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Aquarius Now: Radical Common Sense and Reclaiming Our Personal Sovereignty

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"Our sleepwalking is the source of our collective misery. We have been asleep to our subtler conflicts, our deep impasses, and our latent gifts. But having glimpsed the range of our unconscious knowing, our rich `secret lives', we can hardly be content to go back to sleep." - From the book

In 1980, Marilyn Ferguson published The Aquarian Conspiracy-a book often called the Bible of the consciousness movement. At that time, inspired millions scanned the radar for signs of this nameless positive movement, as well as for like-minded others. These one were looking to create a more humane society and began working a quiet revolution by emphasizing creativity in the workplace and blending cutting-edge science with mysticism in both classrooms and pulpits.

In her new book Aquarius Now: Radical Common Sense and Reclaiming Our Personal Sovereignty, Ms. Ferguson shows readers how to thrive in a time of escalating change. Through exposing the insidious effects of the "Cult of Numbers"-the mindset that thrives on first, biggest, most, latest, and best-she sends a clarion call for humanity to "wake up in the dark". She says that our task is not to climb a mountain, but to navigate a river.

While humanity is asleep at the wheel, Ferguson asserts that we each have a latent visionary inside of us who can break loose from the prison of apathy. Surviving and thriving in this ever-changing world requires us to be innovators. In times past, troubled societies has a simple solution: move. However, Aquarius Now describes not a physical migration but one in which humans leave the familiar world of habitual strife and irrational priorities. Where is this amazing place the Great Tribe must emigrate to or perish? One of new understanding.

According to Ferguson, "a successful migration depends on the ingenuity of the tools we crate along the way." These are:

* Vision: A credible picture of what we might do and where we might go.

* Values: The return to classic values like kindness, willingness to work, and civic responsibility-and embracing newer values like caring for the environment.

* Purpose: Meaningful causes or projects that can unite groups of people.

* Common sense: A demonstrated awareness of facts and consequences.

* Action: It's all within our ability. Somebody *do* something.

Every one of us contains multiple selves that make up "me". One "self" may enthusiastically agree to take on a project while another self is later horrified that more was bit than can be chewed. A self avowed "black thumb" eagerly takes up gardening. Although our internal "repertory companies" may vary, we all have them. However, Ferguson maintains that it's not multiplicity that's the problem, but rather our *obliviousness* to these selves. She writes:

"C.G. Jung insisted that when people are unaware of their inner opponents, the world acts out the conflicts and is torn into warring communities...Behavior we call unconscious may be a conscious choice of one of the parts."

Interestingly, visionaries learn to use this multiplicity creatively. Ferguson goes on to say:

"Intelligence may reflect a company of talented subselves, each at the ready with a skill or insight. Our ability to manage these perspectives and passions rewards us with inner and outer balance".

In a call to reclaim our sovereignty and creating a future, Aquarius Now shows us that the imbalance we see "out there" is merely a reflection of the imbalance within. To heal the imbalance, we must heal ourselves. Because there is no "map" to where we're going as a species, each of us must take responsibility for ourselves and go within to find the way. One of the ways we create this map is to recognize the archetypal selves that can lead us to "begin the world again":

* The Athlete - Challenge and the Art of Self-Encouragement
* The Hunter-Gatherer and the Scout - Choosing to be Intelligent
* The Dowser - Tuning In to the Field
* The Firemaker - Rekindling the Flames of Intuition
* The Artist-Scientist - The Drive to Discover
* The Sacred Warrior - Finding the Right Engagement
* The Holy Fool - Creative Responses to Fear
* The Free Spirit - Liberty and the Law of Levity
* The Navigator - Remembering the Future

Serving as a modern-day prophet, Marilyn Ferguson provides timely insights, strategies and tools for navigating the evolutionary river. She speaks as one who has peeked into the future and beheld the awe-inspiring horizon of a more mindful society-bringing back to us the necessary coordinates for getting from here to there.

It's time to wake-up, sleepyhead. Our collective survival depends on you.

And you.

And you.

(P.S. The reason I gave this book 4 stars instead of 5 is because Ferguson relies heavily on quotes from others. If you're looking for another good book along this line, Urgent Message From Mother by Jean Shinoda Bolen is an excellent book. Ferguson actually quotes Bolen in her book, in fact.)

Her book the Aquarian Conspiracy is now 26 years old, and when it came out it shocked many people and outraged some others. With hindsight, it was an important catalyst toward some new and important ways of engaging with the problems facing us all.

This new book is wise, well written and acutely insightful. Her passionate optimism is no New Age fluff, but is grounded in experience and science.

This really is a Must Read for anyone with any interest at all in our future. And that should be all of us!

Marilyn Ferguson has done it again. Succinctly, she weaves together the threads of science, psychology, and sociology to deliver a compelling message that we are hungry for.

Aquarius Now builds an undeniable case and guide for freeing ourselves with Radical Common Sense, the hyper sense of today.

