The challenge is, it seems obvious, that we cannot tear down all of the institutions, buildings, infrastructure, businesses and start with a blank slate. We are already too far into the game to do something like that, and it likely would create a great deal of chaos, even though it may be one of the better strategies that we might follow. Some places, if the people´s of those places were to take the time to evaluate, with as clear a perspective as possible, may decide to do just that. To start all over. To eliminate all of the systems that are not working. Or go to a new location and create a new community.

But that is not what I am proposing here. This book is designed and conceived with the purpose of ways that we can design, develop and build new systems while we are living in the existing system. One way this could be described is to sort of “reverse engineer” our way to a new set of systems that are more efficient, that serve the people better and at the same time protect the natural environment as well as can be accomplished.

In order for this reverse engineering to take place, we need to have an idea, or concept, or philosophy which will guide us in this process. I have chosen, basically two, that are so simple and easy to understand that every one can comprehend. One of them, I believe, is almost universally known. The second is not so well known, but really is just a variation of the first. And this concept was brought to us many years ago by one of the greatest, purest, spirits and human beings that lived on the planet, Albert Schwietzer. The other “philosophy” that we all know, was brought to us by Jesus.

It will be important to state here that this book does not support, promote or is based on any religious philosophy. Nor will you find any direct discussion on these lines. The point is that I had to decide on a philosophy that could be universal, that could not be argued away, and that would provide a solid foundation towards which to build this bridge—essentially to our own salvation. It is my view that if we do not accomplish this transformation, we will not survive as a species (at least in this physical form). We are like a cancer on this planet and I believe, unless we change our relationship, we are going to be evicted. And, in order to bring these changes about we are going to have to do it ourselves. I do not think that anyone is going to come “save” us, although we might get some assistance. But that is another topic altogether.

So, in this introduction, and there will be significantly more discussion about these points, but I want to introduce these two philosophies, or belief systems, or whatever you want to call them. The first is the Golden Rule,  "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." The second is “Reverence for Life” from Albert Schwietzer. His idea is described in much greater detail in the next pages.

Again, both of these ideas will be discussed in other essays, but they needed to get introduced here as the goal, destination, guiding principles, or ethics by which we direct our efforts. Another way of putting this is these ideas become the foundation for the new structures that we build for our “new world”.

So, we have our destination, but now we must build a bridge. How do we get from where we are to the other side? That, metaphorically speaking, is what this book is about. The ideas presented are conceived and developed within our existing systems of business, government, socio-cultural aspects and the environment. But their purpose is to move us to more sustainable, effective and efficient ways of living that can better accomplish what we all know in our hearts to be possible. It is entirely possible for every person to have happiness and a comfortable life. People do not have to live in “survival mode”, unless of course that is their choice. I, like other people who have lived for the purpose to be of Service to others, do not believe we should have to struggle for the basic necessities of life. A “civilization” should be founded on things like food, shelter, housing being provided by the “collective” of humanity. Because in truth we are family, and family takes care of its members. Just like the sun, air, water and all we need to live are provided to us for FREE. This idea of having to “pay” for everything in order to live just doesn´t work and we can come up with a better, more workable model. Another thing that I believe we all know is possible is for us, as a species, to live in peace and harmony with each other, and with the planet.

But we have a long way to go. That is why this book is so long. Of course I cannot, nor would I ever, claim to have “the answer”. What I put forward here is what has come to me through my life´s experiences and my work, which strangely enough seems have been my purpose in this world. This book is the result of what my “job” was, even though no one hired me to do this job.

Taken as a whole this book may seem to be overwhelming. But if taken in the right way it is not. Later in the book is an essay entitled “how do we simplify this model” which describes in more detail how we can use the Golden Law and Reverence for Life to guide us to our destination. It describes an analogy of a mountain climber—he takes one step at a time. It is just like writting this introduction and this book. I have accomplished putting all of these words in all of these pages, one keystroke at a time. So, this book, in a way, is the plan for the bridge that I envsion that will get us to a “nicer” world. It may not be the perfect world, or it may be. The point is that the ideas here can be implemented partially, or in total. But how they are actually implemented in a particular place will very much depend on the people, conditions and situation of that place. These ideas of adaptation, and contextualizing are built into the processes described herein.

