There is astounding evidence of a powerful New World growing in our midst despite escalating worldwide crises if you know where, and how, to look. A guide to this New World, The Practical Visionary unveils eight keys to spiritual growth and social change: how to shift from what is dying to what is being born; understand the evolutionary plan; make your livelihood a social change strategy; invoke the magic of your soul; turn within to find your higher purpose; shape your vision into an achievable mission; see money as a spiritual asset; and transform conflict into a higher synthesis. Upgrade your inner life, and join the thousands of practical visionaries worldwide who are pioneering creative solutions to today s toughest problems.
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Corinne McLaughlin and Gordon Davidson are co-authors of Spiritual Politics (foreword by the Dalai Lama) and Builders of the Dawn. They are founders of The Center for Visionary Leadership and of Sirius Community; and are Fellows of the World Business Academy and the Findhorn Foundation. Corinne previously worked for President Clinton's Council on Sustainable Development, and Gordon worked for the Social Investment Forum.
Corinne McLaughlin is co-author of The Practical Visionary, Spiritual Politics: Changing the World from the Inside Out (Forward by the Dalai Lama) and Builders of the Dawn, and is Executive Director of The Center for Visionary Leadership, based in California and North Carolina. She is co-founder of Sirius, an ecological village in Massachusetts, and is a Fellow of The World Business Academy and the Findhorn Foundation in Scotland. Corinne directed a national task force for President Clinton's Council on Sustainable Development and taught politics at American University. She has lectured around the U.S., Europe and South America for over 25 years, and has been interviewed by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Fox News. She can be reached at: The Center for Visionary Leadership: www.visionarylead.org or at www.thepracticalvisionary.org or email corinnemc@visionarylead.org
I have read so many spiritual development books over the years, that now I generally skim for the good parts. So I was taken by surprise to find, when I picked up "The Practical Visionary," that I was drawn into actually reading the whole book. In fact, I ended up underlining and making !!!s in the margin more than any book I've read in years.
Corinne and Gordon actually share the practical, spiritual approach to life that they live. It feels do-able and effective, yet not overwhelming.
I especially needed this book right now because I have been torn lately - between being pulled among so many possibilities for making a difference in the world, or giving up because of the enormity of the challenges we are facing. This book left me hoping again - based on facts, not just probabilities. I truly got that there IS a new world growing right in the midst of the old!
The authors detail eight keys to spiritual growth and social change. Each one held a special gift for me. Corinne and Gordon have a deep understanding of the shift that is taking place in the human race, and that can also unfold in each one of us personally. They powerfully address both.
Corinne and Gordon lay out for those who may be first coming to this conversation about how to connect into the amazing myriad of initiatives that are part of the emerging new world. It is powerful to read this all in one place, coming from a perspective of having been connected into this world for so many years.
The context they articulate for this time and perspective of how to be "with it all" is well articulated and is an excellent synthesis of so many aspects of being alive at this time on earth. They capture the many questions we all have as we observe the current situation in our country and globally.
This book inspires both just awakening and already awakened humans to new levels in their awareness of and commitment to global transformation.
Practical visionaries Corinne McLaughlin and Gordon Davidson offer the most inspiring, comprehensive and practical guide to spiritual growth and social change yet written. This remarkable book includes everything from practical tools to help us clarify our vision and chart our own path, guided mediations that can help us deepen spiritually, examples of innovative solutions that highlight what is possible, different ways that practical visionaries transform problems into creative solutions, and much more. The book gives us a wider sense of what is possible and offers hope for the future - so important in these times. The book inspires, and even challenges, us to find our part in creating the kind of society we wish to see, offering the tools to make our own vision a reality. Bravo!
"The determination to eradicate the causes of social conflict, to make society one and indivisible is nothing less that the totalitarian ambition. The ambition is to change human nature by political means".--David Horowitz, writing in The Politics of Bad Faith.
According to The Practical Visionary: A New World Guide to Spiritual Growth and Social Change, "Synthesis is the keynote of the New World," which is similar to the "Third Way" premise of Corrine McLaughlin and Gordon Davidson's other book, Spiritual Politics: Changing The World From The Inside Out. The real keynote of these books is in understanding finessed collectivist jargon, particularly terms such as "Third Way," "Synthesis" and "Oneness." Personal spiritual growth indeed has the potential to create positive social change--and perhaps unite humanity in a grassroots fashion. However, when "practical visionaries" and other "enlightened leaders" talk about "spiritual growth" in the context of utopian "social change," their synthesized "spiritual"-political rhetoric can more aptly be described as "progressive" socialistic propaganda.
Beware of visionaries, especially visionaries with an ambitious social vision--they are often motivated by what Dr. Thomas Sowell calls "the vision of the anointed"--see The Vision of the Anointed: Self-Congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy. Self-anointed visionaries are an elite class of secular and religious intelligentsia who use their intellectual prowess to promote "social change" in the name of "social justice...." For more than one-hundred years, verbal virtuosos of the Progressive Movement have been adept at concealing their politically correct "progressive" socialistic politics in the emotion-laden language of compassion. Now, in order to "win the future" and create a "New World Order," the "progressive" battle cry is "Forward" and, to that end, "forward-thinking" intellectuals have crafted a linguistic Trojan Horse--in the form of synthesized "spiritual"-political phraseology--and gifted it to the "spiritual community."