This book is for the molders and shapers of today who want not to control their lives but to be in command of it! Ferguson invites us to be self-leaders, and then she provides us with a guide, to paraphrase Gandhi, to be the change we want to see in the world.

She includes well-documented quotes, research and examples for us to grasp while repeatedly cautioning us not to become addicted to the Cult of Numbers.

The chapter on the brain and the importance of teaching really charged my neurons. She provides one of the best arguments I have read on why we must focus on increasing human intelligence rather than trying to measure it.

From her enduring wisdom she reminds us it is the individual that benefits first, and society second. Through the process of internal "common sensing," which is the effective use of our multifaceted, paradoxical multiple personality--the community of learners within us--that harvests our expanded intelligence and opens the door to greater understanding, experience and vision. We can then deliberately increase the collective intelligence by passing it on to others. It is this process that shapes society.

It is best stated in her own words, "The ferment and viability in any society is directly proportionate to the number of people actively living their ideas. This is not positive thinking--it is positive action--the spirit of experiment." Spread the word!

Armchair Interviews says: What can you do? Read the book! It is not a gauntlet being thrown but a gentle request to join her in a place where life is good and of our own choosing.

Marilyn Fergsuon's legacy began with the publication of her groundbreaking bestseller, "The Brain Revolution" (Taplinger, 1972). Her synthesis of key discoveries from variant neurobiological specialties suggested a model of the systems of the brain, mind, and consciousness that presented new and extraordinary implications for a vastly enlarged concept of human potential. The book stirred excitement among scientists whose work resonated with or lent support to her unique and bold assertions, researchers whose findings were traditionally ignored by conventional scientific publications. A flood of inquiries and requests to compare notes and share ideas followed, prompting Ferguson in 1975 to found "Brain/Mind Bulletin" to create a forum for reporting and exploring the wealth of discoveries emerging across the multidisciplinary fields of a burgeoning New Science.

Ferguson is an articulate writer with a talent for translating obscure scientific jargon into comprehensive terms that have wide appeal. Hence, the "Bulletin" acquired an immediate reputation for insight, accuracy, and liveliness. And subscriptions multiplied by the thousands and spanned 52 countries through word-of-mouth publicity alone. Her knack for communicating complex theories with an elegant simplicity and seeing the underlying social implications in every cutting-edge piece of research established her as a permanent fixture at almost every conference and international congress and symposium on advances in brain/mind/body research, holistic health, alternative medicine, the environment, learning and education, biofeedback, and the psycho-technologies. Wide notoriety placed her at the hub of a community of visionary movers and shakers from every scientific and academic discipline. Her watershed classic, "The Aquarian Conspiracy" (JP Tarcher, 1980,'87) chronicled the efforts of this vast network of creative innovators working to bring about radical change and create a more cooperative enlightened society through a benign conspiracy for a new human agenda, challenging the outdated assumptions of an old paradigm that had modern civilization on a downward spiral.

Borrowing Thomas Kuhn's analysis in "The History of Scientific Revolutions" she applied his model of paradigm shifts in science to a critical mass of acquired knowledge and extant problems compelling fundamental reinventions of social institutions. "The New York Times" described her philosophy as an alternative thought working its way increasingly into the nation's cultural, religious, social, economic, and political life. Her manifesto is widely credited for pulling into focus and giving impetus to the great irrevocable shift she so vividly described and helped to foment. "The Aquarian Conspiracy", which "USA Today" hailed as the handbook of a New Age, was translated into dozens of languages and sold millions worldwide, taking a cultural phenomenon to the height of a global movement. The book became a required text for psychology and sociology courses at universities across the nation. And countless independent Aquarian Conspiracy workshops and discussion groups popped up around the globe. The book remains in print now after thirty years, and her vision continues to facilitate individual and collective transformations to this day. "The Aquarian Conspiracy" earned many prestigious awards and honors. In 1980 it won the coveted Book of the Year Award from Renewal. It was voted the most significant political work of the decade by readers of the alternative press. And was listed among the ten most important books of the Twentieth Century by a prestigious European literary guild. She received the Library Trust Award from Brandeis University, an honorary doctorate of Literature from John F. Kennedy University, and Trainer of the Year Award from the American Society for Training and Development. Al Gore, as a U.S. Senator, founded the Congressional Clearinghouse on the Future after reading "The Aquarian Conspiracy" to create a forum for introducing policymakers in Washington to the ideas and insights of exceptional thinkers. Gore invited Ferguson to deliver the committee's inaugural address. And she later went on to become the first speaker from the private sector invited to address Congress a second time. The United Nations featured Ferguson as a keynote at its 1985 Spirit of Peace Conference alongside luminaries Mother Theresa and the Dali Lama of Tibet. Copies of "The Aquarian Conspiracy" were passed on to every principal of Poland's Solidarity Movement, and presented to every cabinet member of the Reagan Administration. Marilyn is founder of the Association of Humanistic Psychology, on the advisory committee of the Association of Transpersonal Psychology, and serves on the board of The Institute of Noetic Sciences.

