Finding Hope in the Holomovement

March 25, 2021
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As the beautiful bounty of spring breaks out around us, there is also a silent spring that lurks under the surface, threatening to destroy the magic of the moment.  From where I sit on the sacred lands of numerous Native American tribes in Sedona, AZ, it all looks vibrant right now, but last year there was no significant rainfall here from March through the end of the year, creating extreme drought conditions that are killing even some of the hardiest endemic species and cacti.  

Another year like the last one, and this will turn into a tinder box in short order, endangering the plants, animals, humans and their homes on this land.  And the story is similar around the world, whether the threats are from drought, wind, floods, fires or landslides, nature is out of balance and crying for our help.  The flowering trees, chirping birds and frolicking newborn animals are all a wonder to watch as they come out for their spring rituals, but their mere presence also attests to the fragile and ephemeral state of the systems that make life possible.  

I experienced a similar foreboding this week while participating on an Evolutionary Leader’s call focusing on our relationship with the planet.  Whereas there was an abundance of good will and creative solutions, much of the talk reminded us that our great intentions were like the silent spring around us—so promising on the surface, yet a sense of frustration in its undertones, knowing how reluctant our society is to take significant action to ward off climate disaster.  

Duane Elgin, one of the thought-leaders I admire most, spoke of his latest book and project called “Choosing Earth.”  Mr. Elgin has contributed more solutions and more optimism into our culture than anyone I know.  From “Voluntary Simplicity” to “Awakening Earth” to “The Living Universe,” he has explained the facts and showed us the solutions to our most serious societal threats.  Yet decades continue to drift by with little or no significant action taken to combat climate change and preserve our ecosystems and their species.  It is no wonder that there was a note of frustration and despair in Duane’s words as he led the discussion.  In response, the group on the call asked for the breakout sessions to focus on a message of hope.  

In looking for hope, this all too frequent sentiment was expressed: “It is far too late to lose hope now.”  Or, “Things are far too serious to lose our sense of humor.”  Strangely enough, one of the greatest hopes we might have is that the state of our environment is so bad that it is generating alarm and a response.  When our systems are pushed so far beyond equilibrium that their survival is in danger, that is when the most creative solutions arise.  Barbara Marx Hubbard summed it up by saying that “Our crisis is our birth.”  

The worse things become, the more we search for answers.  One thing is for certain.  For a global, transformative shift to happen, we have to move beyond our silos of interest groups and join together in a collaborative network of social action.

Fortunately, this grand movement is already beginning to gain momentum around the world, based on the emerging principles of what has been called the new paradigm. It encompasses hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, of individuals, nonprofits, small community groups and organizations all in motion working to change the fundamental nature of society. Now, poised at the bifurcation point of our species’ breakdown or breakthrough, it is critical our global family finds consensus in shifting our cultural values from “me,” to “we,” to “all.” 

To achieve this will require a movement with a unifying worldview and outlined by defining principles that give us hope, meaning and evolutionary direction. We need a strategic plan. A transformative movement of this magnitude also needs a name to rally around, one I propose calling the Holomovement.

This isn’t the first time I have written about the potential of this “movement of movements.” In fact, I was a little over-optimistic a few years ago writing in my 2019 New Year’s message that it would be “The Year of the Holomovement.” But timing is everything, and there’s no denying that humanity has been issued a jarring wake-up since then to shake us into collaborative motion.

Finding Inspiration in David Bohm’s Vision of Our Universe

I first came across the term “holomovement” 40 years ago, coined by American physicist David Bohm in his book Wholeness and the Implicate Order. Published in 1980, Bohm described the universe as an unbroken wholeness of the totality of existence: an undivided, flowing movement without borders. The holomovement, as explained by Bohm, was “a holistic understanding of our universe as a manifestation of the consciousness of our universe.” At the core of our universe is the implicate order, the field of consciousness and multidimensional reality of oneness that creates our world. The physical manifestation of how we perceive the universe is the explicate order. The holomovement is what weaves the two together. 

