Judith Thompson and James O’Dey are pioneers in this emergent field and Judith has written a brilliant overview that beautifully articulates the story and framework of Social Healing. I invite you to enjoy her article and if you want to know more to download the free The Social Healing Project Report available at http://www.charityfocus.org/docs/books/socialhealing.pdf

We Are Between Stories
by Judith Thompson

We live in an exciting time. As cultural historian, Thomas Berry put it: “We are between stories.” The old story — bracketed on the one side by reductionist scientific materialism, and on the other by institutional religious dogmas — is no longer able to guide us toward human or planetary flourishing. Instead, the chasms created by both science and religion, and the various social philosophies they spawned, are implicated in pushing us toward the precipitous edge upon which we now stand. At this edge we see both breakdowns and breakthroughs.

While the story of scientific materialism has been part of our evolutionary journey, it has created a map of reality — a worldview — that de-legitimized a vast portion of wisdom and experience. It placed reason over intuition, intellect over emotion, material over spiritual, objectivity over subjectivity, exteriority over interiority, and condensed this into a story that we live in a mechanistic, material world that can only be known through objective and measurable observation in which human reason reigns supreme.

Institutionalized religion upheld a story that gave male authority figures the power to interpret and mediate purported divine
laws and construct theological justifications for power over women, children, the natural world, and non-believers. While scientific and
religious stories were at odds with each other, both saw it in their interests to label metaphysical or spiritual worldviews outside their boundaries as heresy, superstition or witchcraft.

Yet ironically, science itself has now begun to step into the realm of the mystics. The “new sciences” story finds biologists and neuroscientists astounded by the hitherto unstudied capacities of the human brain and heart, indicating our ability to intentionally amplify love and compassion. It finds psychologists exploring the territory of contemplatives and revealing a map of human consciousness far beyond the individual ego-self. It finds physicists discovering that the presumed separation of observed and observer doesn’t exist.

Much like the African worldview of Ubuntu — “I am because you are” – all things exists as a communion of subjects, not an assortment of objects. The new story frames the human journey, not within the context of tribes or nations, but embedded in a constantly evolving planet and cosmos, interconnected and interdependent at every level. The implications of this framing could signal dramatic changes in
every field of human endeavor. The trends we are seeing within restorative justice, reconciliation, transitional justice, dialogue and other forms of peace practice, are evidence of new ways of addressing human conflict that are moving beyond the old dichotomies. We have chosen to name this trend social healing partly because we see an evolving paradigm that is not fundamentally hinged around the dualities of good vs. bad and right vs. wrong, but is rather inclined toward viewing human conflict through the lens of wounding and healing. Social healing, then, is not guided by revenge, retribution or punishment, but rather by the compassionate response of relating to all people — victims, transgressors and bystanders alike – as inextricably connected.

–JudithThompson, in _Social Healing Project [1]_report
Links:
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[1] http://charityfocus.org/docs/books/socialhealing.pdf

Please feel free to send this link on to your network and ask them play it forward. Let’s help this important film go viral.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAU2K4JwTjc&feature=share

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Go Planet!

JIM

Before you watch it, you may want to enjoy the interview with Foster conducted by Worldwide Tipping Point. The info on that interview and a link to view the film follow. My sense is that this fiim will do as well or better than the surprise hit What the Bleep a few years back and the great new online film distribution platform it is available on, Play It Forward, offers you the opportunity to enjoy the film and pass it along as a gift to friends you feel would really enjoy it. Please let me know your thoughts once you have viewed it.

After spending 8 years and millions of dollars to create the documentary THRIVE: What on Earth Will It Take? I am honored to have Foster Gamble on Worldwide Tipping Point today in what I believe is his first public interview since the film’s release!

So what is this THRIVE film all about? It will become quickly evident in this interview what THRIVE is hear to say, and I encourage you to check out our dialogue (and the movie) straight away!

Interestingly, Foster Gamble is a direct descendent of the Proctor & Gamble empire and I ask him some pretty pointed questions regarding his unbiased ability to shine a light on the unsustainable nature of our financial systems while obviously coming from a ‘financially elite’ family as described in the film…and his response is fascinating!

THRIVE weaves all sorts of topics, including tangible evidence of extraterrestrial life, the meaning of crop circles, and the possibility of unlimited sources of clean, non-combustible energy being accessible right now…a truth that would completely revolutionize the way human beings live on Planet Earth!

I ask Foster about his decision to include all these seemingly unrelated topics, and how this all relates to a world where we can all thrive. Again, his answers are fascinating.

In the end I find THRIVE to be a timely and relevant film, and a critically important artifact for our times. While I don’t expect all of you to agree with everything in the movie (as I am sure it will be controversial), I believe it is worth checking out and listening to our interview because THRIVE’s perspective certainly provides a few important things to consider.

In the end, it is up to ALL of us to decide how we can reach the Tipping Point and thrive together in our world…and I am looking forward to all your feedback!

Click here to screen the film and pass it along.

Seven Words That Can Change The World – Part 1 from Joe Simonetta on Vimeo.

Here’s the backstory on Seven Words:

At Harvard Divinity School in the fall of 1992 at a senior thesis seminar, each graduate student stated the subject of the paper he or she would present for graduation. Joe Simonetta, then nearly 50, said he would write on a new world belief system. His fellow students, incredulous, were taken aback that someone would undertake such a frivolous endeavor. Seven Words That Can Change the World is that belief system.

The author and speaker, Joe Simonetta, has had rich experiences in a broad range of fields: military, professional sports, business, politics, architecture, religion, writing, and higher education. His interdisciplinary journey has yielded clear, easy to understand, insights relevant to the challenges humanity faces.

Those who have heard Simonetta speak say he is “ingenious”…”brilliant”…”inspiring”…”the clearest presenter of reality”…”he provides the basis for a new world belief system”…

John Raatz, Founder of GATE (Global Alliance of Transformational Entertainment), says that “Simonetta brilliantly connects the dots of cosmology, evolutionary biology, religion, science and belief systems and presents a new understanding of the architecture of life itself.”

A graduate of Harvard Divinity School (Master of Divinity), Simonetta also holds a Master of Architecture degree. He is the son of an immigrant blue-collar worker who raised him in a World War II housing project.

Simonetta says that “a completely new understanding of reality is needed to arrest and reverse humanity’s destructive and unsustainable momentum, end its needless suffering, prosper together, find peace, achieve sustainability and advance civilization.”

“Our window of opportunity to accomplish the necessary and monumental transition in thinking is small compared to the large obstacles within our current belief systems (business, political and religious) that must be dissolved” he continues. “Yet, we must do this if we and all the life forms that share this jewel of a planet are to survive.”

In the film, Simonetta guides the viewer on a powerful journey through time, the cosmos, evolutionary biology, the world of religion, and our competing sets of survival instincts that have produced the troubled world we live in today.

“Simonetta has been able to see through all the garbage of the centuries like a laser beam and then state the obvious – truth – in such simple, straightforward words.” says Phyllis Leonard, of Sherborn, MA.