Staying Sane in the Next Five Years | Charles Eisenstein

so in a few minutes we're going to hear from my dad Charles eisenstein about the next five years [Music] um yeah first a bit of context for folks who are coming just for tonight um this this is kind of a weekend retreat going on so many of the folk here are part of that and many of the folk here are coming just for tonight's event um and yeah the next five years that's like not that long from now um but it seems like times are turbulent and there's potential for things to change really fast so this could be a a pivotal next five years and um it also seems like you go in a number of directions right like um in in one sense things seem pretty bleak and yet there's this sense of hope I have um when I come to events like this like like last night um a bunch of us were were up in the big building and we were just like hanging out and singing songs and the Energy felt really light and then there was a moment where uh everyone kind of went silent and waited and people um then someone broke the silence and shared a song from their heart and then after that silence and then someone else shared one from their heart and there was this really really kind of sacred field of honoring the gifts people are sharing and Pullman gave me a lot of Hope for the world despite all of the all of the major catastrophes that's that seem to be on our hands right now and so I'm like like what's going on like why does that give me hope like we're just we're just we're just singing songs like what is that really doing um so I'm kind of holding that question like yet it does like it feels real it feels like we're doing something real so so like what implications does something like that have for the next five years this kind of building of community and seeing each other um how does that mesh with the intensifying crises we see in the world today what path forward might be possible um so hopefully we get answers come on up Charles eisenstein thank you [Applause] I'm really happy to be back here in Nashville and just like kind of looking for familiar faces uh you know we we spent three years here and a little piece of my heart is still here and those those moments that Jimmy was talking about where whatever despair whatever impossibilities that that we carry that are narrated to us about how things practically speaking you never are going to change the forces arrayed against change are too powerful and disaster is already locked in like all of that reasoning somehow in those moments of of of musical expression or or deep intimacy somehow they don't seem relevant anymore you're in another reality what's happening now is that we are toggling back and forth between two you could call them two realities two timelines two futures and also as you I'm sure you have noticed two or more than two beings to consciousnesses when we ask this question so you know I titled it the next five years um which is a little bit of a trick because people are will come in thinking I'm going to talk about what's going to happen in the next five years here's my my prediction for the future and here's this trend and that Trend and and you know I'm gonna gonna predict what's gonna happen but that mentality that basic assumption that the future is something that we can predict there's I don't know if you can feel a subtle sense of disempowerment there because it's because it means that it's going to happen regardless of what any of us choose because that's what the future is going to be all these big trends and all these big actors and all these powerful forces it that that assumption rejects the felt understanding that everybody from time to time experiences that your personal actions your personal choices have planetary significance and that in that little gathering of musicians something significant is happening and it and it means something for the future so there's another source of knowledge that I want to bring into the conversation to bring into even our cognitive apparatus in order that we can make sense of the world so the that knowledge that felt experience of significance in our most private and personal choices and interactions and relationships is a key piece of information it is not something that leads us astray and what it communicates is that neither the future nor the present circumstances that create the future are a given they're not something outside of ourselves but what we call reality is in a constant intimate co-arising with ourselves and if somebody says [Music] what's going to happen over the next five years there's actually two ways to take that question one way is as an invitation to make a prediction the other way is as an invitation to tell you what it's going to be like like if if I don't know to take a simple example if if Stella says what are we going to do tomorrow my wife Stella who's sitting right there um that one behind behind Patsy my former wife and um Glenn sitting next to her who's a relation that doesn't have a name right now but I don't know what do you call the husband of your former wife it's like I mean it's it's we need a word for that it's some kind of brother um yeah brother in love brother in love yeah yeah [Applause] so um yeah where was I Stella yeah tomorrow so so if she says what are we going to do tomorrow I don't take that as an invitation to make a prediction do I I'm like okay yeah thank you for asking let's do this let's create the future and so I want to pose that as the question what is the next five years going to be because as Jimmy said we are at a pivotal moment you could say as uh item of metaphysical Dogma that we are in Choice all the time always choosing the path that we will take but in fact most of our lives are the automatic result of certain choices we made in pivotal pivotal moments that programmed a series of events but there are special moments where we are actually in Choice those are the moments when the unconscious becomes conscious where habits that had been invisible become visible and you have the opportunity to choose consciously either to continue what you have been or to make a different choice and we are in a moment like that when a lot of the automatic programs the the ways of life the institutions have broken down they're in a state of collapse they're disintegrating this happened uh this this this accelerated during covid where we got a preview of what the future was going to be if we don't make any changes because none of the none of what happened during the lockdowns was actually anything new the obsession with safety the migration of Life online the medicalization of Life the intermediation of Technology into all of our relationships uh even the intensifying polarization of wealth none of this was new the the surveillance the censorship it was all starting before then but we got kind of a fast forward we got a preview of what the world is going to be if we don't make a choice and by being granted that preview we are offered a choice as we enter it's not like things are ever going to go back to normal we get little hints of little little um little little glimpses of of maybe normals coming back but I think most people understand in this room that the crises that are rising to meet us ecological crises social crises moral crises economic crises these were created over decades or even centuries they're not going to go away by themselves that the storyline that we have entered and that is reaching its climax at this time needs to be completed that story needs to be told to its fulfillment I hope I'm not being too abstract here what I want to say is that we are entering an accelerated stage of a kind of a collapse but I don't necessarily mean a collapse in the supply chain or the food system uh it doesn't it doesn't and I want to acknowledge the part of part of me and the part of many people that kind of want that to happen as a form of Liberation from what we're stuck in but the collapse really that's a kind of a projection screen for what it really is collapsing is sense and meaning and identity the narratives that told us what a human being is and how to live life and how that how and what America is and what the world is and and what's real even and how to change things and how to be a good person and how to live a successful life who you are why you're here all of that is unraveling and that is an extremely disorienting process and there are a lot of of of pitfalls in this time that I call the space between stories the Gathering here is uh it's the Gathering of of an online community that we've cultivated over the last two years and I use the word community in a generous sense