While this description was first used to describe the physical explanation of our universe, Bohm went on to apply it to cosmology and even the source of consciousness. He was also intrigued with how the collective consciousness of humankind was developing into its own movement of unbroken wholeness and increasing self-awareness. 

In recognition of Bohm’s vision and the subsequent realization of the synergistic energy arising, the term “holomovement” perfectly describes the sociological phenomenon underlying the worldwide movement towards unity. The Holomovement, as applied to our current times, represents radical collaboration in action, founded in love, with a collective mission that continues to honor the autonomy of each of our diverse purpose-driven efforts. 

Guided by both science and spirituality and propelled by a sense of purpose, I, alongside a group of thought leaders, envision the Holomovement as a rallying cry for this grand movement to take root, grow and bloom into the transformative new structure of our collective consciousness. To bridge the ever-growing divisiveness that plagues our communities, we’ve outlined eight core principles within the Holomovement to guide us in this transformative shift. 

It is our collective mission to embody these principles as we explore the nature of this Holomovement through the threads of cosmology, psychology and sociology. We will also call upon the wisdom traditions to guide us in their long held understanding of wholeness in our interconnected web of life. Our earliest ancestors with their close connection to nature were able to understand the essence of the whole world view of the holomovement as we are now exploring it, based upon a purposeful and conscious universe. Now is the time to merge the understandings of our forebearers with our knowledge of quantum reality such as proposed by David Bohm, and fuse it all into a grand, worldwide movement for social renewal.  

Each one of us has the potential to make positive change when we embody a feeling of hope for a positive future. The Holomovement nurtures this belief and understanding that each one of us has a purpose in co-creating this new chapter of our shared humanity. 

Audrey E. Kitagawa, JD, the Founder of the International Academy for Multicultural Cooperation and former Chair of the Parliament of the World's Religions, says it more eloquently. “Civil society is the sleeping giant that has awakened to its power to create global movements for the transformation of humanity.

Hope Springs Eternal

Humanity as a whole will not, and cannot, sit idly back and watch our destiny turn away from its evolutionary path. It is us -- hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of organizations, not-for-profits, activist groups and inspired individuals working towards the same end—who will accelerate worldwide transformation in the way we live and engage with each other and the planet.

This is the message of hope I share with my friend Duane Elgin and so many others like him, who have dedicated their lives to improving our relationship with Earth, only to see us ignore the call for decades and fall ever deeper into our climate and social crises.  Help is on the way.  We have seen the enemy and they are us.  Now it is simply up to us to change things from the inside out, infusing the holomovement with energy and action.  

What an exciting time to live and be a part of this monumental moment in human history. In this critical year ahead, let the Holomovement serve as an attractor in creating the coherence needed to unify our transformative efforts for the good of the whole and evolution of humankind.  

And if you would like to delve more deeply into the matter, please join me in the online course I will be presenting in conjunction with Integral Transformative Practice International and the guidelines of the Ki of Cooperation. The course begins this Saturday, April 10th at 9am Pacific Time. 

This is the only course I will be offering this year and for the foreseeable future. Why not join us and learn how to build and activate your own community to contribute to the hope we all long for—a new spring that sings out with a call for planetary renewal and sustainability?
Chris Dews
March 27, 2024 1:07 AM
Many thanks Emanuel - A great blog as always!
Emanuel
March 27, 2024
Thanks, Chris. I hope the holomovement provides some inspiration and encouragement for all you are doing in Ibiza. You and all of your contacts and collaborators are a prime example of how the hope in the Holomovement works. Keep up the great work! Our planet desperately needs you.