The point of this introduction is to give the reader a “context” for all of the ensuing pages of ideas, diagrams, descriptions, etc. And to also state that these are put forward from my heart, and with the purest of intentions, in the hopes that they might bring some benefit to others, and this beautiful world we call Earth.

Imagine a “Toolbox”

The idea behind this book is to bring forward a variety of theories, processes and “tools” for community empowerment and socio-economic revitalization and to present these different aspects to create a "whole solution". This is not necessarily "the solution". It can be considered one bridge. It utilizes many experiences, academic theories and applications, the Internet, and even considerable “spiritual underpinnings” that builds a bridge from the virtual, or even the spiritual world to the real world. So many authors and groups present their solution as “the solution”. I will not be so presumptuous in this book. What I present here is a common sense based set of “tools” for dealing with challenges confronting, primarily, rural communities and peoples.

The best way to view these resources is as part of “toolbox”. Later in this book I provide a metaphorical “tourism toolbox”, which gives greater clarity on this metaphor. I have found that commonly occurring metaphors or analogies, can be very powerful to help relay apparently complex, and/or new ideas to people unfamiliar with them. I think a mechanic and his toolbox is an idea that practically every person understands. And for my purposes, I have gathered together a collection of “tools” for community and individual empowerment. But, just as with a mechanic , some tools may or may not be useful in any particular situation. The nice thing is, that if we don´t have the right tool, then we can easily go out and find it, because it is very likely that someone in the world has made it. And, we can likely access it via the Internet.

These processes, techniques and organizational structure that I describe in this book have been being developing (and continue to evolve) since about 1986. More or less, the foundation of my work can be described as “common sense”. I have very little desire to just play with ideas. I see too many problems and challenges in the world that need to be solved. And in my opinion we are way past the time for hoping things will somehow change of their own accord.

All of these materials have been developed from experience and application, although the beginning point is based on research and theory from the disciplines of tourism, geography, rural sociology, political science, environmental studies and engineering.

It is not the point to highlight my experiences, but the breadth of these experiences span a full vertical spectrum from planting trees, to developing high level strategy for one of the most prestigious universities in the world. This book is meant to be entirely practical, yet deals with the necessity for placing the approaches in context. It is important to note that from my experience our primary dilemma in the world has resulted from myopic perspectives. We have been doing so many things in the world  without considering the connecting implications of what we are doing. In other words, if we take one particular action, what are the potential repercussions and how are we going to deal with them. A quote that best captures this idea is from John Muir “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.” As such, this book is about the application of a set of ideas, theories, and practical tools to address “real-world” situations for rural development, in the context of incredible pressures for change.

Moving from academic to application

Additionally, this book is not academic, although it has evolved from academia. Nor is this book intended for simply an interesting analysis and discussion to provide “food for thought”, it puts forward an adaptable framework and a set of functional resources that could, potentially, provide utility in any context. The critical point here is that these processes and resources are adaptable and not “set in stone”. Additionally, it is critical that these ideas are not put forward from the vacuum of thought, from a think-tank, but have been created from experience and real world examples. The Second volume for the Vision book will provide several real world examples of people, organizations and projects that have provided much inspiration, and can guide you, the reader, as well. The experiences that have created these approaches, cross international and state boundaries, and cross the various domain boundaries historically created in educational disciplines (e.g. biology, engineering, philosophy, etc.). This point is covered in more detail later in a section “Systems Approach”. In fact, it could be seen as one of the primary goals of this book to erase those boundaries and barriers. The world is not separated by any boundaries, or barriers, we have created them. Many concepts of community whether based on race, religion, philosophy, regional or geographical delineation, institutional or geo-political have been a major obstacle for creating solutions to the challenges and problems that are faced by innumerable communities, and regions across the globe. Scientists, institutions and bureaucracies have swallowed up precious financial resources only to cordon off their domains, with very little inter-cooperation with other people or institutions to produce solutions. An entire book could be written about this topic, but it is not the point to bemoan the past or current paradigms but to present a new paradigm that leads to solutions.

