come. I hope that you feel inspired to join me on this modest foray into the fringes of thought and the edge-realms of possibility.

[cross posted from Reality Sandwich]

Hancock’s evidence for a great lost civilisation wiped out in a global cataclysm 12,500 years ago is explored in depth together with his suggestion that the survivors of that civilisation may have sought to pass down a message to the future and indeed specifically to us in the twenty-first century — a warning that the next great lost civilisation may be our own. From the geology of the Sphinx and the Pyramids of Egypt to the mysteries of the Ark of the Covenant, from ancient maps showing the world as it looked during the last Ice Age to out-of-place artefacts indicative of high technology in ancient times, the discussion ranges widely across some of the most intriguing evidence for an immense forgotten episode in human history, and moves on to consider the spiritual crisis of the modern age. Could a new paradigm emerge from our present state of chaos? Hancock and Pinchbeck see hope in efforts by people all around the planet to reclaim sovereignty over their own consciousness, and identify a powerful role for shamanistic visionary plants such as Ayahuasca and Psilocybin in ushering in a gentler, less toxic, more nurturing state of mind. “It does seem like when you ingest them,” says Pinchbeck, “you get a lot of messages about how to reintegrate into the larger community of life.” For further information see http://www.realitysandwich.com/, and http://www.grahamhancock.com/. For Graham’s latest book see http://www.entangledthebook.com/.

In this video, the psychologist and author Stanislav Grof. Grof discusses with Daniel how psychedelics helped him create an expanded cartography for the psyche, with a new emphasis on what he calls the “paranatal” and transpersonal consciousness. We need to raise up from our self imposed biological cubicles, that is the next level of consciousness. Evolve to Solve!

Stanislav Grof, M.D., Ph.D., is a psychiatrist with over forty years experience of research into non-ordinary states of consciousness (induced by psychedelic substances and various non-drug techniques) and one of the founders and chief theoreticians of transpersonal psychology.

The full-length film “2012 Time for Change”, premiered last month in San Francisco at the Lumiere-Landmark. It projects a radical alternative to apocalyptic doom and gloom. Directed by Emmy Award nominee Joao Amorim, the film follows journalist Daniel Pinchbeck, author of the bestselling 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl, on a quest for a new paradigm that integrates the archaic wisdom of tribal cultures with the scientific method.

Daniel Pinchbeck has written two books (Breaking Open the Head, 2012 Return of Quetzalcoatl) and helped start both Reality Sandwich (the leading online magazine in consciousness culture) and Evolver.net. Evolver has now started to focus on building an actual social movement to produce real change in the world.

Joao Amorim has done a number of short animation films, such as the award winning short Don’t Get Charged Up. He also worked as the animation director on Chicago 10. 2012 Time For a Change is his first venture as director of a full length feature film.

The theatrical premiere of 2012 Time for a Change is going to be in San Francisco April 9–11 at the Lumiere Landmark Theatre, the same weekend as Greenfest. If you’re in the area, please do attend.

Master Shaman Vargas is a shaman in the tradition of the ancient Chavin civilization, one of the oldest of South America. The interview took place at the Chimbre Retreat Center in March of 2009. Vargas is the resident Shaman of the Chimbre Retreat Center, currently under construction in the jungle outside Puerto Maldonado, in southern Peru, where he leads Ayahuasca and Guachuma (San Pedro cactus) ceremonies for participants from all over the world.

Set to be completed in early Spring, the Chimbre Retreat Center will offer visitors the opportunity to participate in Ayahuasca and Guachuma rituals under the guidance of Maestro Jose Vargas in a pristine jungle setting.  

Join RS editorial director Daniel Pinchbeck at the inaugural Reality Sandwich Ayahuasca Retreat at Chimbre, featuring ceremonies led by Master Shaman Vargas, from April 22 to May 2nd.