I'm not sure if anything online can actually fully be a community in fact I'm sure that it cannot but we have developed uh some aspects of community and the community it's called a new and ancient story dedicated to what to to participating in a new story that also has very ancient Roots a new story that answers the questions I just listed who am I what's real what's important what's valuable how do I live life where do I come from why am I here all of that a new story and the and and the Consciousness that goes along with that story because the story is just the outer layer of something much more total something that's in the body something that's in the ground something that's in the blood something that's in the heart it includes every aspect of our being that is the depth of the transition that we are approaching and and so the online community was dedicated and is still um it's going through a metamorphosis dedicated to the principle of reverence reverence in communication which is not often found online reverence being not simply a virtue to Aspire to but actually the result of a way of seeing the human being seeing the divine the life in each person and communicating with that awareness that I am speaking to life incarnate I am speaking to Spirit made flesh and this person is doing and saying what life does and says in the totality of their circumstances that that way of seeing a human being is seeing the truth that's reality sanity is to be in reality that's the pivot now that I'm making to um well it's going to be a six-month online kind of wanted to call it a program but not really um because it's more than just a program but it's called the sanity project and that is one of the truths one of the points of the real that we will practice in the sanity project the question and why am I doing this sanity project now it's simply because of the turbulent times that Jimmy referred to the breakdown of sense and meaning that can drive you crazy and that leaves us susceptible to going crazy there were times during covet actually where I felt like I was going crazy where I was you know holding holding a story that so contradicted what the culture overall was saying and thinking and appearing to believe that there were times where I thought well maybe I'm the crazy one and where I really went went to like maybe every single thing I've done in my entire career was simply coming from my reflexive opposition to my father and my discontent and I just couldn't hack it in the in the in the real world so I became a dissident and like all of this this is one of the pitfalls I'm talking about here when your truth is so different from what prevails that that you are toppled from the seat of the Soul the robbers get into the castle the bandits get in they run amok and you become a fugitive in your own castle with your hidden truth skulking around not daring even to say it to yourself but on some level still knowing this can't be right and so during those times I always came back again and again to what what do I know for real from my direct experience because I had even started doubting my direct experience I'd started gaslighting myself and how many of us maybe every one of us have these direct experiences that contradict what we are being told about what is real and what is important it's almost inevitable for one thing the economy tells us what is important the economy tells us what is valuable the economy through where the money is says here is what Society values and here's what it does not value and so much of what we know in our bodies is valuable is not economically rewarded we were talking today in our morning session about this the the invisible people doing the humble work taking care of children the the enormous number of children who are um mentally or physically disabled who have chronic diseases who turn the lives of their parents into one seemingly endless caregiving ordeal that yes has its Joys and rewards but this isn't what you thought your adult life was going to be there are so many people Behind These closed doors who have that experience and they're pouring their love and and and building their patients and in a deep practice and trying so hard and they're not even celebrated or thanked for it and they're certainly not valued for it in a new and ancient Story We recognize the value of these devotional humble people they know that this is the most important thing that they could be doing to care for this being how do you stay sane in that knowing if you don't have help if you don't have other people to affirm what you know as the right choice and that's the key to the sanity project and that is the key to maintaining sanity in coming times I like to say sanity is a group project we cannot hold a story alone we need a community to hold a reality because as I said reality is not an objective thing outside of ourselves a given neither the present nor the future it is a relationship I'm not saying that we create it by the way that that is a new age distortion we don't create it we are offered it we are given yet and our choice is whether to say yes or no to the Future and the present that is offered to us and through our yes and no we create ourselves who am I to be also not a given that is the essence of what sovereignty is who am I to be and therefore through that choice through that acceptance of the offering here is who you can be through that acceptance through that choice we also create the world that is an intimate mirror of ourselves so part of why I'm here and doing this work is to be part of that Collective holding of sanity and to invoke realities and states of being that I think many of us are ready and willing to step into and we all need a little help from each other to do that the challenges ahead as the old structures break down and we are left alone in the Gale maybe even the the and we start gaslighting ourselves and that that truth that maybe we we touched in certain moments it it it's it blows away in the cloud in the in the in the in the in the gusts leaving us susceptible to um predatory substitutes for the structures of sense meaning and identity that have fallen away because the the story that that I grew up in anyway was a totalizing story it explained everything from from you know what is the origin and purpose of humanity to why do the birds sing and when that breaks down there's there's even a sense of vertigo and therefore an intense discomfort and a desperation to find some substitute a new story of everything in which we can rest and that's what I call going insane so one way to hold it all together is to become even more entrenched and more Orthodox in the story that it's breaking down even though it's not working I'm gonna double down and believe in it more this is actually a classic response to a challenge to a world view they've done studies about this you know they present people with evidence that contradicts their worldview and then they interview them about the result of that challenge and most people become more convinced of their world view when it is challenged because it's an assault on your identity you know opinions aren't just opinions they're woven into everything tears to your self-worth and and so that's one response is you get even more entrenched which requires that you ignore more and more of what's real in order to believe for example right now that Civilization is basically on the right track and that Science and Technology are ushering in a better and better world every year what do they think of next like that whole that whole Mythos you have to ignore more and more things to actually think that's true in the 50s if you were a typical you know white middle class person it was very easy to believe even if you were a black person in the 60s you know we're fixing it civil rights you know and environmentalism and and we're on the right track there was an incredible um optimism at that time that was betrayed and we took a different path there was that was a a timeline that was alive in the 60s some of you can remember it the optimism the can-do spirit and I can tell you the date that we entered a different timeline November 22nd 1963 everybody who is alive then remembers where they were on that date when John F Kennedy was assassinated and on some level people felt the timeline shift we can even feel it now and that new timeline was cemented into place over the next five years with the assassinations of Martin Luther King Malcolm X and Robert F Kennedy and since then and you know the JFK assassination especially was such an obvious conspiracy and the official story was so obviously absurd that it was actually