Building a bridge between the “realities” of our current primary systems of existence and those espoused by the great thinkers

This book touches on the idea of building a bridge from the “spiritual realm” which appears at some level to be at a critical transformational time. This metaphorical bridge needs to be constructed from the mystical, spiritual and philosophical realms back to the world that we live in. I recognize that many are awakening, but there are still the majority of people who are stuck in a sort of survival mode, especially people who work in rural places or are dependent on the agricultural economies. We are going to have to build out the new reality, but we need to work our way back out from the existing systems. I don't think we can just tear everything down and start over.

The main content of this book includes a number of "case studies" applying innovative approaches for rural development, but in order to provide “context” there needs to be a grounding principle as a foundation.

It seems it must have been the self appointed task of great thinkers like Einstein and Schweitzer to tackle these kinds of tasks, to conceptualize universal principles. I don´t think anyone ever came to either of these men and asked them to try to create a foundational philosophy, or “unified theory”, for all of humanity. They must have come to this from there own inner compulsion, or through divine intervention. Einstein was working in the realm of science and Schweitzer was working in the area of ethics and philosophy.

I have found myself looking at the abyss between those beautiful and profound teachings and views and philosophies and the existence that most people have on the planet. We live in a time that is dominated by simple survival by most people. Our mentality has been totally skewed to ideas of scarcity, conflict and suffering. And yet in other areas we can see such beauty of the human spirit, so much potential lying dormant in the capacity for love that every human-being possesses.

Working within the existing economic paradigm.

I have fallen into this task, apparently not by choice but because of experience. Also because I see such a desperate need for building a structure, or system, of sorts that allows us to have a process that provides us with the way by which we can climb our way out of our collective conundrum.

Serendipity or synchronicity seem to be at play because, as I finally began to organize this book (after about 10 years in conception), it just so happened that I was reading “The Philosophy of Civilization” by Albert Schweitzer. While reading the Preface of the book the realization struck me that Albert’s life work was to provide a foundation or “back-drop” for a philosophy for civilization which can, more than adequately, provide a basis for peaceful co-existence with the rest of humanity and with nature. I realized a section of the preface describes that foundation for this book as provided in the introduction.

Albert and other great thinkers (Einstein, Tagore) realized that our philosophical and spiritual belief systems create the foundation, or context for all the rest of our “reality”. If the first foundation is based on false premise, than the resulting structure will be doomed to collapse. Jesus, The Buddha, Krishna, Schweitzer, Tagore, Einstein and innumerable other great teachers and thinkers have provided us ample evidence to the fact that there must be ONE “organizing principle”, for if you identify two, there is an opening for fragmentation. Albert´s concept “reverence for life” provides a sufficient “philosophy of the universe” by which to build a structure for empowering rural communities while at the same time protecting the natural environment which is critical for places and peoples to survive. Using reverence for life, as a grounding and guiding principle, to the best of our ability, is a most sufficient basis for moving forward.

I believe if one takes a serious and sober look at the situation of the world, we see that this philosophy is effective. Then what we need is something to motivate us to be willing to consider and implement this philosophy as individuals, but also as humanity. I believe the motivation is very simple to create. And it comes from asking ourselves one question “are we satisfied with the results to this point?”, that being the collective or individual life experience in the world.

Now this book is not about getting lost in the problems, this is part of the problem in the world today.

The world is not going to the devil; it is going to God.

It is wonderful Becoming.

