By Gil Dekel, PhD. Part 1. Go to 2.
The ideas of futurist Barbara Marx Hubbard (born 1929) are expressed in Neale Donald Walsch’s book, following his extensive research into her life-long journals, as well as in-depth interviews he conducted with her (sold separately on DVD). Neale describes Barbara’s visions of ‘the wheel of co-creation’, ‘the synergy engine’, ‘the peace room’, and the evolutionary story of humanity.
Neale states (page 22) that he doesn’t have much time left, and will not waste it on writing just another good biography, unless it had something important to tell the readers. This biography of Barbara conveys her life wisdom and her futurist visions in a way that the readers can learn and apply in their own lives. As such, Neale does not see this book as a biography, but as a ‘uniography’ (page 21). The story in the book begins in the future and ends with Barbara’s birth.
Here is a short summary of main lessons from the book, with page numbers (for your reference):
Page V
We are all new in every single moment of now, as we change every split second. We invent the total reality as we invent ourselves individually, and so the most important question to ask is not ‘do we change?’ but ‘how we change?’ The question is not ‘does humanity becoming something?’ but rather ‘what does humanity becoming?’
Barbara Marx Hubbard December 2011 (photo by Norman Kremer)
Page VI
This book appears to be a biography of Barbara Marx Hubbard. However, it is not about someone else’s life but the life of the readers. It is a book in which to loose yourself, and also to find yourself…
Page VII
We are ready as humanity to break through and evolve – what Barbra calls ‘a birthing’.
Page 9
In her meditations Barbara would feel a vibrant field of light which she saw as an inner vision – a presence and a feeling of a nonlocal essence that is totally present here and now.
‘Inner Vision of Light’. Digital artwork by © Gil Dekel, 2011.
Page 10
At one meditation Barbara felt her consciousness expanding beyond the limits of her own body into a new kind of the self. She wrote down her experiences in her journal.
Page 13
She asked the ‘presence’ who he was, and got the reply: ‘I am the guardian of the gate way, the passageway to the next evolution.’
Page14
The inner voice said: ‘The first reward of your writing is a union with me and the second will be keeping the sense of a universal person, unbound by the local self.”
Page 16
Barbara was told that she would need now to be falling ‘upwards in love’.
Page 17
She paid attention to this inner voice; her inner ‘partner’ who was on the other side. He told her to go into her mind’s eye and see into the future, the ‘future’ in a human perspective. She was hen able to see the next step in the human evolution, and the tools we need to develop to reach it.
Page 26
Barbara envisioned The Synergy Engine (SE) as a place on the internet where people from all over the world would be able to post their best ideas, best insights and specific data that they have about projects or things that are already working well.
If there is a problem in one place on the planet, someone might have already found a solution on another place. Anyone with PC and Internet connection will be able to access this huge pool of solutions, and apply them.
The idea of the Synergy Engine allows for global collaboration and coherence where for the first time in history so many people can offer so many ideas, and post them online in a short period of time.
Page 27
We already have global communications but we do not have an organized global collaboration, which is communication with a clear intention and specific focus of producing coherency. The Synergy Engine will be a social function-based tool. It will not just bring together all of the world’s wonderful ideas and solutions but new reasons for applying those solutions – social responsibility, where people have the tool to influence and advance human’s evolution.
The Engine is based on the model of a wheel, the ‘wheel of co-creation’ as Barbara calls it.
The postings that people will send will be organised in specific sections within that wheel, divided into areas such as: governance, education, technology, medicine, science, communication, culture, arts, spirituality and economics.
‘Model of Barbara Marx Hubbard ’s Wheel of Co-creation’. Digital artwork and model concept by © Gil Dekel, 2011.
Page 28
Barbara explains that the segmentations on the wheel are not meant to divide the wheel into specialised sections, but to illustrate the interconnection and intersections between them. As they merge, and ideas overlap, we bring them into a one whole; as Barbara calls it, ‘whole system synergy’.
Some ideas that will be shared on the wheel will be projects that are already working well on localized areas and not yet on global scale. The Synergy Engine will allow these solutions to be taken globally. The purpose is collaboration and global partnership, not just local solutions.
It seems that there are solutions for every existing problem on our planet. The only problem that still needs a solution is coming up with a tool to communicate and share solutions from one community to another. What we need is to create a link between those who have the solutions and those who still seek them. The Synergy Engine will provide and facilitate that link.
Page 32
Visions are limited only by the horizon of our sight. When our straight-line-thinking stops, then the vision can expand. Life is here to serve us. We are not here to serve life.
Page 33
We can come to know why we are and what we are meant to do only once we understand who we really are. If we think that we are simple beings or just ‘biological incidences’ then we may imagine that we are here only to survive.
For the Synergy Engine to fully operate, we need to start by asking ourselves who we are and what our life purpose is.
Page 36
Barbara said, ‘Like a baby just before birth we would destroy ourselves if we continue to grow in the womb.’
Page 37-38
And in the same way, we have now reached the limit of growth in the womb of earth. Our planet is a finite system. We are running out of resources because now is our time to be born. It is time to evolve further. We face problems in the world, because we need now to birth ourselves further.
The problems that we are facing now are in effect ‘evolutionary drivers’ – the problems push us forward in a way. For example, the explosion of a deep sea oil ridge in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. This was a serious problem and yet there were positive developments that came out of it: this event has awakened governments and citizens to the real issue which is the need for clean energies. We have been discussing clean energies for years but have not taken enough action. Now, as we seen the horrible disaster, we are awakened to move forward into action. Problems can actually help us evolve.
Illustration of Barbara Marx Hubbard. Drawn from a photo. © Gil Dekel, 2011.
Page 46
When you have a ‘calling’, you must speak them out, and tell them to other people. This is the only way to find your soul-mates, your teammates. It takes courage because you may be called a dreamer or even an eccentric. Douglas Engelbart, a Silicone Valley legend, said, ‘Someone once called me just a dreamer. That offended me – the ‘just’ part. Being a dreamer is hard work. It really gets hard when you start believing your dreams.’
Once the Synergy Engine will be online, it will make it easy for people to express their dreams.
Page 49
‘Involution’, as Barbara calls it, is a process where the spirit is descended into matter, into life.
Page 54-55
Almost everyone had the feeling that they failed once in their life. This feeling is false, as anything we ever thought, said or did helped us move forward in our evolution. Anything that you have experienced in your life, each event, was a gift and is part of a sacred progress.
End of part 1. Go to part 2.
Help to promote Barbara’s message:
11 Aug 2011. Last update 12 March 2012.
© Gil Dekel.
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