it was almost on purpose that it was that absurd because it offered us a choice will you believe a blatant lie and collectively we said yes that lie has been like you know if you inhale a speck of plutonium it just generates cancer cancer cancer that's been like that it's been like this this radioactive poison inside the body politic ever since because once you accept that lie you start to accept all the other lies that are required to maintain it and the result is that we live in a matrix of lies right now where we take it for granted being lied to we take it for granted we're not shocked when when politicians lie to us it's normal advertising it's one lie after another we automatically discount all speech which is part of the reason for speech inflation where everything's like awesome like all these superlatives because we're we're discounting things you know so that yeah that that timeline the Lost timeline that was truncated in 1963 actually isn't lost this is why I've I've gotten involved in the presidential campaign of Robert F Kennedy Jr [Applause] yeah his you know I never thought that I would ever be involved in politics because I thought that my my thinking was so far removed from anybody who would be a serious candidate that like you know this would not happen in my lifetime and I've just been stunned like shocked at the receptivity you know not just to my clever ideas about strategy but like to the Deep primarily the the theme of Healing The Divide and looking at at issues from outside the Frozen debate you know everybody's saying what's your position on you know guns on abortion on immigration on et cetera et cetera et cetera here's your choices on Israel on China on Russia on Ukraine here's your choices and what I am representing and and holding and finding resonance with is we don't have to accept those choices we can look for a deeper Unity underneath the divisions so anyway this isn't a campaign speech but it is um you know everything is all all tied together and for me um so so yeah so so I I went into that whole diversion because I was talking about this this story that has carried us falling apart and it's becoming harder and harder to ignore that and so in order to ignore it you essentially have to go crazy you have to be insane hold on to the Orthodoxy okay so that's one alternative okay that's one path to Madness another path to Madness is to jump to another totalizing discourse that explains everything and it could be religious fundamentalism it could be a cult it could be conspiracy theories and when I say conspiracy theories I do not mean that in a derogatory sense because I do think that actual conspiracies happen and have a bigger influence on a fair current affairs than we think than most people think than maybe not people in this room but um and you know conspiracy theory can be used to to dismiss any dissent any any you know unorthodox opinion any protest uh but when the conspiracy theory offers you an explanation for everything be careful so these are these are all oh and then another form of Madness is nihilism it's to become attached to the space between stories which is really supposed to be a transition it's it's a deprogramming time it's a letting go and it does take some time a gentle Falling Away of what you thought was real and who you thought you were that's the empty space that allows something new to be born it's also why I like to take pauses in my speaking so that I don't go on autopilot so something new can be born so yes we are at a Crossroads indeed a choice point multiple timelines Converge on the present moment and you can feel them sometimes feel maybe feel yourself moving from one to another to another which kind of explains what Jimmy was saying about about you know how can I feel so much despondency at one moment and feel so much hope at another moment it's because you're actually occupying a different timeline toward a different future so the task in front of us in the next five years is to First recognize the choice that we are making and learn how to solidify the timeline that we actually want to experience for ourselves and the future Generations how do you actually make this choice it's not just to check a box it's to recognize the moments that we are choosing it one way to do that is facing a choice ask what declaration am I making about human nature what am I saying about the human being by making this Choice what do I affirm as here's what a human being does when faced with this kind of situation every one of you who has chosen kindness patience compassion love and even the smallest conditions the smallest situation the most invisible situation with a baby with a dying person even you are issuing a prayer you are establishing a principle of reality you are engaging in a creative act you are affirming this is what a human being does in these situations and you are strengthening a field that everybody from Elon Musk to to Vladimir Putin to to anybody you can imagine is standing in that field and the more that we establish it the more we find that people who we think of as powerful when they're faced with these situations they'll make the choice that is in line with the choices we made this is how we establish field of reality this is how we answer the question what will the next five years be what will the next 50 years be what choice will we make in this time and that is not to say don't worry about the political world don't worry about the world outside just focus on the inner just focus on the spiritual it's to say that all of these are on a Continuum and to trust that we're that that here's another aspect actually of what we call the new and ancient story that there is an intelligence that orchestrates and organizes all things and places Us in the conditions where we have the opportunity to say yes or no to the next story that our soul has been offered there is a there is a plan that don't want to get to like metaphysical here but there is a yes I do actually I like doing that um but I will say that this is only one way to narrate it okay but you know the idea that your soul before your lifetime makes the plan 's out it doesn't plan out your choices the choices you will make it plans out the opportunities that you will have to make those choices so there is an incredible like you sit down with God and you make a plan and so there's an incredible intelligence to where we are placed in The Matrix of being and relationship and sometimes especially when where you are placed doesn't come with recognition and celebration and thanks and doesn't fit into your received Notions about what is important and what makes change in the world it can be hard trust that intelligence but we don't have any we haven't the foggiest idea of how change happens in the world it is a complete mystery anyone who has experienced synchronicity in your life knows that it is a complete mystery that's been a big theme here in our time together um the the idea of of synchronicities as signs that like that that the timeline is is is shifting it's like you have to be it's like in The Matrix you know you have to be pulled out so that a new program can be implemented and then you're stepped back in again and you notice maybe when you experience a synchronicity there's a feeling of Wonder there's a feeling of being in the presence of God in the in the presence of this orchestrating intelligence you're taken out of the story for a moment you're taken out of the story so that a new one can be installed and so here if I want to make any prediction for the next five years I will make a prediction that you will experience a lot of synchronicity and those synchronicities come with a choice this new program will only be installed with your consent so yeah the and as I was saying the the the you know on a for many of us it can be hard to trust the orchestrating intelligence when it doesn't conform to our ideas of what a change maker looks like and I'm saying to you those ideas are misleading and obsolete and we are moving into a story where we recognize and affirm what the heart already knows about the significance of those labors of love that so many humble people especially the mothers and the grandmothers have been performing for so long not valued economically not celebrated but doing the important work that holds the fabric of reality together that makes it even possible for the supposedly big change makers to do their work they're drawing on this field and the more every time we say yes we enter a little bit more into that new timeline the one that has surfaced from time to time in human history most recently in the United States in the 