True, there may be a good many things in existing conditions which are disagreeable; but what is the use of studying them when they are certainly passing away, and when the study of them only tends to check their passing and keep them with us? Why give time and attention to things which are being removed by evolutionary growth, when you can hasten their removal only by promoting the evolutionary growth as far as your part of it goes? ~ Wallace D. Wattles

I believe our access to the media and instantaneous exposure to negative images and the energies associated with them contribute to, rather than resolve, the problems that we see. When our emotional energy, either positive or negative, are invested in situations that are beyond our realm of influence, in any particular situation, that energy contributes to the expansion or growth of that situation. The mass media, and most human interactions in these times, have the strong tendency for contributing to the problems, primarily because the images and messages highlight the problem and create emotional responses of fear, anger, powerlessness and desperation.

The intent of this book is to move toward solutions. This is not to say that we will stick our heads in the sand like the proverbial ostrich, because we must see situations in the most clear, realistic and comprehensive fashion possible. But, as we observe the situations we must always be moving to the positive. This discussion here could easily expand to an entire book itself, and it deals with the “spiritual” side of the solution, but we cannot evade the understanding that there are forces working beyond our perception, our intellectual understanding, or appreciation, to assist us in surviving our current paradigmatic challenges. This, at its core, was what great beings like Schweitzer, Tagore and Einstein were pointing us to in their tireless efforts to create a sort-of “back-drop” Unified Field Theory or philosophical view by which to construct a new reality.

My approach in this writing, using a popular term is to, in a way, “reverse-engineer” solutions back from the real conditions and situations being faced by people around the globe. If we can move our relationship to the world, nature and other people (all that exists) to Schweitzer´s “reverence for life” I believe we will find it a wholly sufficient universal viewpoint.

Changing our paradigmatic perspectives—our relationship to nature (Gaia)
It is interesting to note that both Schweitzer and Einstein were obsessed with creating a sort of "unified" philosophy or theory under which we could pull ourselves out of the abyss. Schweitzer's was "Reverence for Life" based on ethics and philosophy and Einstein's was based on physics, he called the unified theory (He was also obsessed with creating One World government). Unified doesn't mean one right way, but a way that can rescue us while at the same time embracing the incredible diversity and abundance that one finds in the world and ultimately the cosmos. Both of these great thinkers realized that the universe supports inclusion not exclusion. And that systems that support, sustain and even promote these concepts of exclusion will not survive the changes that are in process.

The task that I have found myself in, is kind of like a mechanic to gather together tools for a "tool box". My task has been for helping rural communities evolve and survive as the agricultural economy changes - they actually have incredible opportunities because the natural environment is really the "goose that lays golden eggs" (and nature, in its greatest abundance and purity is found in rural places). It's just that "man's" paradigmatic view, that might be described as dominance and exploitation, demonstrates his position and/or relationship with the natural environment as adversarial, or domineering. The planet in the current and potentially prior paradigms was viewed simply as something to extract resources from, to make money or build a home. What I believe is necessary is for a complete paradigm shift in how man views and relates to nature. I think, and it is coming to me at this moment, that it is the divine feminine, highly evolved in the Earth as a conscious being that is awakening us from our collective nightmare.

That model of exploiting nature does not work anymore (personally I don´t believe it ever did, but it has brought us to this point, and I do believe the statement “nothing happens in God´s world by mistake”). It is possible that this resource manual, and some of its philosophical and spiritual underpinnings, will help bring about this change.

However, the real intent of this book is to be a practical, doable guidebook providing a variety of approaches, ideas and tools to help people transform their situations. So, what I have been doing over several years is gathering a set of tools, or making new ones, to take to places to empower the different levels of community that exist within the community. This concept is discussed in more detail as Principle 3) Success Across Scales, in the Executive Summary, The Vision to Transform the World. This idea which relates to creating environments where individuals thrive and prosper and then form other organizations at different levels resulting in success at various scales (business, city, region, state).

How this book is organized.

As the reader may have realized, this book is organized into five major sections. The first provides an introduction to the entire book, introducing foundational theories, concepts and describing some background information about why this book came about. The section section introduces the Vision to Transform the World which was the first writing about these various ideas into one cohesive whole. The third section, and by far the most substantial goes into to details and expands on the concepts and application of the ideas introduced in the Executive Summary and includes Case Examples of actual proposals that have been written and presenting. The Fifth section provides “real world” Case Studies that are used as a way to give the reader, potentially, examples of how people and organizations that are showing us the way to create a more harmonious and sustainable world. 

