THE CALL TO UNITE

As readers will be aware, the strapline of our webinar programme is One Mind, One Planet, One Health, a theme strongly reflected in both of these inspirational and prophetic books, respectively entitled 'voices of hope and awakening' and 'evolutionary visions and hope for the future.' This common theme of hope was also articulated by Jonathan Porritt in his webinar last year and in the title of his book Hope in Hell. Hope has to be enacted, ideals manifested in the world. The experience of the last year characterised in one contribution as being in the same storm rather than the same boat has served to reinforce the necessity of expanding our sense of belonging into what Alex Evans calls a Larger Us, which involves healing collective trauma and injustice as well as overcoming separation, divisions and polarisations.

In his foreword, Tim Shriver writes that we get belonging by giving it, becoming more whole in the process. In conceiving the event and book The Call to Unite, he asked how we can move from a culture that divides us to a culture that unites us, the choice at every crisis point: 'Divide or unite. Blaming the other or become the other.' He continues: 'We're tired of hostility. We're starving for unity. We're telling a new story of who we are. We are all connected as one people. We find joy in each other's joy. We find purpose in each other's happiness. We find belonging without excluding. We seek forgiveness through forgiving. We find our identity without othering. We feel called to unite.' This is a universal call that is now resonating through the planet in many forms, one of which is a trend towards empathy and kindness.

The Call to Unite consists of many short chapters and poignant photos in six parts: love in the madness – stories of the pandemic; pain always leaves a gift – insightful personal change; magic enters the room – stories and practices of transformation; no boundaries are real – seeing unity in humanity; our only chance to triumph – love in action; and finally, renew the face of the Earth – a call to love. Contributors speak from the heart and from their direct experience, which conveys many essential messages about life and living. In a conversation between physicist Alan Lightman and Oprah Winfrey, Lightman describes his mystical experience when he felt connected to all time, all life, and lost track of his ego. The lesson was to slow down, to live a less frenzied life and to reconnect with stillness. There are many examples of good people sacrificing for the common good, and Rick Warren observes that 'people respond with their best when the best is asked of them' - he himself starts and ends his day with refuelling his soul. Marianne Williamson focuses on the loveless way in which we have organised society over many decades, resulting in widespread mental distress. She writes that we were created to love each other, but only fierce love is up to the mark since 'a loveless world order will not give up its power easily.' (p. 39) Eckhart Tolle sees the possibility of awakening out of chaos, emphasising the centrality of our state of consciousness that needs to be rooted in being.

Dr Stefali Tsabary and Maria Shriver talk about the soul of the parent, describing how 'we have been fast-tracking children on this endless conveyor belt towards a false utopia of happiness and success, and it's failed. Children are not feeling successful. They're not feeling happy. They're feeling angst ridden. They are stressed out with record levels of anxiety, suicidality, and disconnection.' This linear track towards success is a toxic path of the ego driven by the projection of unmet needs of parents onto children and lacking any authentic contact with the depth dimension. In his last piece before his death, Sir Ken Robinson identifies a long-term crisis in our way of life and a lack of fulfilment. He draws fascinating parallels between industrial agriculture and our education system, both of which are based on yield and output, on the plant rather than cultivating the soil. He feels that humans flourish under certain conditions, and wither in others, and that school ethos or culture is the soil to tend with compassion, collaboration and empathy.

Scarlett Lewis writes that we can choose how we respond to life, 'and we can always respond with love: 'Nurturing, healing love actually translates into a powerful and profound formula that can lead us to choose love in any situation.' (p. 208) This is also likely to involve courage, gratitude and forgiveness in the spirit of service. The Dalai Lama encourages us to reach out to each other with compassion and that 'only by coming together in a coordinated global response will we meet the unprecedented magnitude of the challenges we face.' (p. 222) In the epilogue, Maria Shriver highlights unifying truths, that 'we are all seeking the same things. We're all seeking dignity. We're all seeking joy. We all want to be seen, to be valued, to be understood, to be loved. (p. 234) Space permits only a small sampling of the many treasures to be found in this book, which is an invaluable inspirational resource for our time - I urge you to read it.

Our Moment of Choice brings together 43 evolutionary leaders to reflect on a series of interconnected crises that threaten our very survival at a time when there are also signs of a global level shift in consciousness, whereby we can co-create 'a flourishing, life-affirming future.' The content was arranged in seven circles: bridge building, restoring ecological balance, conscious enterprise and social change, healing ourselves and the planet, integrating science and spirituality, new frontiers beyond space and time, and finally the big picture. The message of this book is also that we need to come together 'in a synergistic convergence of the worldwide network of interconnected humanity ushering in the next level of human consciousness.' Readers 'are an integral part of the collective field of love and healing that will generate a heart-centred future based on procreation, compassion, appreciation and cooperation.' (p. xv) Interestingly, this corresponds to a rebalancing of left and right hemisphere thinking as propounded by the seminal cultural work of Iain McGilchrist. He said in a lecture that the left hemisphere does not do empathy, while the Bulgarian sage Peter Deunov foresaw a shift of culture from mind to heart over 80 years ago.

Again, there are too many riches here to be able to give more than a few indications of the guidance, where each chapter is summarised by a spotlight and a call to action. Gregg Braden shows how we can change our story and hence our world from one of separation and fear to oneness and interconnectedness. John Perkins is one of the few contributors explicitly aware of global manipulation of opinion through a system based on war or the threat of war that ironically entails the destruction of the very resources upon which war depends. For him, this is 'a death economy, consuming itself into extinction.' (p. 76) He identifies the characteristics of this death economy, comparing it with a life economy perhaps best illustrated by the contrast between industrial and regenerative agriculture; the former involves suppressing biodiversity by killing life – pesticides, insecticides, herbicides, fungicides – where are the suffix 'cide' tellingly means to kill, as in suicide.

Larry and Barbie Dossey remind us of the metaphysical centrality of One Mind corresponding to One Life where a sense of connectedness leads to love, and love to caring: 'our existence is based on unity, connectedness and co-operation, not on separation, competition and rugged individuality as we have been taught. The act of caring arises naturally from these intrinsic relationships.' (p. 122) Justin Faerman writes about evolving our culture from breakdown to breakthrough, recommending that we mirror 'the pattern of the decentralised, self-organising systems that are at the heart of how nature operates and have been refined and tested over billions of years to produce life affirming outcomes at the planetary scale.' (p. 252) This is the opposite of mechanistic centralised control. He proposes sorting for deep self-healing and symbiosis at all levels, shifting from logic to intuitively driven thought and action, and fostering the development and expression of purpose at scale, noting that 75% of people have no sense of purpose. Robert Atkinson proposes a series of unifying principles to live while Ervin Laszlo identifies evolutionary trends oriented towards feeling, healing and consciousness. Barbara Marx Hubbard sees a crisis of birth that is giving rise to an invisible inner structure and a process of synergistic convergence. Elisabet Sahtouris provides the afterword in a letter to her great-granddaughter. She sees 'the transmutation of energy from anger and hate to love, from war to peace, from fierce competition to caring collaboration is a matter of maturation, of our growing up as human species. (p. 289)

Taken together, these books provide powerful blueprints for evolutionary transformation towards a heart-based culture of belonging, empathy, love and kindness. It is crucial that increasing numbers of people take this possibility seriously enough to engage in the necessary inner and outer work together to bring about its ultimate realisation. A renewed flourishing of life depends on it.