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Read articles and book reviews reflecting my work in envisioning a world transformed.
Book Review: A New Republic of the Heart by Terry Patten
August 2, 2018
Restoring spiritual values within the foundation of democracy has taken on a new sense of urgency. How can purpose, compassion and spirituality coincide as a beacon for a system that seems fueled by populism, anger and greed? These are the questions I had been asking myself when I was introduced to <a href="https://www.terrypatten.com/a-new-republic-of-the-heart/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Terry Patten’s new book, A New Republic of the Heart</a>. The subtitle hints to the wealth of information shared in the book. Terry Patten’s writing on the “Ethos for Revolutionaries” is a guide for what is required of us to co-create a more compassionate globally democratic society. The theme throughout the chapters is a wake up call that we can no longer afford to leave the heart out of our activism and evolution. To transform humanity requires us to reawaken to our connection to the greater whole and release the illusion of separate selves that fuels so much fear. But why the heart, when it seems love is the last thing being shown in our challenging times? Terry writes: <i>“A New Republic of the Heart:  Because its center is everywhere and its circumference is nowhere, wholeness cannot be pointed to. It has no particular location, because it is not “other” than anything. But if it is anywhere, it is here, at the very center of each “when” and each “where.” The wisdom of the center of the being reflects the character of the whole. And we intuit its intelligence at the heart.”</i> As we work to create positive change, it’s critical we have guides to offer insight and inspiration, and Terry Patten’s A New Republic of the Heart remains on my bedside table to continue using as a resource.<i> </i>My reflections below touch upon only a small part of the vast amount of inspiring information presented in his book, and I hope it inspires others to explore his writing in more detail. <h2><b>Reawakening to the Heart’s Capacity for Compassion</b></h2> A New Republic of the Heart explains that the first step in positive transformation is finding resources for healthy change that already exist. This could be as simple as forming and maintaining meaningful friendships. To be in service of the greater whole, to have a democracy that is respectful and empathetic, first requires us to get along with our neighbors, our family members and our colleagues. It is a simple yet critical reminder. As activists, our energy and intentions matter, but so do our daily habits in how we show up in the world, and Terry writes why this is so important. <i>“It is a deep truth that when we join in battle, we tend to become like our opponents. Evolution and the course of life would be served if we could learn to fight such “evil” in a different way—such as Gandhi and other non-violent resisters have discovered—so that we can prevail without becoming like what we oppose.”</i> Acting with love and care, especially when so many groups seem to thrive on hate, is no easy task and this book doesn’t pretend to offer easy answers. Again and again, Terry returns to the power of the heart as our guide for the journey. I resonated with Terry’s words, and how <a href="https://emanuelkuntzelman.com/balancing-agape-and-eros-love-in-global-transformation/">we need to return to agape love</a> in our evolutionary growth. We have strayed from the platonic compassion that nurtures our transformation, and instead have become distracted by the need for instant gratification and excitement often found in eros love. While both are important in our evolution, humanity must find a balance to reconnect with the greater whole. Terry writes in chapter three just how important this understanding of love’s capacity is to building a new republic of the heart. A practice in trust, compassion, appreciation, generosity, courage and creativity is needed as individuals and as a collective culture. In a time where a chasm seems to grow deeper and wider between those with differing opinions, and democracy itself is under threat, it will be our heart’s deeper intelligence that will inform our way of being and how we respond to challenges. <h2><b>Change Requires an Understanding of Reality’s Undivided Wholeness</b></h2> The book explains that Wholeness is intuited at the heart. In fact, reawakening to our sense of connection could be the most revolutionary form of activism we could engage in at this time. Terry writes that this isn’t just an ideal, it’s a necessity. We can no longer afford to leave this sense of interconnectedness, even to those people and ideas we oppose, out of our intentions and co-evolution. This is a big ask, but this book doesn’t propose we need to be enlightened to achieve positive change. Instead, the message is to realize our connectedness rather than compartmentalizing our reality. Terry considers: “<i>how our usual approach (especially in “civilized” societies) is to bypass this perspective in favor of endless fragmentation and analysis, which contributes to the pathology by which we have wrought ecological havoc on our whole planet.