To a greater or lesser extent, that is the ultimate purpose of this book—to give, you, the reader ideas that you might find useful for your purposes. This book is eclectic, and some may criticize the diversity of topics covered. However, in my experience, life is eclectic, and highly diverse. As these various ideas, resources and examples have come to me, I have cataloged them (mostly in my mind) so that I could share them with other people. That is what the underlying purpose is, to just Share!

Several diagrams are presented, and these are often used in the various contexts because the processes, or flows, that they depict are generic to most organizations or initiatives. For example, the Mandala which was inspired by Dr. Richard Ewing, really is a metaphor for life. It is also a metaphor for the successful development of a project. 

This book was created through the gathering together many different papers, proposals, articles and essays that have been written for various purposes. Then they have been organized into a quasi-coherent whole. 

This book is not necessarily written to be read front to back. It is not a story or a novel. It is designed to be a resource manual. Many of the ideas contained just within one particular case study could be the basis for a successful initiative or business. Each of the documents originally stood on their own because in most cases they were being written to some organization for which I was attempting to keep the length of the proposal to a minimum.  Most of the documents, essays and case studies, in a sense can stand on their own, but the purpose here was to create a sort of comprehensive resource manual, but with separate examples based on real world situations to substantiate the concepts and ideas that are presented. The last two chapters include a variety of projects, organizations or initiatives to give the reader other examples of creative ideas, or people to get in contact with for future collaboration. All of the examples given are on my “radar screen” for the future.

To an extent, this entire compilation is a reaction to the observation that information, that potentially could be transformational to many, has become “bottled up”. If people had any idea the amount of intellectual capital that is sitting in universities, libraries, the Internet and governmental institutions the world over they would be astounded. I was privy to a great deal of information while I was going to college but realized this information just does not typically get out to the public domain. Of course, not all of it is valuable, however a great deal of it could be converted in to very usable information if people knew that it existed. Of course the Internet and Google open a great deal of this up to the world, but the challenge now becomes how to “sift through the haystack to find the needle”. Regular people just do not know where to start looking, or how to extract the information that they need in order to gain its utility.

This topic is addressed in a bit more detail in the Guiding Principle 4) Extracting knowledge and Converting (idea creation & development), Merging the Silo’s, and Creating Effective Interfaces for Service Exchange in the Vision´s Executive Summary.

These organizations have become highly bureaucratic which has hindered the delivery  of the services that they are supposed to be offering. They are not efficient, and their performance based on an economic evaluation of delivered goods is below satisfactory.

Now in many cases these organizations have even become arrogant in their hoarding of the publics resources and how they are the privileged to “dole out” grants, monies and assistance that urgently is needed in order to address the economic challenges being faced in all quarters of civilizations (I have seen this first hand both in the U.S. and in international settings). Throughout the 1990’s and into the 21^st century I was working with, studying, and evaluating the performance of several state agencies involved with tourism in the state of Texas. During that time I was surprised to see millions of dollars handed out, with essentially no strings attached, and no real expectations for performance from political offices, to agencies simply because of a family or business relationship.

The sad story of Dr. Ewing´s passing was even more sobering. Not to get into the story in this book, but these kind of rampant corruption and misuse of monies and institutions that were designed to serve the public good have to be converted back to their original purpose, or dismantled.

More on Reverence for Life

I guess I was always a rebel when I was a professor. Of course I had to play the game in order to get published. But one of the ideas that I just didn´t understand was the requirement to “cite” other people´s work at all times when proposing new concepts. I know that if this book was being reviewed by academics that I would likely be shot or sent to the gallows for questioning such a foundational principle of academia.

