Gaia Community: Peter's Blog

Transition Times - narrated presentation online

http://petermerry.gaia.com — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 19:12:34 GMT

I just posted a narrated presentation about global transition, climate change and the 2020 climate leadership campaign here: http://bit.ly/bJbZU. It's one I've been talking to since coming back from the launch of the 2020 Climate Leadership Campaign in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

Tags: transition, peter merry, 2020 climate leadership campaign, hague center for global governance innovation and , state of the world forum

No Longer Numb

http://petermerry.gaia.com — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 09:32:35 GMT

A friend, Clinton Callahan, invited me to write a short blurb on his upcoming book No Longer Numb. This is what came out:

"Coming alive right now is essential to us literally being able to stay alive as a species. We need to open our hearts and minds to the shift that is happening on the planet right now, allow it to penetrate deep into the center of our being, allow the pain to be felt and released, and feel ourselves re-awaken to who we are as sentient, pulsing human beings, deeply connected to the earth and the universe at once. We need to remember that we are of the Earth, and that our future is in our own hands. Numbness is suicidal. It is time to awaken - now!"

Here, for your info, is more on Clinton and his book:

Fall 2009: German

Spring 2010: English

Summer 2010: French

This letter announces the upcoming book: NO LONGER NUMB – using the power and intelligence of conscious feelings for living a life closer to your own truth, by Clinton Callahan.

The ideas given to us about feelings by modern culture are so distorted that we equate feeling good with feeling nothing. We don’t actually want to feel happy. We want to feel numb.

The present conditions of environmental degradation, mass extinction, tipping points for global warming, economic injustice, overpopulation, war, and the general failure of seemingly intelligent human beings to create a sustainable future for ourselves reflect a deep disconnection from our own feelings. Idealizing the strong numb hero has possibly exterminated the human race.

The book takes the reader by the hand and says: Personally choosing numbness may have been unconscious for you. But in this moment you can choose to change your mind and learn to consciously feel. And then step by step it shows how.

This book is about lowering your personal numbness bar, which was set very high by modern culture. Lowering the numbness bar is neither philosophical nor conceptual – it is a journey through the Ten Distinctions for Consciously Feeling, the central contents of this book. Each chapter is enriched with thoughtmaps – clear diagrams of ways we presently think and ways we could possibly think – supported by an abundance of practical experiments to try.

This book midwives the reader through four distinct evolutions:

1. Personal: unlocking you from the past and from the influence of others.

2. Relational: bringing extraordinary clarity and possibility into your personal and professional communications.

3. Transformational: igniting your archetypal feelings as a rite of passage into adulthood.

4. Cultural: using your adult feelings and Bright Principles as rocket fuel for creating sustainable culture.

Any reader embracing these experiments is immediately at the cutting edge of human evolution shaping new forms of consciousness that others can then more easily follow. Each person joining this network of explorers promotes the emergence of the sustainable next culture that replaces patriarchal empire.

When no longer numb, you are freed from solitary confinement in your private world of thoughts and beliefs. You emerge, already connected with other human beings, connected in the world of feelings we all have in common.

Clinton Callahan, originator of Possibility Management, Expand The Box trainings, and the Possibility Trainer Certification, co-director of Callahan Academy, BS Physics 1975, author of Radiant Joy Brilliant Love, 2007 (also in German as Wahre Liebe im Alltag, 2007), and Wild Thinking (only in German as Abenteuer Denken, 2004), has traveled, worked or lived in 36 different countries. He presently lives in Munich, working with a group to build the sustainable culture research ecovillage of Possibilica.

Tags: alive, numb, clinton callahan, survival, heart

Climate Leadership?

http://petermerry.gaia.com — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 20:37:36 GMT

A few days back from Brazil, and it is still all sinking in. The 2020 Climate Leadership Campaign is well and truly launched. People were very appreciative of the role I played leading the design and facilitation, as well as having lots of great ideas about how to take it forward.

Today, sitting on the beach with the family, I was talking to my wife about it all. Coming out of that conversation, there was part of me that was "lit up" or irritated. I realised that it had to do with the implications of me really committing to this work. (I was reading Six Degrees by Mark Lynas, which helped it sink in!).