According to The Practical Visionary, we are now living in the Age of Synthesis. "Synthesis," the authors tell us, "is a dynamic dance that transforms separateness and brings diverse parts into right relationships with one another and with the whole, resulting in something creative and enriching." They tell us "The light within you [spiritual understanding] can help you transcend polarity and binary thinking, such as either/or and us vs. them." In the context of personal spiritual growth, I agree that transcending binary thinking can have a unifying psychological influence. But they go too far by stressing the importance of "resolving duality." They say that "Synthesis dictates the trend of all the evolutionary processes today. Everything is working toward large unified blocs," namely "global planning" and "economic fusion." Correspondingly, in the context of synthesized "social change" (from "bottom up, and top down"), synthesis also dictates a trend toward synthesized "spiritual politics."
Spiritual Politics is purportedly based on "Ageless Wisdom" channeled from "Masters" within the "Spiritual Hierarchy" to "spiritual leaders" of a "New Age". Through meditation, self-anointed "spiritual"-political New Age leaders are supposedly in an elevated state of consciousness that enables them to see the "Third Way" and synthesize the polarized political ideas of liberal and conservative politicians. With visions of a socialistic New World Order, "enlightened leaders" stand on their soapbox and preach a synthesized spiritual-political sermon intending to "transform" (indoctrinate) individual minds and the Collective Consciousness of humanity. Ironically, despite the alleged existence of an authoritarian "Spiritual Hierarchy," the doctrine of "Oneness" is the clarion call in the collectivistic New Age, also known as the "Age of Synthesis".
Salvation, in the Age of Synthesis, relies heavily on collectivist principles that I call the Oneness Doctrine. The Oneness Doctrine synthesizes everything: it especially emphasizes the need for individuals to reject their "false ego" (individuality) and identify with their collectivized "authentic Self". Like John the Baptist preaching to people about their sins and telling them to repent--when The Practical Visionary guides its readers to meditate on "world crisis" (such as, man-caused "global warming" and "unfair distribution of wealth" between "the rich" and "the poor") it's actually a form of hypnotic induction that induces a guilt-ridden receptive state of mind designed to "rewire your brain" and program it with the notion of "collective salvation," which is a synthesized "higher evolutionary plan" for creating "heaven on Earth."
"Planned evolution," except for its "synthetic" rhetorical value, is an oxymoronic notion. Moreover, the "Plan," or "Idea," of a perfect "Spirit World" predates Plato and his vision of the world being ruled by "philosopher kings." Unfortunately, throughout history the various "enlightened" plans to create "heaven on Earth" have failed miserably every time they have been tried. Given the "spiritual" similarity between religious visions of Heaven and secular visions of "heaven on Earth," spiritual practitioners have often been seduced by the Utopian Dream--and have unwittingly paved the way for totalitarian dictators. Like the "useful idiots" that helped bring Russian dictator Joseph Stalin to power and implement his Five-Year Plan, followers of the contemporary "spiritual"-political Plan could unwittingly help turn planet Earth into a giant socialistic commune and subject humanity to the authoritarian rule of the "Spiritual Hierarchy" and its "New World" chain of command.
In other words, the collectivist "vision" of a "New World" is a Utopian Dream, and "practical" aspect of "planned evolution" is actually a recipe for creating a Distopian future. Perhaps the authors of The Practical Visionary have good intentions. But, as the saying goes, "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions." While personal spiritual growth has the potential to advance societal progress, the "progressive" meaning of "social change" is just a euphemism for concentration of power, which incrementally transfers power from individuals and from states and local municipalities to a centralized political authority, and ultimately (if things go according to "the Plan") to One World Government.
If "practical visionaries" really want to "make a difference" in a positive way, then they should cultivate their own spiritual growth and stop playing "spiritual politics." Don't be fooled by the surreal "synthesis" of spirituality and politics. While it's heartwarming to imagine that "the World" will "live as one," as John Lennon's song Imagine suggests, just imagine how much better our world would be if every individual focused on personal spiritual growth rather than "social change." For individuals and social institutions (such as regulatory agencies, political parties, and the numerous kinds of 501(c) organizations) to become "spiritual activists" and practice synthesized "spiritual politics" is to succumb to socialistic group-think and fall prey to spiritual malpractice.
Because of the authors' misguiding "spiritual politics," I'm tempted to give The Practical Visionary a one-star rating. But that would be unfair because many of the ideas about personal spiritual growth are worthy of consideration, and could actually help "change the world" in a positive grassroots way. Since this book contains many unifying spiritual ideas that offer valid food for thought, I give it three out of five stars--but read with caution, and remember to separate the spiritual "wheat" from the collectivist political "chaff."Read more ›
Corinne and Gordon write from a core of deep spiritual knowledge, practical experience and love, enabling their collective wisdom to speak to each one of us, so that all may have access to it, to connect with it, and live out our higher purpose in helping to transform our world into a better place. They aptly convey how there is no difference between inner, spiritual change and outer, social change.
We are gently implored to invoke our souls, or higher selves, and become more aligned with the very thing we are each meant to do. We are shown how taking the spiritual journey to explore and take action - to create change, from the deeper meaning that we will find or rediscover, is achievable for all members of society and ages, regardless of background.
For the first time in such a book, special credit is given to Gen Y as seers and doers in reframing a workable world.
The Practical Visionary is a book that everyone should read.
