A few days ago a young woman said to me, "When I look into the future, all I see are dark skies." I replied, "Yes, I know what you mean. But remember that the entire world can turn those skies to blue in a very short period of time."

Global Transformation: In the following video, narrated by Daniel Pinchbeck, the first few minutes are an animated amalgam of ancient myths about the earth's origins. The 85 minute documentary goes on to reveal a new morning sun rising on our present/future. The film clearly identifies the problems we face as human beings, centered around a lack of awareness and sleeping consciousness. It also gives evidence of a global shift in consciousness among people. It not only tells us of things we can do to contribute to a global transformation but also tells us that the shift is already taking place on a much larger scale than many realize.

"The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind."                   - Khalil Gibran

The Mind and authority: The film also raises an important question about who is responsible for the lack of awareness in society. In one brief vignette, a scientist interviewed by Pinchbeck seems to blame the people for a lack of awareness stating, "the people don't want to sacrifice ... it's up to people to decide they want a change." While there is some truth in his words, we are reminded of how desires among people can be manufactured by those in political power and in the "mass media." We are trained to want what they want us to want and told why we should want it.

We see this in high powered marketing campaigns on television and other media designed to have us uncritically buy products and accept ideas. When asked why destructive entertainment, falsified news reports, cynical opinion articles, glamorized war movies, racism, television series that erode traditional values of family and community, violent cartoons and video games are created and broadcast, they reply, "We are only giving people what they want."

But their argument is circular. The same media never really explores what people really want and alternatives are never offered. Even the once healthier programs on National Geographic, the History Channel and Animal Planet are laced with the themes of competition, crime, police, prisons, racism, war, destructive technologies and development. Humor is used to attack the traditional roles of gender, mothers, fathers and children. As indicators, the corporate media uses "focus groups" to measure the controlled response of small selected samples exposed to their productions, producing "ratings" which are then claimed to reflect "what people want."

By contrast, we have living examples of enlightened governments and media who have been supplanting corporate profit with concern for the welfare of the planet, rescuing the flora, the minerals, water, animals ... and the people. In the global south, the governments of Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Uruguay, Argentina, other Latin Amerian countries are living examples of a metamorphisis in social consciousness on a continental scale. New cable networks are being developed that show the beauty existing in families, communities, different cultures and nature. The seeds of this expanding consciousness can also be seen in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and generally in the Arab world. Ironically, the seeds of this progressive enlightenment can be traced to the indigenous peoples of the world whom we once viewed to be "primitive ... backward and uncivilized."

Controlling ... changing our thoughts: To do our part as individuals, some "environmentalists" often spoonfeed us with a list of practical things to do as though we are brainless; things like turning off the lights, carpooling and growing a garden. Good things to do in and of themselves, but they ring hollow under darkening skies and we know there has to be more - much more.

Changing our lives does not have to be out of begrudging obedience to "experts and authorities." Rather, our new awareness gives rise to conscious rewarding decisions that are our own, rising from within for the right reasons. If you think that a rising consciousness is not happening within you, think about how your awareness has changed just in the last decade alone! Only individuals can control their thoughts and thoughts produce reality and an expanding consciousness. On a moment-to-moment basis, we humans have the unique ability to change our thoughts, our reality and the reality of those around us.

Consciousness: When we think of our consciousness we have "learned" that expanded awareness comes by means of practicing meditation. We have also "learned" that meditation is something you do by sitting in lotus position before a buddha statue, following a set of instructions, or attending yoga classes. There's certainly nothing wrong with either practice but it's important to remember that the natural universe surrounding us provides all we need to empty our minds and find our own pure consciousness. Do you remember for example, how as a child you looked into the night sky with innocent wonder at the stars and a universe that had no boundaries? Do you remember wondering how it can possibly be that a "place" has no walls or fences around it? That was meditation in its purest form and it came with an empty mind. Isn't it interesting that from childhood, we have been taught by rationalists that "an empty mind is the devil's workshop" when it's only with an empty mind that we can experience untarnished reality. Throughout our lifetimes we have gradually lost that direct view into the only reality there is. We can recover it by "unlearning" our tiny, restricted, distorted world view. We can recover our pure childlike wonder by emptying our minds, looking up at the stars again and opening ourselves to a billion lights from so far away ... a non-rational universe without a beginning and with no end.

"Time for Change" - the film: Daniel Pinchbeck interviews a rich variety of ordinary folks, scientists and students of human consciousness, helping us to raise our awareness of a massive change taking place in our world today. The interviews cover an equally rich variety of subjects; I've selected only a few examples:

• It's the system, "If you can't monotize it, it drops out of capitalist computation" says one of the people interviewed in the film. He added, "Patriarchal societies have created single currencies for control [of the masses] through the ages."
  
  
• A car without brakes and faulty steering crashing is used by another as a metaphor for a bad political/economic system: Would the same car crash even if the driver is replaced by a better driver?
  
  
• New money systems are now in use, specific to individual products, services and local communities like the fureai kippu currency that creates a more positive relationship between seller and buyer;
  
  
• Manufacturing, agriculture and money itself are becoming "open source," freed from the the tyranny of a single monetary system.
  
  
• The fallacy of giving our power away to others and hoped-for "saviors," - waiting for apocalypse, the return of the messiah, or a magic political leader to do it rather than realizing our own intelligence and responsibity to do it ourselves;
  
  
• an eco machine that purifies used water more effectively and in greater volumes than could be hoped for any sewage treatment plant,
  
  
• "Electric power as political power;" e.g., cars that run on water developed in small science labs and being put into operation,
  
  
• The use of land, e.g. city and community farming vs. corporate agro business.
  
  
• New ways of thinking and being.

Some of you may be familiar with all these examples but the film provides many more, some of them new to me, increasing my own awareness. But more important than any one of these individual concepts is the shift in consciousness taking place with our "global tribe" - changing thoughts and images of skies turning from gray to blue and barren lands into thriving, living organisms ... changing ourselves.

- Les Blough in Venezuela

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Source: Films for Action