As it all churned around, I turned to my I Ching to see what it might show. Holding a question about me and my relationship to this campaign and issue, I couldn't be bothered with doing the stalks (as I usually do) so just requested that the book open at the appropriate page. This is what was on that page:

17 Following
You are being drawn forward through a strong attraction. Follow the inevitable course of events. Yield to the path set out in front of you, the path of least resistance. Be guided by the way things are moving. You are involved in a series of events that are firmly connected. This can open up a new time. It will bring fundamental success, profit and insight. It is not a mistake. The call has come. Let go of what is past. A new focus is emerging. Dim your discriminating power so old habits can dissolve. The whole world must follow the times and the seasons. You are following a righteous idea inherent in the time.

OK. I surrender.

Tags: 2020, climate, leadership, integral, the hague center, state of the world forum, i ching

2020 Climate Leadership Campaign Launch

http://petermerry.gaia.com — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 03:26:19 GMT

So here I am in the midst of an incredible historical event. Somehow the last months of my life have brought me to leading the design and facilitation of a 3-day event to launch the global and Brazilian 2020 Climate Leadership Campaign. Tomorrow there is a huge public launch with a capacity 1800 people here in Belo Horizonte. Globo, the biggest media company, is broadcasting ads and integrating our messaging into their soap operas that go to dozens of other countries - read more here. Governors from the different states of Brazil, CEOs of major companies, Directors of NGOs are all flocking to join. Jim Garrison and Emilia Queiroga are doing incredible work here.

On Wednesday we start a 3-day process with over 200 Brazilian and international experts drawn from multiple sectors and disciplines. We will use the participative meshwork approach to elicit the best of the collective intelligence in the room and feed results into the Gaiasoft online platform that will enable ongoing collaboration. All designed through an Integral framework.

This is the work I have always known I was here to do. Now it's coming together. Serving humanity and the planet at a time where there really is nothing else we should be doing. Combining process and content work, putting an Integral perspective into practice, honouring as much of the Kosmos as possible as we re-align our relationship to ourselves, each other and the earth. And celebrating life.

For more info go here and here.

Tags: 2020, climate, leadership, integral, the hague center, state of the world forum, jim garrison, emilia queiroga

Authentic Leadership in Action, Europe

http://petermerry.gaia.com — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 10:05:28 GMT

I just want to flag up what I believe is going to be an amazing event in January 2010. The Netherlands is hosting the first European edition of the Authentic Leadership in Action (ALIA) programme, which has run very successfully at the Shambhala Institute in Halifax Canada for a number of years. Its powerful combination of focused work on building the capacities we need to engage the world effectively at this time, with the arts and spirituality, make it pretty unique. In this way, all dimensions of ourselves are invited and activated. I will be offering a module on “An Integral Practice for Evolutionary Leadership and Change” with Dylan Newcomb (who has a background in dance and music). We love working together, and this promises to be a special few days. Click here for more info.

Tags: authentic learning in action, ALIA, shambhala institute, peter merry, dylan newcomb, integral, spiral dynamics integral, u process, art of hosting

The 16 Ways

http://petermerry.gaia.com — Fri, 29 May 2009 22:21:44 GMT

The 16 Ways - Moving with the power of opposites

Check out this short intro video to Dylan Newcomb's 16 Ways. I work closely with Dylan, practice the 16 Ways myself and can vouch for their power. This will be big! Get in on it now!

Tags: 16 ways, dylan newcomb, i ching, manybody, integral

Jim Garrison Interview with me

http://petermerry.gaia.com — Tue, 26 May 2009 13:52:14 GMT

Here's a link to an interview that Jim Garrison did with me for PRN radio, about the state of the world and what to do about it - find it here - http://www.worldforum.org/2009media.htm

Tags: jim garrison, peter merry, state of the world forum, global transition initiative, climate change

Global Transition Initiative on Twitter

http://petermerry.gaia.com — Mon, 25 May 2009 13:58:53 GMT

Hi there,

Just to let you know that you can follow GTI developments on Twitter now @globaltransit.

We are hosting the first high level design meeting at the Hague Center 27-29 May, and will post news from that on the twitter feed. Following that meeting, we will also be producing more information on the Initiative and how the State of the World Forum is shaping up.

Exciting times! Watch this space...

Tags: global transition initiative, state of the world forum, integral, peter merry, twitter, gti

Transition Roles

http://petermerry.gaia.com — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 20:56:46 GMT

Here's a link to an audio of me being interviewed by Helen Titchen-Beeth on four core roles that tend to be played and can be supported in non-linear transitions.