However, how do new ideas come in? Of course many of us know the quote attributed to Solomon stating that there is nothing new in the world. This is very likely so. But in our current status, as far as I can tell, we need new ideas. And to always have to search for some other person who proposed the same, or similar idea before we can present a new one seems to be a “cart before the horse” or “chicken and egg” dilemma. What about “divine inspiration”? Of course I am not proposing that these new ideas become foundational to the rest of history, or that they are hard and fast rules. But to my way of thinking we need to be open to all possible ideas that come to us as we are looking for solutions to the challenges that we face. As far as I know new ideas are coming  to people all the time. And for me the requirement to find some other person who previously discovered and wrote about the same idea really puts a governor on breakthroughs. In my life I likely have come to understand two ultimate or universal truths “change is inevitable” and “fact is stranger than fiction” 1.

One researcher that I have become absolutely fascinated with is David Wilcock (www.divinecosmos.com). Through his work I was introduced to a most powerful work called the Law of One Series. The source of these incoming messages was the L/L Research group. The Law of One essentially presents a concept that is supported by all of the great spiritual and religious teachings. That idea, or “Law” is there is only One thing that makes up everything (both existing and non). This Truth is validated in innumerable places and the great literatures of all faiths, and one citation from the Vedas of Sanskrit literature which will suffice to substantiate this point:

There was not then what is nor what is not. There was no sky, and no heaven beyond the sky. What power was there? Where? Who was that power? Was there an abyss of fathomless waters?

There was neither death nor immortality then. No signs were there of night or day. The ONE was breathing by its own power, in deep peace. Only the ONE was: there was nothing beyond.

Darkness hidden in darkness. The all was fluid and formless. Therein, in the void, by the fire of fervor arose the ONE.

And in the ONE arose love. Love the first seed of the soul. The truth of this the sages found in their hearts: seeking in their hearts with wisdom, the sages found that bond of union between being and non-being.

Who knows in truth? Who can tell us whence and how arose this universe? The gods are later than its beginning: who knows whence comes this creation?

Only that god who sees in higher heaven: he knows whence comes this universe, and whether it was made or uncreated. He only knows, or perhaps he knows not.

Rig. Veda x. 129

The L/L Research group began to receive messages, as described before as if they had connected to a sort of cosmic radio station. There were three individuals in this group and the channeling sessions were handled in the most deliberate and scientific fashion recording all the messages that they received. David Wilcock introduces the Law of One in the following way.

[In my opinion, the Law of One series -- comprising 106 sessions from 1981 to 1983 -- is far and away the most accurate and important 'channeled' work in modern times. It is the philosophical and scientific foundation of everything on this website (David’s site is www.divinecosmos.com). A stunning array of specific data points have since been validated by scientific discoveries and/or inside whistleblower testimony.

As fantastic as everything you are about to read sounds, it has all been verified by multiple different sources of information and/or is either directly mentioned or strongly alluded to in the Law of One series. The truth is much stranger and more interesting than fiction!]

The Law of One is the most amazing, and sometimes mind boggling thing I have ever read. And there is no way to summarize the five volumes in any way that will do it justice. However, for the purpose of concluding this introduction to this Truth of there being only ONE, I am including the first “definition” of sorts provided by Ra the messenger of the Law of One. As I understand it though, all of the volumes that could be written in the whole world, or the cosmos would never come near to sufficing in relaying the whole message necessary for our comprehension of the Law of One, much less the ONE. But to make the connection to the ancient wisdom teachings of our world, as per the previous citation from the Vedas, to the continually instreaming messages from other sources I give you this quotation:

I am Ra. Consider, if you will, that the universe is infinite. This has yet to be proven or disproven, but we can assure you that there is no end to your selves, your understanding, what you would call your journey of seeking, or your perceptions of the creation.

That which is infinite cannot be many, for many-ness is a finite concept. To have infinity you must identify or define the infinity as unity; otherwise, the term does not have any referent or meaning. In an infinite Creator there is only unity. You have seen simple examples of unity. You have seen the prism which shows all colors stemming from the sunlight. This is a simplistic example of unity.

