Dear <subscriber>,

In this CI News, I’d like to share a pathway out of the overwhelm and disorientation of these tumultuous times – the pathway we use and continue to develop in the Bright Future program.

A pathway to Planetary-Era consciousness

My presentation Cultural Co-Evolver: Frameworks, Skillsets, & Strategy for Embodied Action, which I gave two weeks ago to The Stoa, describes the Bright Future program’s innovative approach to cultural change.

In it, I described three foundational dysfunctions that I see as pervasive throughout modern culture:

• Being clueless about psychodynamics
• Using narrow modes of cognition
• Using an outmoded strategy for success

I see the combination of these three at the root of all of the big issues the world now faces: climate change, polarization, authoritarianism, species extinction, sexism, susceptibility to disinformation campaigns, racism, income inequality, sexual-identity discrimination, abused technology, and so on. I’ve come to feel that the fastest, most effective way to make progress on all of these issues is to address those foundational dysfunctions directly.

Many people are working on one or another of these dysfunctions but rarely in combination.

The remarkable thing we’ve discovered is that doing them in combination makes progress easier, faster and more enduring. Indeed, much can be accomplished in just the 7 weeks of the Bright Future Now online course.

The result is a foundational shift in how you experience and interact with yourself and the world that enables you to navigate these times with more ease, aliveness and agency.

We get there through an integrated reversal of the dysfunctions. Here are some highlights of what we work on in Bright Future Now:

Be savvy about psychodynamics

• Develop your self-awareness and self-compassion
• Get to know yourself and others as complex inner communities
• Understand the childhood-based common traumas that most people carry, why they hinder our best efforts and how to unwind them
• Learn how to help your nervous system feel safe in the moment so you can function from your Optimal Zone

Use diverse modes of cognition

• Break out of the monopoly of language-based, categorical thinking by becoming adept at visual, kinesthetic and whole-brain thinking and awareness
• Break out of the monopoly of object perception by become adept at territory perception and system awareness
• Use all these modes to create easier, stronger, more creative collaboration with others

Be adept at the new strategy for success

• Recognize that the old strategy of enforcing domination over self, others and nature is now failing badly and destroying our life-support systems in today’s highly interconnected world
• Establish a new paradigm with the system-savvy strategy of embodying the harmony within, with others and with nature and recognize that this is now the smart path to success – personally, for those around you and for the world.

These and similar practices provide the pathway, the bridge, to a consciousness that can effectively address our personal, societal and environmental challenges.

For example, suppose you are part of a group that needs to make a challenging decision. It could be a work team or a family or a volunteer group. While it would be best if the whole group had these skills, even on your own you can make a difference. You can

• help the group approach the situation as a design challenge that explores for new options rather than a choice over a fixed initial set of options
• use multiple modes of cognition – visual, somatic, intuitive – to explore for options and assess them
• anticipate the emotional challenges, help to increase the sense of emotional safety in the group, respond compassionately when someone does get triggered and help the group get back on track
• support a respectful process that draws on everyone’s experience and creativity and aims for an outcome where all can feel some ownership, rather than engage in a power struggle
• discern and adapt which of these and/or other skills are needed in the situation and in each moment

I urge you to work in these directions however you can. Even a little bit helps – for you and the world. Better still if you can work on them in an integrated way since they powerfully reinforce each other.

Bright Future Now is designed to provide this integration – to be a nourishing, relational, experiential fast-track beyond the modernist dysfunctions and into the frameworks and skillsets of Planetary-Era consciousness. To understand how this works in practice, please look at Bright Future Content and Bright Future Process.

If this calls you, join us in our next 7-week online session.

Bright Future Now – Registration closes Saturday

If you’re interested in the Oct/Nov ’21 course, now is the time to act.

The experiential and interactive part of the program runs Oct 2 to Nov 21, 2021. Community-building and self-study begin as soon as you register.

Registration is $495, which provides you with both the course and a lifetime membership in the Bright Future Network. We have a payment plan that enables you to spread the cost over as many as 8 months. Financial aid is also available.

We’re confident you will find this to be of real value. We back up that confidence with a money-back guarantee – if at any time through the third week of the main program you decide this course is not for you, we’ll happily refund your registration fee in full.

“Bright Future Now provided the perfect landing place for me in all the ground-shifting of 2020 and beyond, because it allowed me to reflect on my internal world while simultaneously zooming out to the much larger picture of human history and planetary history.

“Being able to communicate with others inside the network always surprises me with diversity of thought, creativity and heart-centeredness of people who are making ripples in their own worlds. I cannot think of another context in which I would be communicating in such a generative way with people around the world.”

Erin Waterman – nature educator – United States

I look forward to sharing this adventure with you!

With appreciation,
Robert Gilman
Sep 7, 2021

PS – If you haven’t yet seen Cultural Co-Evolver: Frameworks, Skillsets, & Strategy for Embodied Action, I encourage you to do so. It’s had over a thousand views in just the past two weeks and it will give you a bigger context for understanding this pathway to Planetary-Era consciousness.