Tags: transition, non-linear, peter merry, berkana

Global Transition Initiative

http://petermerry.gaia.com — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 20:17:09 GMT

Here's a heads-up for what I feel is going to be a key initiative in the coming years. Together with Jim Garrison, Morel Fourman and others from the State of the World Forum team, we are preparing the Global Transition Initiative. The initiative will support collaboration between individuals, organisations and communities to deliver results around our sustainability challenges. It will be launched at the State of the World Forum 2009 in Washington. You can read first thoughts about the Global Transition Initiative here and hear me talk (17mins) about it here.

Tags: global transition initiative, state of the world forum, integral, peter merry

Evolutionary Leadership - English edition coming!

http://petermerry.gaia.com — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 20:17:01 GMT

Hi there,

Just to let you know that the English edition of the Evolutionary Leadership book (that wrote itself through me!) is coming out in a few weeks - updated from the Dutch edition with stories of application. You can pre-order it with 20% discount here .

I've no idea how it's going to be received or what it's going to unleash - and how it might impact my life (or not!). We will see...

With love, Peter

PS I also launched a website www.petermerry.org to let the world know what I'm up to. Time to stand up and be counted!

Tags: evolutionary leadership, peter merry, book launch, integral

John Petersen on Non-linear Transition

http://petermerry.gaia.com — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 23:16:41 GMT

Hi there,

As part of my involvement in developing the Global Transition Initiative with the State of the World Forum team, I'm interviewing some people to ask them the question : “what would you do to facilitate global transition?”. John Petersen is the first person I asked, being one of the world’s foremost futurists (President of the Arlington Institute), with a deep understanding of the processes of non-linear change and epochal emergence. In this interview, John shares an understanding which is hard to deny and yet very challenging to accept.

I really recommend listening to this! Any thoughts on the implications in the comments below please!

Click here to download the audio file and read the transcript..

Tags: John Petersen, Peter Merry, non-linear, transition, emergence

Economics 2

http://petermerry.gaia.com — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 22:28:06 GMT

We need an economic system that values what we already have and treasure.

Tags: economics, value

New Year's Speech to the Center of Human Emergence Netherlands

http://petermerry.gaia.com — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 15:48:36 GMT

I was feeling inspired and thought you might enjoy this. It's 17 minutes of mp3. Enjoy!
Go here to download (http://homepage.mac.com/petermerry/petermerrypublic/FileSharing1.html).

Tags: Center for Human Emergence, Peter Merry, Speech, Netherlands

Report from Innovative Hague Event on MDG5 for Parliamentarians

http://petermerry.gaia.com — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 23:34:01 GMT

Following on from the earlier posting, you can download the process report from the event and surrounding design here ( http://www.thehaguecenter.org/News/Entries/2008/12/19_MDG5_Event_report.html ).

Tags: the hague center, meshworking, integral, spiral dynamics, art of hosting, millennium development goal, world health organisation, inter-parliamentary union

The Art of Hosting Death

http://petermerry.gaia.com — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 22:49:00 GMT

As part of the Engage! Art of Hosting we are in at the moment, we spent today on the art of hosting death. How do we help the old to die gracefully, and in such a way that it fertilises the soil for the new? It was one of the most profound and insightful days I have spent. It is part of a four day process in which we are exploring the arts of hosting protection, death, the emergence of the new, and bridges from old to new.

Today we told stories of hosting death in ourselves, of loved ones, of organisational forms, and of species on the planet at this time. We asked how do we know if something is at the end of its natural life-cycle or if we have just not learned to nurture it properly - only to realise that this was an inadequate question. We realised the deep truth in dying every moment to live the next one. We understood the need for conscious choice in every moment, in which we choose to bring one path to life, and allow a number of other potential paths to die. We felt the importance of honouring what has been, and where we choose not to go.

We delved into what it meant to lead death in an organisation. From the moment of announcing with clarity and commitment a decision that something has to change (although we don't know what yet), through the hosting of a collective quest into what needs to die, into a collective presencing to that which wants to be born, finalising in another clear moment of leadership decision in which the new is announced and a line is drawn. Ritual marks key moments of this process.

This is such a rich subject. There is much more to be explored and harvested here. And it feels like an essential art to develop, with so much disintegration in the world right now, with such a need to fertilise rather than poison the soil for the new, and with the need for rapid experimentation in which experiments that don't work need to be released to die as soon as possible with the learning harvested to feed the next iteration. Dying for life.

Click here to hear a harvest of the Open Space session we had on this. The harvest is in the form of a number of 4-line prayers put to music.