The extent of her impact on science, education, and public policy has been far-reaching and immeasurable. Her work inspired a successful literacy movement in one of Latin America's most uneducated democracies. The vast success of her book spawned a movement in publishing during the 1980s and 90s that came to be known as the widely popular New Age genre. Her influence is seen today in almost every aspect of society, from the common use of the term paradigm shift in the popular culture, to the footnotes of a landmark decision from the second highest court in the land.

In "Aquarius Now" (RedWheel/Weiser, 2006) Ferguson revisits the paradigm wars she so courageously explored in the 1980s, exchanging the philosophy of either-or for a system of inclusion that incorporates material reality into the transcendent realm of spirit forming one holistic multidimensional worldview. We will never achieve perfection or reclaim our personal self-sovereignty, she submits, by reforming institutions. As monuments of our failure to be guides and benefactors of reality, they well serve their purpose. Modern healthcare made its biggest leaps of advancement when Western and alternative therapies combined to form a paradigm of complimentary medicine, no longer the polar opposites of competing ideologies.

We must awaken to the responsibility of becoming our own teachers, healers, and spiritual leaders. Institutions that fall short of these goals will benefit us only once they take their proper place as facilitating agencies and parallel systems of resources and support. Within each of us resides a many-faceted consciousness that has roots in the multiplex configurations of our neurophysiology, Ferguson explains. This repertoire company, which often manifests in antagonistic and self-defeating contradictions, can be organized into a system of harmonious correspondents if we stretch ourselves beyond the norm and take on the simultaneous roles we've historically delegated to specialties. Confronting life's challenges head-on with a mind toward self-reliance, we can awaken within us an artist, scientist, warrior, shaman, serious player, navigator, etc., and become masters of destiny for ourselves and the world around us.

In a culture where commercially successful intellectuals repackage the same ideas over and over, Ferguson's redirection from her 1980 optimism for attaining transformation through reasoned argument and the discrediting of entrenched ideas, to this much deeper more complex path of inner revolution, is a mark of the rare ingenuousness this legendary author embodies, and a testament to her on-going value as one of humanity's most viable pioneers and contributors toward the evolution of consciousness.

Kudos to this veteran philosopher and luminary giant for her unprecedented efforts to upgrade us all.

In "Aquarius Now" Ferguson revisits the paradigm wars she so famously explored in the 1980s, exchanging the ideology of either/or for a philosophy of inclusion that incorporates transcendent realms of consciousness and spirit with material reality, forging a holistically unified multidimensional worldview.

We'll never achieve perfection or reclaim self-sovereignty, Ferguson submits, by reforming institutions. As monuments of our failure to be guides and benefactors of reality, they well serve their purpose.

Healthcare, for example, made tremendous leaps in recent years with the sudden expansion of complimentary and alternative medicine (CAM). In this case, progress has not been the result of any change in heart among guardians of the status quo. Millions were taking charge and responsibility for their own health, educating themselves and making informed decisions. In the early 2000s, national surveys by the CDC and NCCAM revealed that Americans were spending in excess of $34 billion annually out-of-pocket on hydropathic, herbalist, homeopathic, Ayurvedic, naturopathic, chiropractic, biofeedback, and acupuncturist therapies in conjunction with conventional treatments. The industry took notice, and has been taking steps to institutionalize CAM through the incorporation of alternative practices into standard protocols.

"Aquarius Now" promotes a new paradigm of psychology, submitting that within each of us is a many-faceted consciousness with roots, to some extent, in the multiplex configurations of our neurophysiology. This repertoire company, what Ferguson called "the selves we travel with", often manifests in antagonistic and self-defeating contradictions. But these fragmented aspects of our psyches can organize into a system of harmonious correspondents, she wrote, when we stretch beyond the norm and take on simultaneous roles we delegated long ago to professional specialties.

Confronting life's challenges with a mind toward self-reliance can awaken within us an artist, a scientist, a warrior, a shaman, a serious player, a navigator, etc. With such a company at our disposal we become masters of our destiny. When we evolve into our own leaders, into our own teachers, our own healers, and mentors, our institutions - which have fallen short of these roles - will fall into their proper places as facilitating agencies and parallel systems of resources.

Transforming society through the much deeper and more complex path of inner revolution leads in a markedly different direction from the 1980 optimism of fostering paradigm shifts one institution at a time by pointing out flaws in the status quo and showing how new perspectives make more sense.

In a society where the majority of commercially successful authors repackage the same ideas over and over, this reversal of the seminal message that earned her critical acclaim and worldwide fame is a mark of rare virtue, a testament to her value as one of humanity's viable pioneers of conscious evolution.

Kudos to Ferguson for her effort to inspire us all.