In truth there is no right or wrong. There is no polarity for all will be, as you would say, reconciled at some point in your dance through the mind/body/spirit complex which you amuse yourself by distorting in various ways at this time. This distortion is not in any case necessary. It is chosen by each of you as an alternative to understanding the complete unity of thought which binds all things. You are not speaking of similar or somewhat like entities or things. You are every thing, every being, every emotion, every event, every situation. You are unity. You are infinity. You are love/light, light/love. You are. This is the Law of One.
The Law of One, Book I, Session 1. Page 72

For a Little more expansion on this idea, here is an excerpt of a part of the actual interview from Book One, Session 4 (p. 91-92)

Questioner: My objective is primarily to discover more of the Law of One, and it would be very helpful to discover the techniques of healing. I am aware of your problem with respect to free will. Can you state the Law of One and the laws of healing to me?

Ra: The Law of One, though beyond the limitation of name, as you call vibratory sound complexes [words], may be approximated by stating that all things are one, that there is no polarity, no right or wrong, no disharmony, but only identity. All is one, and that one is love/light, light/love, the infinite Creator.

One of the primal distortions of the Law of One is that of healing. Healing occurs when a mind/body/spirit complex [human being] realizes, deep within itself, the Law of One; that is, that there is no disharmony, no imperfection; that all is complete and whole and perfect. Thus, the intelligent infinity within this mind/body/spirit complex re-forms the illusion of body, mind, or spirit to a form congruent with the Law of One. The healer acts as energizer or catalyst for this completely individual process.

One item which may be of interest is that a healer asking to learn must take the distortion understood as responsibility for that ask/receiving. This is an honor/duty which must be carefully considered in free will.

I understand that many people will have difficulty in comprehending the concept of One if they haven´t previously considered it. Much less will they appreciate the profound information that was brought in by the LL Research group back in 1981. Soon, I suspect this story will change. I do recommend that anyone with curiosity about who we are, who You are, why you are here, and who wants to understand, possibly, a greater understanding of human history read the Law of One Series.

However, since so many people will not accept such an unusual source of information, let us return to one the great people who tried to bring a powerful message for transformation to the world. This is just to provide the reader with a solid understanding that we must have a dependable philosophical, spiritual, or ethical principle to guide us across this bridge that we have to build in order to create more balanced civilizations. I have highlighted certain statements to emphasize the importance of having a strong foundation for endeavors to “re-create the world”.

Albert Schweitzer – establishing the context

“The second point which I desire should obtain currency is that of the connection between civilization and our theory of the universe. At the present time no regard is paid to this connection. In fact, the period in which we are living altogether misses the significance of having a theory of the universe. It is the common conviction nowadays, of educated and uneducated alike, that humanity will progress quite satisfactorily without any theory of the universe at all.

The real fact is that all human progress depends on progress in its theory of the universe, whilst, conversely, decadence is conditioned by a similar decadence in this theory. Our loss of real civilization is due to our lack of a theory of the universe.

Only as we again succeed in attaining a strong and worthy theory of the universe, and find in it strong and worthy convictions shall we again become capable of producing a new civilization. It is this apparently abstract and paradoxical truth of which I proclaim myself the champion.

Civilization, put quite simply, consists in our giving ourselves, as human beings, to the effort to attain the perfecting of the human race and the actualization of progress of every sort in the circumstances of humanity and of the objective world. This mental attitude, however, involves a double predisposition: firstly, we must be prepared to act affirmatively toward the world; secondly, we must become ethical.

Only when we are able to attribute a real meaning to the world and to life shall we be able to give ourselves to such action as will produce results of real value. As long as we look on our existence in the world as meaningless, there is no point whatever in desiring to effect anything in the world. We become workers for that universal spiritual and material progress which we call civilization only in so far as we affirm that the world and life possesses some sort of meaning, or, which is the same thing, only in so far as we think optimistically.

Civilization originates when men become inspired by a strong and clear determination to attain progress, and consecrate themselves, as a result of this determination, to the service of life and of the world. It is only in ethics that we can find the driving force for which such action, transcending, as it does, the limits of our own existence.