</i>” I agree with the book’s description of humanity’s illusion of separation, and the idea that we can’t seek out a connection to wholeness, but instead must <i>reawaken</i> to this way of being. This is why the heart is taking center stage. Unfortunately, this isn’t going to happen overnight and as Terry writes, will require a lifetime of practice. In the latter chapters of A New Republic of the Heart, Terry pays homage to <a href="http://www.itp-international.org/the_people" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Michael Murphy and George Leonard,</a> as well as Ken Wilber’s teachings, to defend this declaration. The solution to our global crisis isn’t going to arrive as a quick fix. And it isn’t going to come from strictly meditating, or an individual pursuit of enlightenment. This is an integral practice of body, mind, heart and soul. Our challenge in reawakening to our connectedness is stalled by our natural tendency to compartmentalize identities, opinions and actions. However, Terry writes how “integralists” are working to “transcend the fragmentation of our postmodern world.” One way to achieve this is by understanding that every generation and stage of evolution has highlights and shadows of its time. In this chapter of A New Republic of the Heart, much of the writing is inspired by Ken Wilber’s teachings of “including and transcending.” He lays the foundation for the wisdom of respecting lessons we can learn to “include and transcend” by describing the Traditionalist, Modern and Postmodern perspectives and worldviews that have evolved and what we can learn from each stage. This step is also critical if we are to transform our current democratic system to one of cooperation and compassion. We can no longer afford to separate into various camps of thought, pointing fingers at who’s to blame for our global situation. To practice this also requires a narrative that holds a coherent story and meaning. The book describes the need for an archetypal story that can be true for both us as individuals and also as a culture. What I found interesting in this chapter was the importance of yin and yang in our hero/heroine’s description. Terry writes that “at the heart of yin heroism there’s a call for a new level of yang action.” To be effective agents of change we must honor both the time to reflect, to be receptive and diligent about strategy and research, but then also know when it is time to take action. Both stillness and movement are critical components of this process. Once again we come back to the theme of the book, a heartfelt revolution of wholeness against fragmentation. <h2><b>Introducing Love in the Domain of Politics</b></h2> In the final chapters, Terry touches on ways to go “around the system” in achieving results in our activism, as well as the reiteration that communication and meaningful dialogue are the remedies to a fragmented society. He also highlights some work being done specifically in the realm of politics, which I found particularly interesting. To enact love in the domain of politics is profoundly tricky, yet incredibly important, and Charles Eisenstein’s quote in the book suggests we start with empathy: <i>“As we enter a period of intensifying disorder it is important to introduce a different kind of force to animate the structures that might appear after the old ones crumble. I would call it love if it weren’t for the risk of triggering your New Age bullshit detector, and besides, how does one practically bring love into the realm of politics? So let’s start with empathy. Politically, empathy is akin to solidarity, born of the understanding that we are all in this together.... I see its lineaments in those marginal structures and practices that we call holistic, alternative, regenerative, and restorative. All of them source from empathy, the result of the compassionate inquiry: What is it like to be you?”</i> This is entirely different from the kind of activism that intensifies polarization, scorning those it opposes. It counters progressive activist tendencies to demonize political enemies. Eisenstein goes on to suggest we take time to ask perhaps a more important question as we rebuild our political system. Yes, as a global community connected to a greater whole, we can say we’re all in this together, but what does that mean: <i>“In what together?”</i> Terry believes that we are in “uncertainty together.” And if this is the case, each moment requires the ongoing process of learning and growth. Intelligence alone is not going to help us transform. The heart and even our spiritual center of our <i>hara</i>, must work in tandem with our mind to co-create a better future for humanity. I really think Terry is on to something important here.  Our educational systems have taught that “certainty” is the way to go—as there is always a “right” answer to our questions, but in the cultural, political and social quagmire of our present time, we are definitely ensconced in uncertainty, whether we like it or not.  So, we are better off embracing this, feeling into the core of our being, and allowing our hearts to give us intuitive direction of the path to take, rather than expecting the mind’s logic to show the way.  Again, the solution lies in the common source we all share of agape love, even if the best we can do for now is to muddle through and find some form of empathy for our adversaries.  