Interviews & Articles
The Department of Peace: Barbara Marx Hubbard Interview by David S. Cohen for the Light Connection
An Evolutionary Conversation with Barbara Marx Hubbard By Alan Sasha Lithman
Conscious Evolution: The Next Stage of Human Development by Barbara Marx Hubbard
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Interview: The Department of Peace
BARBARA MARX HUBBARD
Interview by
David S. Cohen for the Light Connection
DSC: You are being given the 2005 Peacebuilder award in Washington this Sept. 11 by Marianne Williamson’s Peace Alliance, the organization that is supporting the creation of the Department of Peace. That award is being given to you, as I understand it, because of your work for years, at least since the time in 1984 when your name was put in nomination for the Vice-Presidency at the Democratic Convention, on a concept you had of a Peace Room that would actually be in the White House and that would be a positive complement to all the emphasis on Defense Department/Pentagon war-making. First of all, could you say something about how that idea originally generated for you?
BMH: Yes. The idea of the Peace Room came to me with the concept that there is now emerging on this earth, innovations, creative solutions, and projects that work in every field and function: in education, in economics, and so forth. If we could scan for that, and connect what is working now, we would see the outlines of a new civilization that would offer peace, sustainability, and increased creativity for humanity. I had been working on that idea. Then, Buckminster Fuller, who had been my teacher in the design/science revolution, suggested I run for president—this was many years ago way back in the early 70s. I would have run against President Nixon. (laugh)
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An Evolutionary Conversation with Barbara Marx Hubbard
By Alan Sasha Lithman
Barbara Marx Hubbard, renaissance woman, evolutionary explorer, social innovator and author, is President of the Foundation for Conscious Evolution. A tireless champion for the Earth’s future since the 1960s, pioneering the use of media for global peace, she made history in 1984 when her name was placed in nomination for the Vice-Presidency at the Democratic National Convention. Her barrier-breaking books include Emergence and Conscious Evolution. This conversation took place at her home in Santa Barbara on Feb. 12, 2004.
ASL: Barbara, how do you see the threshold point for yourself and your work in the world?
BMH: I feel I am standing at the edge of my own evolution, and I’ve realized that the psycho-spiritual evolution of the individual is going much faster than the societal transformation is able to keep up. Though we have many wonderful initiatives in terms of transforming society as a whole, it’s still quite embryonic. However, the individuals doing the projects are themselves evolving quite rapidly; in fact, I often see the projects themselves as workshops for the development of the person. They are pro-jections of the deep Self that wants to come into form to cocreate a world in which that Self can feel at home. What are really growing fastest are not the projects we’re doing but the persons doing them. The projects will take years to manifest, but the persons doing the projects are already models of the evolving human.
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Conscious Evolution: The Next Stage of Human Development
By Barbara Marx Hubbard
Abstract: Conscious evolution is emerging in our generation because humanity has gained the powers of codestruction of our world, or the cocreation of immeasurable futures. The purpose of conscious evolution is to learn how to be responsible for the ethical guidance of evolution. This new world view arises out of three new conditions: the new cosmology, the new crises, and our new capacities, leading toward a macroshift. The Foundation for Conscious Evolution is formed to discover and offer a new developmental path to the next stage of human evolution. It offers three projects to serve this purpose: Gateway to Our Conscious Evolution, a 6 month on line educational program; the development of a conscious evolution community in Santa Barbara, and the formation of a “Peace Room” on the web and in localities to scan for, map, connect and communicate what is working to heal and evolve our world.
Key words: co- evolution, co-creation, community, synergy, vision.
PART I: CONSCIOUS EVOLUTION
The human species is facing a great transition from one stage of evolution to the next. In our generation, Homo sapiens sapiens has gained unprecedented technological and social power to either destroy this world as we know it, or to cocreate an immeasurable future. We stand at a threshold, and it has become clear that if we continue to use our new powers in the same state of conscious in which we created them, we can wreck greater havoc upon ourselves and the other species of Earth. But if we use our new powers wisely, we will transcend the current human condition, not only solving our problems but participating in the cocreation of futures that are chosen, open-ended, and ever-evolving.
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