1960s other times too in human history that gave people even the conception of a more beautiful world of of a Great Society of utopia and it's surfacing again right now in these darkest of times which will probably get darker and more unstable in coming years but what will have changed with each choice even on the most invisible personal level what will have changed is that we'll realize that we have actually turned around we have begun the return Journey into an age of reunion and as token of that you will have more and more confirmations things that happen that and things that you perceive and experience that did not exist in the reality that you had been literally did not exist one of our our attendees at the at this Retreat uh Nicholas was just talking to me at dinner about it an experience he had not too long ago where he he comes home and and um there's this gorgeous sunset and and the birds are singing really loud and he's like where are the birds where where are all these birds you know and he's looking around and he looks up and looks up and looks up and there they are in the top of a tree and in that moment he knows like he is he is informed that they're singing In Praise of the sunset in the story that I inherited that's nonsense in the story I inherited there's you know some kind of um mechanism in their hypothalamus or whatever birds have and the photons you know simulate motor neurons which you know make their song come out more but there isn't there wasn't room in the story that I grew up in for praise from anybody but us and therefore there wasn't even room for praise from us and we became alienated from from beauty from the Divinity in in all things and instead related to Earth as a source of things for us as resources as things not as beings and we became very lonely the more that we were separated the more lonely we became the more crazy we got living in this world of images this world of representations unmoored from reality taking on a life of Their Own doing the craziest things in this separate universe that had no connection to physical reality and human reality and biological reality to the point where that physical human material biological reality is withering away and the number of songbirds has decreased by 80 percent because but let me turn it around why is that happening we could talk about all of the habitat destruction and insect loss and climate change and all that but really why it's happening is because they need to be praised even to continue existing the function of a human being is twofold and those of you who are here I think this morning I I apologize for saying it again but I say it to myself every day so it's twofold the function of a human being why we were born here on Gaia wasn't a mistake we weren't gaia's big mistake that that if we only exited this planet life would be better off what an insult to the mother that would be to think that now we are here really for the same reason that all beings are here but we do it in a unique way we are here twofold one is to behold the magnificence and the beauty of life of creation to behold it and to praise it to Delight in it to receive the gift it's a gift foreign of the thread in the Jewish Christian and Islamic tradition of the necessity to praise God you know to praise creation when we don't do that creation begins to wither away when we hold it as dead as modern ideology has it becomes dead we see that unfolding all around us to turn it around we have to accept the gift it's not hard and then we see it as sacred and then we are and we enter into reverence again respect for nature reverence for nature it's not something you have to shame or guilt somebody into wielding your your disdain and social pressure to make them do something they don't want to do no it's to it's it's out of a generosity my brother my sister accepts the gift I mean how nourishing it is to hear those bird songs and how poor we feel when they're not available what an impoverished Society we live in when we get just such a tiny little shred of the nourishment that human beings were once surrounded and immersed in so that's one aspect of our purpose to receive the other one is obviously to give and it is moved by the reception by the gratitude to contribute to more life more Beauty more sacredness so that others may receive what we have received and that all life may thrive it's obvious [Applause] yeah I'm glad someone agrees with that so you know I had you you'll notice I haven't really said okay here's what the new story is and if we believe that then we're sane I'm really that's not necessary to do that everybody understands what I'm talking about now and I think you understand what I mean by the choices that often follow a synchronicity the choice to say yes or to say no also to say no because we're going to be offered a lot of realities a lot of timelines that should not be walked in my view there's one of bloody Revolution and Vengeance against the elites that have that have committed such atrocities and such Horrors there's a timeline where they get all sent to the guillotine or whatever the modern equivalent is but we know actually what the end of that story is they're the first to get sent to the guillotine but they're not the last but that is a strong offering vengeance vindication punishment but there's a much better choice than that and all of us will be offered that choice will you choose Vengeance or will you choose healing would you rather that the perpetrator be punished or would you rather that it never happens again sometimes it seems that punishing the perpetrator will ensure that it never happens again but there will come a choice point where it's not just about preventing the perpetrator from causing harm again it's about punishing and once and there will be a choice point whatever version of that is for you and that's just one of the choices so there is a no and there's a yes that is what we will be faced with in the next five years because and and these will have Global significance the choices that we make and let me just talk about the Paradox here well what if I make the choices for this timeline and you know she makes the choices for that timeline then what happens Charles doesn't work like that that's that's the Cartesian mind the modern mind trying to make sense of of this you could say that in the reality that I affirm through my choices and that I choose through my choices the choice that Patsy makes will also be in alignment without reality and so will everybody else's choice I'm choosing a reality in which those people make those choices and when I see them making other choices first thing I do is hmm how am I also making that choice maybe even in some very subtle homeopathic form and so this is you know the the theme that I've kind of introduced into the campaign not as an official thing and maybe I don't even say it out loud but energetically for sure the America that almost was and yet maybe [Applause] and it's more than the America it's the whole world this is again not a campaign speech although there will be possibility that Robert F Kennedy Jr is kind of come to Asheville I think on October 28th um so uh how will people find out about that Marine where's Marine not Marie Marine more Maureen yes [Music] so we haven't found a venue yet but it's a fundraiser and so we need everyone to participate and contribute and support the more beautiful world that we're all going to create together thanks so so yeah um anyway if you do want to find out about it if I like keep posted the website for the whole campaign is kennedy24.com where you can you know sign up for updates or donate money um the proverbial lifeblood of the campaign so anyway I did want to mention that um and to return also to the awareness of this Choice point not just in the story of America but but in the world and even you know in the cosmos not not to like be grandiose about it but it is a significant moment and I you know I'm I'm no different in really from anybody else here in I've shared a little bit about my struggles to stay sane those moments where I thought maybe I've been just a parasite on the world and in those moments coming out of it not through my own power but because somebody said the right thing to me at the right time and saw me and affirmed what was true in me this is the work that I would send you forth doing to affirm what a human being is in your relations with others to speak to that part of them the true part of them that is here to praise to receive and to give and to create to know that is true of everybody even the ones you have Judgment of especially the ones you have Judgment of