At least it’s a start. <h2><b>A Heartfelt Sense of Purpose in Integral Evolutionary Activism </b></h2> The true integral revolution isn’t along the left/right spectrum. A revolution of wholeness is inclusive; it does not leave people, or good ideas, behind. In many ways, the integral revolution is uncharted territory. It is useful to examine the three domains of activism if we are going to bring the heart into evolutionary change. The book describes these forms of activism as: working within the system, against the system, and around the system. Sometimes these are presented as competing alternatives, but evolutionary activists work in all three of these domains when necessary. According to Terry’s writing, evolutionary activism is integral. <i>“On one hand, it expresses a serious commitment to whole-system change, and the emergence of a life-sustaining global culture. On the other hand, it expresses a serious commitment to becoming the kind of people who can create and enjoy a life-sustaining global culture. That means simultaneous care for and engagement with individual human beings and local initiatives even while keeping the metasystemic big picture in mind. Evolutionary activists view all their initiatives as collectively impacting a whole-system transition. We keep our hearts on the prize of a life-sustaining global culture. We stay human, humble, and real, and we keep growing. Then we can also notice the synergies and commonalities among our projects, and we can harmonize apparent conflicts and cultivate a greater coherence.”</i> Integral politics also looks beyond the two opposing camps of liberal and conservative voters, and instead works to expand the perspectives rather than polarize. <a href="http://www.transpartisanreview.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">James Turner and Lawrence Chickering, executive editors for the Transpartisan Review</a> identify two axes: freedom and order and the left and right. Integral philosopher Steve McIntosh has identified another axis of polarity to include: the tension between nationalism and globalism. In the book, Terry doesn’t believe transpartisanship requires transcending all partisanship or diluting the efforts to find consensus, but rather, working to get things done by identifying “common interests and values and complementary benefits.” In the book, he describes this process starting with meaningful interactions: <i>“Our first frontier is our relationships with one another. At first it is a private matter, in individual hearts; but we can engage collective practices. And eventually, countless personal and interpersonal acts can co-create a social act, the knitting together of more and more personal virtue, strengthening the social mycelium, creating a new republic of the heart.”</i> So what does it look like when we take action with a heartfelt and integral sense of purpose? In chapter nine of the book, Terry uses a powerful quote from Thich Nhat Hanh to sum up his thoughts on this vision. “<i>The next Buddha may very well be a sangha.</i>”  Personally, I would go so far as to say that the next Buddha has to be a sangha.  No single individual is going to transform our world, but a cultural revolution of brotherhood/sisterhood of humankind could pull it off. As the book comes to a close, the reader is left with hope that authentic connections and communication, alongside an integral life of practice, will create a new dimension Terry refers to as “we space.” This new dimension of being and acting in accordance to the whole rather than the illusion of separate self is not impossible. We just need to find our way back “home” to this interconnectedness. As Terry sums it up: <i>That new republic already exists, as our social mycelium, and as our intuition and intuitive attraction toward a still-unmanifest possibility. It is already fully present, but mainly as a potential. It is where we are heading, our telos or omega point. It is like the “strange attractor” that conjures order out of a chaotic open system as it transitions through a bifurcation point into a higher-order state. Even though it is still out of reach, it functions to orient and organize all our values, actions, projects, and plans. Moreover, as an attractor of the heart, not just my or your heart, it reveals a new potential in human relatedness rooted in the deepest truth of our nonseparation. I am also “we,” for real.”</i> Terry Patten has given us some beautiful, heartfelt, heart-generated thoughts about finding the way out of our darkest hour of uncertainty.  I would summarize it as a call to stop <i>thinking</i> about it all and start <i>doing</i> something about right now.  Let’s get out of our minds and back to our hearts.  The republic of the human heart is the same one for all of us.  Sometimes we think we are on the other side of something, but in the end it cannot be, because we are most definitely in this together.  The only differences are a matter of perspective. It reminds of one of my favorite stories of the Mulla Nasrudin, that comically wry and legendary teacher of the 13<sup>th</sup> century.  Once there was a group of people making their way through the woods in unknown territory.  They came upon a raging river that offered no possibility of crossing.  Perplexed, they sat on the bank and thought about it until they espied their good friend the Mulla Nasrudin, standing on the other side of the river.  “Mulla, Mulla,” they shouted.  “How do we get to the other side?” The Mulla looked at them in confusion, raised his hands in a gesture of simplification, and shouted back:  “But you are already on the other side!” There are no “sides” in the human heart, only the integral wisdom that we are all one in the we-space of now.  Let’s live together from that premise and move forward in our activism, one friendship at a time.
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