Articles Index

	Sign up Now for Email Updates!
	» CLICK HERE

Newsletter Information

Newsletter Archives

Healing Products & Services For Purchase

Register For Workshops and Certifications

Directions

Holistic Integrative Breathing CD's and Online Store

Wisdom Of The Earth Medicinal Therapeutic Grade Essential Oils

DVD's Coming Soon!

Holistic Community Circle Links

Articles

by Rusty Stewart, Ph.D.

This is both an easy and difficult topic to talk about. Easy because so much information is becoming available to us through technology. And difficult because I don't have the answers, only more questions. What I can share is that we need balance and an open mindset to address the complexities of technological advancement. What we have shied away from in the past and present is our larger responsibilities to all of life under the guises of progress. Two major influences on my mindset around this topic are Global Mind Change (Willis Harman, 1998) and Waking Up In Time (Peter Russell, 1998). I encourage you to read them cover to cover.

So much of our technology is about saving time. But for what? Do we take that extra time we've freed up and use it for ourselves, our families, our friends? "With the time we have 'saved,' we pack in some more tasks—and then require another time-saving tool to cope" (Russell, 1998). Sounds like an attachment to me and I'm as guilty as anyone else.

First I would like to clarify that technology is not inherently a bad thing. I use technology extensively in my business. We can all benefit from advances in technology. The key is to attain balance and wake up in consciousness to the greater responsibility for all of life, including our own life! When we experience technology through the above lens, progress as human beings takes on a whole new definition and direction. We need to take in the totality of human experience. Any definition of progress in the context of technology has to include "having no or minimal adverse effects on the whole". The whole, meaning the environment, other peoples, animals, fish, mammals, etc. Otherwise we are not progressing, rather we are regressing and becoming less civilized. Attaining higher levels of consciousness as a human species would help to install a new paradigm or lens.

Balance of the use of technology needs to happen on both the macro and micro levels. The micro refers to how technology either positively or negatively affects us individually in our everyday lives. The macro represents how technology affects the whole, the earth, the universe, the environment, and other beings. We are all aware of examples that can represent both the micro and macro levels. The purpose here is to be aware of our responsibility in determining how we participate in working toward the balanced use of technology on all levels. Sometimes there is no balanced use and the technology turns out to be damaging no matter how we look at it. What gets in the way of eliminating or transforming such technologies is greed, selfishness, and power. Many possible solutions are already available to us, they are just being blocked by people in power. Wake up! You know some of the technologies I am talking about. Better to let the ostriches be ostriches, although we do a pretty good job of it.

So how do we change? How do we evaluate technology and take appropriate action when it is out of integrity? As I said, I don't have the answers, but here is a framework to consider if we are to not to become like the dinosaurs. There needs to be a value emphasis as we move into the trans-modern or trans-industrial world. This means humans in harmony with nature, humans in harmony with one another, individual self-realization, decentralization and an ecology of cultures, and globalization of global issues (Harman, 1998). Or as John Perkins described in our "Advanced Shapeshifting Certification" in April 2004, to save our species from mother earth shaking us off like feas, we need to open up to the "Seven Portals To Higher Consciousness:"

1. Waking up and becoming totally conscious and present.
2. Find our mission in life in alignment with the environment and social responsibility.
3. Develop a relationship with everything (oneness).
4. Go into and access your core or authentic self (higher self).
5. Go into the arutum (Getting connected to the life force, the transformative force).
6. Honoring our spiritual sensuality (honoring the mysteries and power of the body with spirit).
7. Transforming our communities (extending what we know to others, making a difference, taking action, without being evangelical and self-righteous) (Perkins, 2004).