because when you see it and you know it it becomes true that's the shape-shifting that's the shift in timelines it becomes true because you say it's true that's called prophetic speech prophetic speech does not work if it isn't already true you cannot speak something into existence if it's not already true in some way in potential if there's not already a timeline in which it is true to say it you have to see it it's not Dogma see it you have to know that it's there and what I'm doing here is to invoke that knowledge that it's already there so what I would like to do now you're very welcome I have this idea I just feel like it's gonna be really loud though if everybody's talking at once yeah something like that yeah okay hmm all right so you'll um establish a connection with somebody next to you to have a conversation okay it could be the person you came with just make sure everybody's got somebody and if you've been left out then you could raise your hand and find somebody else who was left out or you could witness a conversation okay but don't start talking yet I want to structure this a little bit okay um one of you okay first decide which of the two of you is the most cynical okay if you can't boy that's fun I mean what if what if we even had like a whole conversation about who's the most cynical yeah we could have like a whole Workshop about that yeah but there's a reason why I'm asking you this so please give me your attention again yeah we hopefully have some professional Librarians here who are good at okay so the one of you who is less cynical will embody your cynical side your your uh despairing side your crazy side and you will come at the cynical person with whatever bursts out of you when you are in despondency when you are in doubt when you think that there's no hope when you're grumpy when you're down on human beings and and from that place issue a challenge or ask a question maybe even a question you know like one of those questions well you know given the methane releases in the Arctic how is it even possible that we're gonna okay something like that you know something that comes from the cynicism that ignores the knowledge that Jimmy invoked in that Gathering of musicians when the silence descended and then somebody sang from the heart speak from the place that doesn't know what was known in that moment because most of us visit that place sometimes most of us forget sometimes because we have not yet established critical mass we're working on it right now okay the cynical person gets to embody that knowledge of possibility of sovereignty of choice and speaks from the timeline that they choose in their best moments and speaks from the knowledge that arrives at the body level when the Silence has descended and someone sings from the heart and your answer may meet the question on its own terms or maybe it won't maybe it will address the question behind the question maybe it won't be an answer but you will know what to do and so we will I ask because there's so many of us here um won't take too long a couple minutes but it's powerful it's powerful so first take a minute in silence the questioner prepares the question Taps into the cynical side Taps into the side that forgets sometimes and in silence for another minute the person responding touches into the knowledge of a more beautiful world okay in one minute I will signal you to begin the conversation okay my inner librarian is saying shh okay because we're not starting the conversation yet really take a minute to um take a minute to Orient to this role because you will be speaking not only on behalf of yourself okay we're doing a little bit of magic here a minute of silence please then I will signal to begin thank you okay begin your conversation [Music] foreign you can hear me raise your hand and come into silence thank you thanks yeah so I'm sure there'll be time after for for people to continue their conversations um and I was going to have a q a right now we have a mic set up but I feel like all your questions have been answered by each other already right so crowdsourced q a but yeah you know like like this um you know a lot of times people say say like Charles you're you're putting words to things that I've been thinking you know that have been in my head the whole time I'm like yeah like what I'm saying isn't actually new and the knowledge is accessible to everybody all it takes is the right circumstances and the the water table that is rising pours forth from Every Spring in this room uh so that said um I will actually invite people to um come up and offer um I would say um uh questions and and um not like really long um disquisitions on topics but but if it's questions or or comments um or something that's moving and you really strong um and then I will respond so there's the mic hi Charles um on my spiritual path we believe that this is the time of kaliyug the Iron Age where truth become lies and lies become the truth everything's upside down so I'm just curious as to how if if you're aware of that you believe it what you think that what effect that has on the era that we're in and how the next five years yeah because it seems like if that's the reality how do how do we change that reality yeah so you know Kali Yuga um there's there's depths upon depths of understanding that concept and the most literal level it's a literal succession of Ages you know the Golden Age and the age and that age and ending up with the horrendous Kali Yuga um but um there are other ways to understand that um such as each of those ages interpenetrates the others each of those ages exists as in in as an Integrity outside of the linear timeline and is refracted onto the linear timeline through the ref refracting lens of human choices and human consciousness so that all of the ages can coexist at the same time on Earth in different places in different pockets in different bubbles of reality and each of those ages also corresponds to a state of consciousness that we can toggle in and out of many times a day so that said in certain places and certain nations in certain times one or another of these archetypal ages hack will will predominate and but the literal number of years and stuff like that that that is not really meant to be taken literally long story short is that the succession of Ages is not something happening outside of ourselves separate from our participation that we are the victims of um and we embody each of those ages and are part of their succession [Music] uh I was invited yesterday but I was like I I think I'd heard your name before but I was like I don't know yeah I've been buried um really deep in learning about the culture war and politics I mean I'm just so curious about how everything works but so I was like I need to listen to this kind of stuff just to make sure because I don't want to go for you know two hours and pay money to listen to somebody who's you know whatever so and I listen to some of your stuff and I really appreciated the the stuff you were specifically talking because there were too many ads and now well I've got I do I'm a I have you what is it YouTube premium so and it never happens so yeah but that's worth it for me um but yeah I really liked your videos on the fundamentalism and the religious stuff because it was so it was like oh he's going to talk about generally when we hear religion we talk about Christianity but you were talking more about um like cultism and like this kind of like tribalist thinking and I don't know if these words are the most accurate but I really appreciated the way that you communicated it during those interviews that you were doing I feel like you were at the moment when you were saying it was like wow this would I feel like this would get past the intense like barrier and uh protectiveness of people who are somewhat captured by the ideology of I mean you did use the the woke or the you know like the the progressive kind of maoist of like equity and I don't know just I feel like this anger is like kind of that's been the part like for me I'm like the the the right it's like really easy to see like when they've gone off the rails and so I appreciated the way that you were able to communicate the other side of like what is the soft person if they get too much power How does it go too far yeah so oh my God yeah um so that that skill in in communication is actually really not so much a matter of skill it's a matter of um looking to where the divisive opinions come from and speaking to the uh underlying moral being um and respecting people and taking them seriously and and and as a gesture of respect speaking in their language you know if I you know go