Tags: death. dying, life, hosting, art of hosting, engage, evolution, emergence

Questions

http://petermerry.gaia.com — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 19:51:19 GMT

As I go into our annual Engage! Art of Hosting retreat feast, with Engage! partners Arjen and Tatiana, as well as my brother Tim and a great group of participants, these are the questions I am holding:

How to design and implement the Mother of All Meshworks, that creates the conditions for the human species to become a system of influence for the good of the planet?

Knowing that the universe is created from the sacred space in each of our hearts, what are the inner dynamics I need to develop in order to manifest that part of mySelf?

I'll let you know what emerges!

Love, Peter

Tags: art of hosting, engage interact, meshworks, spiral dynamics integral, system of influence, dr don beck, margaret wheatley

Innovative Hague Event on MDG5 with Global Parliamentarians

http://petermerry.gaia.com — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 14:13:38 GMT

We at the Center for Human Emergence and Hague Center for Global Governance, Innovation and Emergence were involved in designing and facilitating an innovative event for 60 parliamentarians from 37 national parliaments to advance progress on Millennium Development Goal 5 on Maternal and Newborn Health. Partners were the Dutch Parliament, World Health Organisation and Inter Parliamentary Union. Its importance was emphasised by the presence of the Dutch Government ministers for Overseas Development (Koenders) and Health (Klink), as well as HRH Princess Maxima, wife of the Dutch heir to the throne HRH Prince Willem-Alexander. Click here for first impressions.

Tags: center for human emergence, hague center, mdg5, millennium development goals, world health organisation

When Green Meets Gold

http://petermerry.gaia.com — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 20:45:51 GMT

Call for Systemic Financial Change to Enable Energy Transition

Current Financial Crisis Provides Opportunity for Fundamental Breakthrough in Alternative Energy and Climate Change

A recent report by M.CAM has lead the Hague Center for Global Governance, Innovation and Emergence, together with partners M.CAM and Energy4Life, to put out a call for rapid and far-reaching action to remove major blockages to innovation in non-fossil fuel energy development.

The current crisis in the financial world has exposed a weakness at the core of its existence. That weakness is also a major cause of the lack of fundamental large-scale innovation in alternative energy.

As the report states:

“Let’s explore our Green meets Gold paradox. In our current paradigm, energy sources have a cost for extraction (wells, mines and pumps), transportation (pipelines, ships, and transportation) and refining (ports, refineries). These costs are amortized over an average of 30 years and, as such, need to generate consistent investment returns in the form of predictable operating revenue for the same period. Our power generation facilities are financed through bonds which, like the commodities that they burn, have amortized investment lives ranging from 20 to 40 years. And then the distribution grid – that tangled web of inputs and distributed outputs – are similarly financed. In less than a decade, ThomsonReuters reports that in many regions, municipal borrowing for infrastructure projects has more than doubled from 2000 to 2008 meaning that the inventory of these long-term performance investments has skyrocketed. This multi-trillion dollar global financial industry, through inexpensive debt, has become a global fixture that actually precludes rapid-scale obsolescence or replacement.”

And yet precisely what the world needs know, and what Al Gore called for in his talk in Aalsmeer, the Netherlands, on October 14th, is “rapid-scale obsolescence and replacement”. Phasing out energy production that contributes to climate change and transitioning to more climate neutral energy.

The report calls on:

• incumbent power suppliers to place their abandoned and expired patents and R&D into an open source trust for explicit public use;
• investors to consider transitional models where sunsetting maturity on unfulfilled bond yields can be converted into Green Alternative Credits;
• municipalities to provide yield redemption offsets for enterprises who become producers of alternative energy solutions where their revenue can be guaranteed to form the basis for a new, more ethical form of fixed income investment.

Click here for the full report.

For more information, please contact Peter Merry (peter@thehaguecenter.nl; + 31 61 355 4129) or Jan de Dood (jacobusdedood@hetnet.nl +31 62 120 8753). Interviews with the author, Dr David Martin, can also be arranged.

Tags: energy, bonds, the hague center, david martin, peter merry, climate change, financial crisis

Economics 1

http://petermerry.gaia.com — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 20:58:24 GMT

John Maynard Keynes:

"I sympathise ... with those who would minimise, rather than those who would maximise, economic entanglement between nations. Ideas, knowledge, art, hospitality, travel - these are the things which should of their nature be international. But let goods be homespun whenever it is reasonably and conveniently possible; and, above all, let finance be primarily national."

Tags: keynes, economics, financial crisis