Video: Gafni on Eros

Video: Gafni on Eros2023-09-22T06:50:33-07:00

Ervin Laszlo & Marc Gafni: Death and Reincarnation

Ervin Laszlo & Marc Gafni: Death and Reincarnation2023-06-22T07:53:26-07:00

Video: A Tale of Two Futures

Video: A Tale of Two Futures2023-06-22T07:52:36-07:00

Ervin Laszlo & Marc Gafni: Prayer

Ervin Laszlo & Marc Gafni: Prayer2023-06-22T07:53:26-07:00

Ervin Laszlo & Marc Gafni: Evolutionary Love – Personal and Cosmic Love Are One – The Personal as a Quality of Essence

Ervin Laszlo & Marc Gafni: Evolutionary Love – Personal and Cosmic Love Are One – The Personal as a Quality of Essence2023-06-22T07:53:26-07:00

Ervin Laszlo & Marc Gafni: Self-Organization, the Ability to Receive Information from the Larger System, & the Spiritual Dimension

Ervin Laszlo & Marc Gafni: Self-Organization, the Ability to Receive Information from the Larger System, & the Spiritual Dimension2023-06-22T07:53:26-07:00

Ervin Laszlo & Marc Gafni on Supercoherence

Watch and listen to this 7-minute video, the fourth part of a 10-part dialogue with Ervin Laszlo and Marc Gafni in Tuscany on the topic of Evolutionary Love–envisioning a new Renaissance that will take us to the future. Watch previous posts from this series:

Enjoy the fourth part of the dialogue here:

Transcript

Dr. László: The idea is in us, I think. This is what I want to emphasize. You know, it’s been only last few years that I’ve kind of rediscovered that I’m a Platonist, I didn’t know that. I always thought of myself as more Aristotelian, but I discovered that in Plato, this idea that our deepest level, what Plato called the soul, or the spirit, it knows it all. It’s there. When we discover something, we rediscover it. The knowledge is there, because everything that we need in this world, everything that brought us here to be a complex species, endowed with consciousness, had to be in us, had to be a part of our heritage, otherwise we wouldn’t be here, so there is this drive towards complexity, diversity in this unity.

And this is part of the unfolding of this evolutionary trend in the world. It unfolds because systems become integrated with other systems. Each of them maintains its identity, each of them contributes to it. Now if you could contribute to it consciously, you can carry forward this evolutionary trend, this evolutionary drive, toward higher levels of integration. This individuality, diversity, this unity, we can carry it forward much more effectively, enhance this process. And to my mind, this is what I’m thinking now, and what am working on now. This is the ultimate meaning, if there is such a thing, I’m think there is, ultimate meaning of existence, of conscious existence. That we’re able to prehend, to comprehend, that we are part of this evolutionary unfolding symphony. Which is taking us, like you have pointed out, is taking us as unique irreducible selves, into a larger unity, into a larger whole.

We don’t have to worry about surrendering ourselves, because as conscious being, we maintain the universe in us. The whole universe is encompassed in our consciousness, because we can grasp it, we can prehend it, as Whitehead would say. So we are there, as an irreducible whole, in the universe, which is unfolding around us, and unfolding in us. We can describe it objectively, as the coherence of elements in higher level systems. We can describe is subjectively, but just as meaningfully, and perhaps even more meaningfully, as the sense of becoming part, part of larger and larger communities, communing with others, and this is the world around us. And that’s the idea, that’s the element that we have neglected. That’s the element in our deep consciousness, that we have to recover, through meditation, through prayer. That’s where spirituality, I think, helps, to us, to rediscover that we are part of a cosmic symphony unfolding.

We carry our individuality as a force, as an element, not by disregarding and subordinating the rest, but by cohering, embracing this. I talk, you know, about all embracing love. You mentioned loved could be subverted a little bit if it’s limited to two or more individuals.

Marc Gafni: That would be ordinary love, egoic love.

Dr. László: Egoic love, but we could have a deeper love, which is our sense of being a part of the cosmos. Now, this seems to be like a very big statement, but part of reality, if you have that sense, you start relating differently, then you start not using coal, but using solar, for example. Then you start acting in a way that you can co-evolve with others around you. I’m convinced that biologists have also pointed out, there is no evolution in the world, except co-evolution. There is nothing except in partnership with others around it. Coherence is ultimately supercoherence, as you mentioned. To my mind, supercoherence as a very simple definition, is the coherence among coherent systems.