to Mexico I'm not gonna just be like shouting I'm an American listen to me all right I'm gonna I'm gonna like at least try to try to learn a little bit of their Customs learn their ways um maybe learn their language a bit and and and so that's when I'm speaking to Christians or people who identify as politically Progressive or people who identify as politically conservative I I learn a little bit of their language so that I can translate transpartisan Concepts into words that they can receive that's that's that's what I'm trying to do and sometimes it's very hard because because the reflex that has been instilled in US is to filter every piece of information through the filter of is he on our side or their side like that's the first question people ask so sometimes the skill comes in confusion like you know be be uncategorizable say something that just doesn't fit and then there's a moment where the guard comes down because people are this is actually a classic uh hypnosis technique Milton Erickson used to be able to hypnotize people with a handshake because he cheeked their hand really weird he'd like you know stroke their thumb or do something weird and and and like they're they're their their mind would reorient and there'd be this openness so it's kind of like that you know to to be uncategorizable and the way you do that is to really speak to the to the underlying um Soul um you know like this is I'll say a little bit more I said this this morning the way that the way that the power elite the way that the establishment controls us is is by directing our anger onto Heat by hijacking anger and channeling that energy onto hate hate for each other which neutralizes the anger it's all directed against itself and leaves the system untouched leaves the real causes of what is making us angry untouched the most powerful revolutionary prerequisite is to learn a new habit stop using that filter which side are they on hold your anger so sacred that you will not allow it to be converted into hate [Applause] [Music] hi Charles thank you so much um first thank you for being brave during covid when you came on the scene and started speaking up it was right when my husband and I really needed to hear you speak up so thank you sorry to get emotional about it but thank you [Applause] um as a parent I'm just wondering if you have any tips for helping protect but also prepare our children for these times I have a four-year-old and a ten and a half year old and we've always been very much of the belief that we want them to be in the world but not of the world but that's getting harder and harder I saw once a month I want to pull my daughter out of her private school and homeschooler and I don't know thank you but I don't know if that's going to be in service to her because she was born now and she's dealing with these issues so I'm not sorry I don't mean to get too personal about it but do you have any advice for parents is my question yeah I mean you know I've I'm on kid number four at this point so I do have some experience with this um and you know with the older older ones for a lot of the time I was like really poor and didn't have a whole lot of choices you know and kind of did the best I could um with Carrie who's 10 now we've been pretty much homeschooling and the idea is to give him like such a solid foundation and such a a strong core um that he'll be able to go out into the world and stay sane you know to some extent if you if you pour enough love into them because they are life they'll know what to do they'll navigate but I think that you know in the early formative years homeschooling is a really good idea especially but even better I mean you know homeschooling and isolation isn't a good idea and if you live in a place where there's not a lot of alternative culture then it can be really hard that was one of the dilemmas that I faced like homeschooling by herself is so unnatural you know but if you can get a pod homeschooling pod together or also like you know Waldorf you know some of the alternative schools forest forest children you know those things at Waldorf teacher right back there so yeah yeah but yeah I think you know to to yeah eventually they're going to step into society I mean that's why we're here you know we're here to do something about it we're not here just to to stay apart you know we're here you know if we were here to stay apart we wouldn't have entered this realm to begin with you know so but it's to prepare them for their their work of enjoying and delighting in creation and contributing to it [Applause] that but okay um Charles I I was first learned of you through Zach Bush um several years ago and um you've become to me a voice of Sanity in a pretty insane World these last couple years so I want to say thank you for that but I also I want to ask you a question about Community because it seems myself and almost everybody I know is seeking more community in this world and I'd just like for you to comment what that looks like to you yeah um community actually cannot be achieved when it is an end in itself Community is a result of people doing something together that they care about giving their Gift Community is a matter of gifts it's woven together through gifts and mutual gratitude Mutual obligation which isn't a bad thing obligation it's knowing Community is when you look at somebody and you know that I need them I need you I need you why do I need you maybe in a traditional context it was I Need You To Survive but even in a traditional context it wasn't really that other cultures were not just here to survive they had spiritual aspirations and an idea of good life living well that required everybody's participation and today it's the same if you are with people and you all care about something more than just yourselves then you will make sacrifices toward that thing and because everybody brings different gifts and capacities to the table you know that I need you not because I need you to survive but I need you because I care about this thing a lot and you do too and your gifts are essential to this thing that I care about that then the community seems kind of superficial you know like okay we're all living together we're on land now now what I am in Asheville you know what I'm talking about right let's get on land okay why why what what you care about that brings you to this land because and this Taps into that basic purpose like we are here to do something and we can't do it alone so communities about finding the people who you're going to do it with you know could be raising children in a beautiful way it could be much more than that I just like to say also I was thrilled with your announcement on Monday and it takes a lot of courage to step into the political Arena I believe for years I have said I'm on the purple team you put red and blue together and you get purple and to me that's the team of the people and I believe that's where you are too yeah I have just a small gift for you yeah the uh purple team um you know one of the one of the I'll just say one of the most heartening things is the um Resonance of the campaign on both right and left it's it's you know the other day I we we put out a there was an article on counter punch saying why the left should take RFK Jr seriously counter punch is like one of the most like hard left websites out there and the same day there was an article on in on um the American conservative why conservatives you know should support RFK Jr so I'm like you know maybe there's maybe there's hope here you know yeah [Music] [Applause] yeah hi Charles I actually have a kind of continuation from where you were just going which is that um you know first of all thank you so much for stepping into that Arena you know I imagine there's a lot of difficulty in being in that in that sphere um but something that you said in your your blog post announcing it like uh really made me cry with with joy and with hope where you said you know from where you're standing RFK has a real chance you know and probably because of what you were just saying and but I think you also mentioned like powerful people that you are witnessing you know our behind this campaign and I'm sure you can't like name names or anything like that but um I was just curious if you would share more about what you're seeing yeah like powerful like like powerful people okay you know you learn that these powerful people aren't as powerful as people think they are but yeah like defectors from the establishment who are fed up with the whole thing and desperate and um but yeah I I wouldn't be part of it if I didn't think I had a chance and uh I just there's a recent