Nothing of real value in the world is ever accomplished without enthusiasm and self-sacrifice.

But it is impossible to convince men of the truth of world and life-affirmation and of the real value of ethics by mere declaration. The affirmative and ethical mentality which characterizes these beliefs must originate in man himself as the result of an inner spiritual relation to the world. Only then will they accompany him as strong, clear and constant convictions, and condition his every thought and action.

To put it in another way: World- and life-affirmation must be the products of thought about the world and life. Only as the majority of individuals attain to this result of thought and continue under its influence will a true and enduring civilization make progress in the world. Should the mental disposition toward world- and life-affirmation and toward ethics begin to wane, or become dim and obscured, we shall be incapable of working for true civilization, nay, more, we shall be unable even to form a correct concept of what such civilization should be.

And this is the fate which has befallen us. We are bereft of any theory of the universe. Therefore, instead of being inspired by a profound and powerful spirit of affirmation of the world and of life, we allow ourselves, both as individuals and as nations to be driven hither and thither by a type of such affirmation which is both confused and superficial. Instead of adopting a determined ethical attitude, we exist in an atmosphere of mere ethical phrases or declare ourselves ethical skeptics. . . .

How is it that we have got into this state of lacking a theory of the universe? It is because hitherto the world- and life-affirming and ethical theory of the universe had no convincing and permanent foundation in thought. We thought again and again that we had found such a basis for it; but it lost power again and again without our being aware that it was doing so, until, finally, we have been obliged, for more than a generation past, to resign ourselves more and more to a complete lack of any world-theory at all.

Thus, in this introductory part of my work, I proclaim two truths and conclude with a great note of interrogation. The truths are the following: The basic ethical character of civilization, and the connection between civilization and our theories of the universe. The question with which I conclude is this: Is it at all possible to find a real and permanent foundation in thought for a theory of the universe which shall be both ethical and affirmative of the world and of life?

The future of civilization depends on our overcoming the meaninglessness and hopelessness which characterize the thoughts and convictions of men to-day, and reaching a state of fresh hope and fresh determination. We shall be capable of this, however, only when the majority of individuals discover for themselves both an ethic and a profound steadfast attitude of world- and life-affirmation, in a theory of the universe at once convincing and based on reflection.

Without a general spiritual experience there is no possibility of holding our world back from the ruin and disintegration toward which it is being hastened. It is our duty then to rouse ourselves to fresh reflection about the world and life. In “Civilization and Ethics,” the second part of this philosophy of civilization, I describe the road along which thought has led me to world- and life-affirmation and to ethics. The root-idea of my theory of the universe is that my relation to my own being and to the objective world is determined by reverence for life. This reverence for life is given as an element of my will-to-live, and becomes clearly conscious of itself as I reflect about my life and about the world. In the mental attitude of reverence for life, both ethics and world- and life-affirmation are involved. It is not any kind of insight into the essential nature of the world which determines my relation to my own existence and to the existence which I encounter in the world, but rather only and solely to my own will-to-live, which has developed the power of reflection about itself and the world.

The theory of the universe characterized by reverence for life is a type of mysticism arrived at by self-consistent thought when persisted in to its ultimate conclusion. Surrendering himself to the guidance of this mysticism, man finds a meaning for his life in that he strives to accomplish his own spiritual and ethical self-fulfillment, and simultaneously and in the same act helps forward all the processes of spiritual and material progress which have to be actualized in the world.

I do not know how many, or how few, will allow themselves to be persuaded to travel with me on the road indicated above. What I desire above all things—and this is the crux of the whole affair—is that we should all recognize fully that our present entire lack of any theory of the universe is the ultimate source of all of the catastrophes and misery of our times, and that we should work together for a theory of the universe and of life, in order that thus we may arrive at a mental disposition which shall make us really and truly civilized men.

Strasbourg, Alsace

February, 1923

From the Philosophy of Civilization. Translated by C.T. Campion. The MacMillan Company, New York, 1950.