We are a coherent system, in so far as we’re healthy. When we have disease, then we’re breaking down as a coherence, but as healthy beings we are coherent. Now, we are also coherent with our group, with our fellows, with our communities, with our families, with our ethnic group, with our culture, with our nation, et cetera, and ultimately with human kind. Then we are supercoherent. And there is nothing on this planet, on the web of life, that would not be supercoherent, except modern people, because they have forgotten this larger part of their coherence, and that’s the task before us, to recover this, to be, again, feel ourselves a part of the unfolding symphony of life, on this Earth. That’s the only way I think we can overcome our problems. That’s the best way we can move into a future where we can participate, where we can flourish, and have the rest of the system flourish as well.

Marc Gafni: Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. So there’s this dislocation, right, which is this unique dislocation modernity, and this dislocation, of course, has served initially the evolutionary process, because it has allowed for the emergence of self, and the self’s dignity, and the self’s right, so human rights and democracy and feminism, have been what’s emerged from the beginning of this dislocation, the beginning of the dislocation was, I’m not only defined in terms of my larger context, I actually have irreducibly, irreducible dignity independently. You’re following, everyone who’s listening, so this dislocation that Ervin’s describing begins as a health evolutionary movement forward, but then it pathologizes, because the beginning of it stated, I’m not only part of a larger context, I also have my own irreducible dignity, but then it lost, it forgot, of course, I’m part of a larger context, of course I’m located right in the larger context, it dislocated from any location other than the desiccated self. And then the desiccated self was unable to experience its own meaning, and its own sense of wholeness. It then absorbed, parasitically, everything into itself, whether as a nation, or as an individual, which began the massive consumption of energy regimes, which produced the second shock of existence. And as Ervin said, we’re telling the exact same story. You know, slightly different ways of telling the narrative, which makes it exciting, but it’s the same story.

>>> You can watch the whole 10-part dialogue here <<<

In their dialogue, Ervin Laszlo and Marc Gafni share about the Second Shock of Existence, the New Renaissance, Evolutionary Love, and Unique Self Enlightenment as well as cutting-edge topics like supercoherence, self-organization, and the Unique Self Symphony.

If you like the dialogue, you may be interested in our online course “Becoming a Future Human”

Becoming a Future Human, Barbara Marx Hubbard, Marc Gafni, Daniel SchmachtenbergerWho do we need to become in order for humanity to make it though its current dangerous technological adolescence and to create a world that is truly commensurate with our full human, scientific, social, spiritual, and technological capabilities? If you are here to embody your unique gift fully for the benefit of all life and play your role as a steward of the cosmos and the birth of a new humanity, then welcome! This course is for everyone that knows humanity is at the brink of an epochal shift, that believes we can create the world the great sages knew was possible, and that wants to be a part of co-creating that world together.

>>> Learn more about the course here <<<

Ervin Laszlo & Marc Gafni on Supercoherence2023-06-17T14:59:59-07:00

Third Part of Ten-Part Video Dialogue with Ervin Laszlo and Marc Gafni: Evolutionary Love, the True Nature of Reality, & Unique Self Enlightenment

Third Part of Ten-Part Video Dialogue with Ervin Laszlo and Marc Gafni: Evolutionary Love, the True Nature of Reality, & Unique Self Enlightenment2023-06-22T07:53:27-07:00

Reimagining Humanity’s Identity by Dr. Marc Gafni & Dr. Zachary Stein

Responding to the Second Shock of Existence

Paper by Academic Director of CIW Zachary Stein & President Marc Gafni Published at World Future Review.

Abstract: Foreshadowing arguments from the forthcoming book, Towards a New Politics of Evolutionary Love, this paper suggests that humanity is in the throes of a species wide identity crisis, precipitated by a broadening awareness of our impending self-inflicted extinction. This growing awareness that humanity is responsible for its own fate and the fate of the planet is referred to as the second shock of existence. The second shock has spawned a great deal of discussion about the need for revolutions in technological, economic, and ecological infrastructures, yet this focus on exteriors addresses only half the picture. Comparable revolutions of our interiors must also take place—radical transformations in the very structure of our consciousness and species-wide self-understanding. This is a call for attending to the interior dimensions of the current global crises, recommending in the strongest possible terms that tremendous energy and resources be rechanneled into planning for the vast educational reconfigurations facing humanity in the coming decades.