poll a Rasmussen poll like a you know legit poll that had him among Democrats now at 33 or something which you know for a month after the campaign and actually he has more support among Independents and Republicans and Democrats so I mean this is a totally legit thing [Applause] as always thank you for playing your part in the evolution of Consciousness uh you know we say that the true majority is a disenfranchised and I don't know I'm sure there's at least a dozen of us here that overlap with the local seek healing Community anyone so Lo it's the the notion that most addictions are really part of this loneliness epidemic so what I've always imagined is that the energy that's involved in a presidential campaign to actually essentially reach everyone if someone who has the grounding and lightning that you know is saying what is our common ground and so I guess the question really is is do you have a working definition for sanity and and then also if you could paint some sort of a picture of of the energy that was go that goes into marketing campaigning deception Decepticon game if all of that just went into infrastructure that created Mutual aid for dealing with the crises we're facing that you are able to articulate in ways that people go wow I already thought of that and let's do this so I'd love to hear more of that that what yet may be part yeah just any any piece you can paint of like how like magically that like the most magical version if you could of how the campaign unfolds I I I I I think I missed some element of the question the most magical version of what of of uh this yeah the the the the the the the re-enchanting of of of of the American dream as you were saying yeah yeah and and Sanity yeah um so first my definition usually I don't work from definitions the whole idea that the place to start is by defining something because meaning is relational you know but in this case I do kind of have a definition sanity is simply to be in reality for example the reality of what a human being is here for um as for like the re-enchantment the most important principle that I hold for the campaign is authenticity and I really do admire uh Mr Kennedy for his authenticity and and his courage he's not going to tell people what they want to hear he's not calculating like that he does understand the necessity of speaking in their language but not to the point where compromises his truth and so he'll tell people they don't want to hear what they don't like and um you know then at least people are actually that's respecting someone's sovereignty you know they're actually making an informed Choice then so and I think that that is actually where re-enchantment comes from because how can you be enchanted by something when you have to maintain a cynical distance from it you know this is a long line here I'm starting to get kind of tired what time is it but we still yeah with a little bit more water thanks yeah yeah so nobody no no more people add to the line okay just hello hi um hypothetically you say had a minute or two to speak a few phrases or such to the whole world every human in modernity and maybe even those still living originally what would you love to share maybe from the heart I wouldn't do that yeah um because I'm very fond of quoting thoreau's statement it takes two to speak the truth one to speak and one to hear and what is you know words are a vehicle for truth and the words that might be true for one person are not true for another person so I don't have like a general Universal formula um and I could say something that everybody might agree with you know like what I said about the purpose of the human being but is that really what I want to say to that person right now when they're they're you know dog just died or when like you know what is right to say to somebody depends on the relationship and so here I am speaking to 400 people but I have a sense of you you know my my um that's why I have a lot of trouble giving speeches on the internet I have to make a lot more of an effort to tune in to who's listening so yeah perfect thank you Grand yeah thanks thank you Charles when you were 10 years old author Tom Wolf called the 1970s the Me decade I don't know if you remember that in fact the BBC did a whole documentary series on the last century calling it the century of the self so if we fast forward 50 years to today when everybody has a podcast including people in the systems change world I find it equally amusing and disturbing when somebody like Aubry Marcus comes out of an ayahuasca ceremony the first thing he does is turn a camera on himself and record this for everybody out there so my question comes from the famous modern philosopher Marcel the Shell remember Marcel the Shell became very popular during the pandemic and Marcel in his movie uh the theatrical version said all of the people on YouTube I thought I had a community what I had was an audience and that's my question for you in this modern world of systems change are we creating Community are you guys just getting an audience I'd say it's more an audience there's there's a role for that kind of relationship but there's an awful lot that cannot be accomplished that way and I think most of the important work that needs to be done today cannot be done in that way it's on a much smaller scale and it is involves physicality and yeah especially the idea that you're going to have a bigger impact if you reach more people needs to be questioned you can make big waves on the ocean's surface that way and get a lot of likes you know and a lot of views but that's not how to change the deep currents thank you hi there I first want to thank you and everyone else who showed up today this has really been awesome [Music] um one of the things that you were talking about that rang for me was about the alternative kind of uh Community or mindset of creating of this intention and you said it's not it's not intention it's not you don't create it it's about making choices and so kind of what came to my mind was some of the mesoamerica spirituality that I've studied where they talk about dreams and that what we're living in right now is a collective dream that someone had many people had and we joined it and so for me I and I want to ask you to speak to this it's really about dreaming a new dream what's my dream every day that I want to see and that's that's the way that I move forward yeah it's a good question where the dreams come from most traditional cultures have an idea of dreams as being sent to you it's not the uh you know conceit of the Me decade and the cult of the individual that we create our dreams that there's some machination of our unconscious mind uh you know resetting the brain and whatever um but the dreams come from an external source same with visions an authentic vision is not one that you make up it's it's that's implicit in the word something you see yeah but you do have Choice within a dream oh very much so especially in this type of community dream yes the collective dream yeah so yeah I think it's a very fruitful metaphor very fruitful way to understand it yeah thank you hi Charles I'm Zen and you may not know it yet but we're working together on the campaign waiting for you to respond to my emails and approve the messaging because we're going to be inviting people to join into Fourth of July parades to raise awareness about Bobby Kennedy running for president and we hope that you will all join in in Hendersonville and other local parades and um and if you want to find out more about that and the fundraiser on October 28th we invite everybody to go to the Unity Web the unityweb.com right.com more .com and that Maura help start and we will let you know more about the parades and about the fundraiser we need people to partner with us on this okay guys and my question for you one of the banners that we're proposing that we hold as we walk through and reach thousands locally Millions nationally in a single day is Heal The Divide so I would like to hear more from you about what can we do on a daily basis starting right now to heal the Divide yeah um I said a bit about it before about holding anger sacred and not channeling it into hate um I would maybe also then speak of the habit of judgment which is the kernel of division on the interpersonal level and what do I mean by judgment something very specific which is the belief that if I were in your situation I would not do as you have done in other words I'm better than you or I'm worse than you but if I were in that situation I wouldn't if I were driving down that that neighborhood Road I wouldn't be speeding I wouldn't do that if I were that father