Joran and Barbara Marx Hubbard
Last weekend, I flew to Radford, VA to speak at the Building the New World Conference along with Barbara Marx Hubbard, Charles Eisenstein, Kurt Johnson and many others.
I was honored to represent Integral Church in St. Petersburg to deliver a workshop entitled, “A Brilliant Matrix: An Integral View of the World’s Religions” alongside the amazing Amy Edelstein. We covered topics such as Spiral Dynamics, Integral Christianity and Evolutionary Spirituality.
Other presentations and panels included topics from the various sectors of Hubbard’s “Wheel of Co-Creation” (education, business, media, government, environment, art, science and more).
It was truly an honor and a privilege to connect with so many amazing people and I look forward to continuing the great conversations and collaborations that this event has given birth to.
Thanks to Rev. Laura George, Glen Martin and the staff at Radford University for making this a great event.
– JSO
Joran and Amy Edelstein
Thoughts from The Plane (3/28)
“Keep in mind the closest exit may be behind you.”
I am physically lifted from the surface of the Earth. Above the clouds, above the atmosphere of even my own thoughts. I slowly gain altitude and perspective on the values and relationships that are at work (and at play) in and upon my life. My heart and mind let go of any unnecessary weight, allowing it to fall back to Earth, handing it all over to gravity. Giving it all to “God.”
I see the planet below as a blue green organism, veined with wet rivulets and richly detailed connective ecosystems, occasionally interrupted by layers and patches of mechanical gray — an ordered, human civilization that is spreading. Slowly.
We carve and inscribe our culture and our systems onto the Earth in hard lines and exaggerated strokes, imitating what is already inherent in nature — fluid cells, shifting borders, porous boundaries — but we choose to set them in metal and stone.
The clouds cast great moving shadows on the Ground, creeping across the surface, providing a brief respite from the heat of our life-giving Sun.
We have such potential to numbly and mindlessly choke new growth from the surface of her. But we have the same potential to connect to each other, unfold together and build new worlds.
My heart opens like a searchlight with a love for all beings. “As far as the eye can see” can be a pretty small place.
Conference Highlights
“I am the Universe in person.” – Barbara Marx Hubbard
“Humanity has been given this crisis. We need to learn to use the Internet properly. We have the nervous system for this.” – BMH
“I am an artist. I am seeking an image of man commensurate with our power to change the future.” – BMH
“Any time we enter structure, we lose heart.” – BMH
“Education means to ‘draw out,’ not to download information” – Nina Meyerhoff (coeworld.org)
“A system of sovereignty means ‘we have nothing in common with the rest of humanity.'” – Glen Martin
“The UN charter is a document designed to sustain military diplomacy and war.” Eugenia Almand
“In the Conscious-Technology Age, poverty is the act of being boring.” – Jerome Glenn
“Inner peace is a global responsibility.” – Philip Hellmich (Shift Network)
“So many activists come from a place of anger and urgency. If you talk to the mystics, they came from a place of deep love.” – P.H.
“We’re not the inventors of story, we’re the channels of story.” – Betsy Pool
“All the audience members now have instruments, and they insist on playing along.” – B.P.
“The world’s foremost taxi company [Uber] owns no cars. The most popular travel and hotel website [AirB&B] owns no buildings. The most popular content site [Facebook] produces no content. We have moved from an age of ownership to an age of access.” – B.P.
“Robots (emulations) might look fondly back on you as their ancestors. But they’ll think they’re better than you. And they’ll be right.” – Robin Hanson, Ph. D
“Children are entitled to decision-making in their life.” – N.M.
“When we can see our reference points as reverence points, then we will know the Truth that sets us free.” – Chris Van Cleave
Thoughts from the Plane (3/31)
I now dream of an ever-unfolding heart.
I now stand, supported by teachers, mentors and new friends — surrounded by their love.
I now commit to building the New World one small, meaningful step at a time.
Joran Slane Oppelt 