Keywords: Global crises; Integral Theory; Human Identity; Unique Self Theory; Cultural Evolution

Because of the current state of copyright law we only provide a pre-publication draft of this paper. There are bound to be errors that were corrected as the manuscript went through to press, so please track down the published version before citing any of this material or contact us for permission.

Stein, Z. & Gafni, M. (2015). Reimagining humanity’s identity: responding to the second Shock of existence. World Future Review. 7(1) 1-10. [pdf]

From the paper:

Today, in the maelstrom of post-modernity we are collectively facing the second shock of existence*, which is the realization that the survival of the entire human race is in danger.Moreover, we now face this second shock—this awareness of the mortality of the species—precisely because of the actions that followed in the wake of the first shock. Our attempts to build a world that would insulate us from death have brought us to a point where we must now face death on a scale that is almost unimaginable. The more perceptive among us know that it is our own actions that brought us to this point, and we know that it is only by our own actions that we might avoid the apocalyptic scenarios that haunt our collective imagination. Nothing defines our era more than the dawning awareness of the possibility of the self-inflicted extinction of the human race.   

We suggest that, in fact, the second shock of existence is an important, necessary, and world-historical millstone in the evolution of consciousness and culture. The first shock made us aware that death threatens the meaning of each individual’s existence; the second shock teaches that self-inflicted extinction threatens the meaning of the whole species’ existence. Just as the first shock was necessary in furthering humanity’s mature and complex relation to the universe, so the second shock is necessary as a further impetus toward greater maturity and complexity. However, whereas the first shock served to separate us from nature and each other, the second shock will serve to reunite us with the natural world and weave the diverse strands of our now fragmented global culture into a common humanity. The second shock is awakening us to the patterns that connect all of humanity as part of a common destiny, a destiny intimately tied into the future of the biosphere. The second shock is a deepening of humanity’s awareness of its place in the universe; it results in the dawning awareness of our profound ethical obligations as the sole stewards of humanity and the planet.

Humanity is now in a situation where we recognize (for the first time, really) that our ability to exploit nature is profoundly limited—we have run up against very real physical boundaries to our continued existence. At the same time, in some sectors, there is a dawning realization that we are already in possession of an unlimited resource—the power of human creativity and innovation, a realm in which there is no scarcity. The tensions between these two realities—dangerous scarcity alongside inspiring plentitude—define our age. It is an age in which heaven competes with hell for a chance to be born. Culturally, this has given us two camps: the pessimists and the optimists, both focused on the state of our techno-economic-ecological exteriors. Techno-Optimists see a future in which our current techno-economic systems are salvaged, re-designed, and made increasingly scientific, efficient, and profitable; we will avert ecological disaster by creating a hyper-scientific, human controlled Heaven on Earth. Pessimists see these very attempts at continued scientific control and economic growth as the problem, sensing that the technologically wrought future they yield will give us more of what we’ve already had for nearly a century: a techno-economic system that decimates communities and ecosystems, and that will eventually degrade the Earth until the biosphere is simply unable to sustain life. Both pessimists and optimists focus on external systems, processes, resources, technologies, and economies. When they speak of crises they refer to broken or scarce things (broken ecosystems, unhealthy food, toxic air, failing schools, etc.). When they speak of innovation, they mean the creation of new and better things (healthy forests, organic food, new energy technologies, fresh air, good schools, etc). The future is in the balance for both camps, no doubt, and they both set their focus on the impacts of science, with a focus on sustainability and the physical continuity of life as we know it.

*The term Second Shock was coined by Mauk Pieper, see Pieper, M. Humanity’s Second Shock and Your Unique Self. (Independent Publishing, 2014).

Download the PDF Version of the Paper

Reimagining Humanity’s Identity by Dr. Marc Gafni & Dr. Zachary Stein2023-06-19T10:04:19-07:00

The Climax of the Summer Festival of Love 2015: Evolutionary Relationships, Unique Gender and the Unique Self Symphony

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