I wouldn't be abusing that woman that that child I would not why because I'm made of better stuff that judgment writ large has completely taken over our Civic culture and it leads us to blame the horrible people on the other side for every problem you know and and the conservatives blame the Liberals and vice versa and you know everybody blames everybody else and it comes from that fundamental misunderstanding um that in fact you know the the truth is that if I were in the totality of that person's circumstances I might very well do exactly as they did how do I know and once you realize that the next step is curiosity about what are those circumstances and how can I change them why why is there child abuse happening in a third of all households now why What happened to the abusers who started out as adorable little babies who want nothing more than to love their own children what happened to them once we start asking that question then all kinds of new responses arise we start asking that about on a political level those who we judge you know like the conservatives who judge immigrants do they really know why what makes somebody so desperate to leave their Homeland that they would risk their lives but they're put give all their money to these coyotes you know who put them in the back of a tractor-trailer and I mean what would how desperate what would it take for you to do that you know and once you start asking those questions the simple answer simple solution of prevailing over the bad guys is no longer available and we're left with complexity we're left with bewilderment we're left with not knowing what to do which is a very good start thank you Charles thank you for your presence and I know I'm the last one and keeping everybody from your Refreshments so thanks for your presence everybody um I'm going to start with the question but I do want to provide context selfishly for a little catharsis and it's a bhagavad-gita question about Duty and I would like for you just to generally talk about the tension I will transmit right now this is cathartic because this tension was awoken in me when I read the more beautiful world our hearts know as possible and I'm sure you get this all the time but I have this really weird relationship with you and your work because it it made me start to question so much it daily lit what was being questioned already I work a corporate job making cities Greener with the Green Revolution that happens to extract lithium and bring it into EV cars because that's the technological promise of tomorrow I do that because I want to put food on the table and I do that because in the reality where we're all heading towards destruction that's actually pretty good work for us to be doing to keep the planet survivable and at the same time I feel like dropping off the map and I'm so privileged and I'm so tortured and it's not just me there's so many people my age in in these situations where they feel like they're kind of doing the right thing for this timeline but they really want to be healers in the new timeline and I don't think they're mutually exclusive but my body can't handle the two right now and it really is like a bhagavad-gita duty thing in me so anything that you can offer is wonderful and thank you again for your work wow thank you thank you for entrusting me with that question yeah your your body is an unusually finely tuned Exquisite instrument that is absorbing information that your mind has not grappled with you know the fairy tale of The Princess and the Pea usually interpreted as some misogynistic story about the princess who is so delicate in particular she can't sleep when there's a pee under 20 layers of mattresses on her bed actually though the story really the meaning is that the true princess will not tolerate anything wrong even if it's buried under 20 layers of comfort in the fairy tale she shows up at the castle gates in a storm she's no delicate flower that's established in the story if you read it carefully okay your body's telling you something foreign and that doesn't mean quit your job right now all I'm saying is take that information seriously your idea of Duty is sometimes a mechanism to override the information that your body's telling you your mind is seizing on duty to maintain the status quo thank you [Music] [Applause] well I'm getting a little bit out of batteries someone just say I'm out of batteries yeah my batteries are getting a little low this the mic is fine though oh you know yeah um I haven't been doing so much public speaking you know after covid and and um I'm happy to be doing this tonight and to to be um you know the uh antenna for the collective Consciousness in this room that's part of why I'm here to serve in that way um you know and to be able to say these things that aren't always appropriate to say to America in general in the context of a political campaign but I know if I don't say them then some Channel in my energetic body will get blocked so I want to thank you for giving me the generous listening to hear what I what is within me to say and to pull it through me through your listening um and I will continue I I mentioned the sanity project in which as often Patsy will do most of the work in organizing the team running the website uh all I mean so much Logistics and my role will be to um often sometimes every day sometimes several times a week offer little pieces the kind of things I've been saying tonight provocations inspirations uh invitations little videos things like that and sometimes longer things um maybe sometimes with guests bio Como lafe and Orland Bishop have agreed to join me in this exploration of sanity so if you're interested in that and and as kind of a way to continue um and have a a drip line of the energy of our gathering tonight then um subscribe to my sub stack and I will announce the sanity project pretty soon is that right Patsy yeah why don't you come up here [Music] no okay hello okay hi hi [Applause] so I'm just a hen hand you know Game of Thrones your hand right um so the uh the sanity project the program itself is scheduled to go live on uh June 11th at 8 00 a.m Eastern Standard Time uh so that's when we're gonna push the button and have it go live um so as far as like registration goes or website developer is working on it because it's going to be a complex of Passage to come in because we're using Mighty Network and and you know Charles's model is by gifts so mighty name board does not offer that you know we have to put a price tag and we're unwilling to do that so we have to come up with a clever way to go around so uh yeah bear with us uh in the next couple weeks or so we should open up the registration um and yeah and that's it while I'm here I want to say something that it would be helpful for you to know that Charles said that he will provide content like a drip line to provide us this information and so how would how the sanity project would run well is that if we can hold each other's hands and do like Practice Group so the team that Charles was mentioning that I'm organizing are a group of facilitators that would start offering that uh as like practice sessions and it will uh it would happen through Zoom modalities but we definitely encourage you because you're all like local people you can organize your study group so that is our hope that through this 70 project we can help people connect and maintain our sanity thank you foreign yeah so yeah yeah the the gift model is basically we set a price and then you decide if that's too much or too little um and you know because everybody's Financial circumstance is different and your feeling of gratitude and value is different so that's how we do it kind of like tonight you know I think it was 25 but if you want to pay more or less that's welcome as well um and one last thing about the sanity project it's actually for my sanity because as I said if I don't express these things not through the filter of another man Mr Kennedy you know who I do respect and admire but but I need to to have a direct Channel too for my sanity and to see it land and and and and get the feedback you know that says okay Charles you're not crazy you know because we're receiving this and resonating so thank you everybody for coming here tonight and reminding me that I'm Not Crazy by your presence here uh or maybe we're all crazy together foreign [Applause] [Music] [Applause]

Channel: Charles Eisenstein

Views: 110,383

Keywords: Charles Eisenstein, Interbeing, Author, Gift Economy, Climate Change, More Beautiful World, Ascent of Humanity, Sanity Project

Id: BE7DXxE_q6o

Length: 116min 19sec (6979 seconds)

Published: Mon May 29 2023