Getting from Here to There, or, Brother Can you Spare a Paradigm?

I was asked to write something for a magazine related to what I’ll be talking about at the upcoming Pythagoras Conference (see below):

Getting from Here to There, or, Brother Can you Spare a Paradigm?

You wouldn’t find any disagreement today about the trouble we are in. Whether you are a liberal or a conservative, whether you are from the U.S. or from elsewhere, the crisis is worldwide.

Beyond cheerleads for us to be all that we can be, where eventually enough people will be evolved enough so that 100 monkeys will shift our worldview from one based on separation to one based on oneness, we don’t talk about our fundamental thought process that gave rise to much of what challenges us. Is a waiting game the only option? Seeing as there is no sign we are near the tipping point, what else could we do?

This is what I’m focusing on now. And I think I have a key.

We need public conversation about the discrepancy between the quantum perspective that science has progressed to and our worldview that’s still based on Newtonian physics. Newton’s is a dualistic world of opposing parts and linear progression, where we are encompassed by space and existing in time. But, in the quantum reality, which goes beyond space and time, everything is entangled. We are interconnected and interdependent. We are one.

So, how about dealing with this very publicly? In fact, it’s bizarre that we aren’t talking about what supports the way things are. Where greed prevails and war is our method of mediation, we don’t have the platform for things like global warming to be addressed. Some new agreement, worldwide, has to take us over. Slogans would be, “More for you is more for me,” and, “Whoever does the most good wins.” An ad campaign could help. But, until we start talking, educating humanity to what is so, we won’t come up with anything proactive to do.

My advocacy for conversation has evolved from my work with the crop circle phenomenon and the stimulus it could provide to open our minds to a bigger reality. We don’t operate collectively, as humanity, but, if there were proof that there is off-planet intelligence, we’d all be on the same side – a united humanity in relation to “the other.”

I have a lot to say about the circles. I’ve been responsible for the two documentaries about them that were made with Hollywood production standards. The first, in 2002, for which I was the Executive Producer, was CROP CIRCLES: Quest for Truth. It’s a history of the circles. I went on to produce and direct What On Earth? Inside the Crop Circle Mystery, a more personal film to showcase the most interesting and knowledgeable people in the crop circle community. Both movies have won awards, and The New York Times, which hadn’t mentioned crop circles for decades, gave What On Earth? a very good review!

The media has done a poor job of dealing with the circles. Programs made by cable stations in the U.S. have been short on accuracy and long on cynicism. But, there’s more going on than perpetrations by people with boards and ropes. The god of science has pronounced the circles to be genuine mysteries, with no way to account for changes to the biology of the plants and the chemistry of the soil. Hoaxes aside, whatever or whoever is delivering these artworks, it’s not us.

I want to direct you to two things online. One is a 48-minute interview with Stephan Schwartz, a consciousness researcher with a scientific and academic background, who did landmark work in establishing some of the protocols for remote viewing. I hosted a webinar series this summer for Evolver Intensives, called Doorways to Another Reality, and Stephan, as my first guest, tuned us into the quantum perspective. My second guest, Edgar Mitchell, 6th man to walk on the moon and founder of IONS, has written Needed, A New Perspective, an excellent paper that speaks to that subject. And here’s Vital Mission! Will you join me?, my blog post about all this.

To summarize, we need a new ideational framework in which humanity pulls together, superseding our current value system in which whoever has the most toys wins. Science has given us the underpinning for re-creating our story. A new science-based vision won’t take hold, though, unless people know it exists. And, when they do, there will be a natural swing to treating each other differently. So, the bottom line right here, right now, is to get conversation happening — educating us on TV, in print, and on the net; spreading to conferences, to classrooms, and to homes. Getting a new vision, a new story, a new paradigm, a new worldview should be priority number one. Please join me in addressing that. As I share my thinking, all thoughts that contribute to mine are welcome.

Look at me, top right, at the Pythagoras Conference, in Indiana, in October! Please pass this mailing along to Kentucky and Indiana friends. Early-bird rate through July31 and save $100 with my coupon code: ST2012.

Suzanne, Your timing could not be more perfect! You put out a call for a new paradigm and voila! one appears, as if by magic.

Monday night’s guest on Coast to Coast is Seth Farber, a radical psychologist who has come up with a new paradigm for the mentally ill called “Mad Pride.”

Here is the blurb from the C2C website
http://www.coasttocoastam.com/show/2012/07/30

Madness & Spirituality
Date: 07-30-12
Host: George Noory
Guests: Dr. Seth Farber

Dissident psychologist and co-founder of the Network Against Coercive Psychiatry, Dr. Seth Farber, will discuss how the Mad Pride movement developed in the last ten years as the successor to the mental patients’ liberation movement, and teaches that many forms of “mental illness” are actually spiritual and supernatural experiences.
———————-

Here is the page on his website about the new book and I quote from a review which mentions it as a new paradigm:

The Spiritual Gift of Madness: The Failure of Psychiatry and the Rise of the Mad Pride Movement

http://www.sethhfarber.com/the_spiritual_gift_of_madness_the_failure_of_psychiatry_and_the_rise_of_the_mad__113226.htm

This revolutionary book tells how the Mad Pride movement developed in the last ten years as the successor to the mental patients’ liberation movement. It includes interviews with leaders in the movement as well as an interview with Paul Levy author of Wetiko, spiritual educator and ex-mental patient. Dr Farber believes the most important innovation to emerge from this movement is the proposition that madness is a dangerous gift. To explain this movement Farber has developed a new paradigm of madness and cultural transformation that builds upon the work of leading theorists in the existentialist, Jungian, Christian and Hindu traditions—including R.D. Laing, John Weir Perry and Sri Aurobindo. This paradigm helps to explain why this movement of “schizophrenics” and “bipolars” could change the world.

Here is the Amazon link, and I copy the book summary.

http://www.amazon.com/Spiritual-Gift-Madness-Psychiatry-Movement/dp/159477448X

The Spiritual Gift of Madness: The Failure of Psychiatry and the Rise of the Mad Pride Movement
Seth Farber Ph.D. (Author), Kate Millett (Foreword)

A bold call for the “insane” to reclaim their rightful role as prophets of spiritual and cultural transformation

• Explains how many of those diagnosed as schizophrenic, bipolar, and other forms of “madness” are not ill but experiencing a spiritual awakening

• Explores the rise of Mad Pride and the mental patients’ liberation movement

• Reveals how those seen as “mad” must embrace their spiritual gifts to help the coming global spiritual transition

Many of the great prophets of the past experienced madness–a breakdown followed by a breakthrough, spiritual death followed by rebirth. With the advent of modern psychiatry, the budding prophets of today are captured and transformed into chronic mental patients before they can flower into the visionaries and mystics they were intended to become. As we approach the tipping point between extinction and global spiritual awakening, there is a deep need for these prophets to embrace their spiritual gifts. To make this happen, we must learn to respect the sanctity of madness. We need to cultivate Mad Pride.

Exploring the rise of Mad Pride and the mental patients’ liberation movement as well as building upon psychiatrist R. D. Laing’s revolutionary theories, Seth Farber, Ph.D., explains that diagnosing people as mad has more to do with social control than therapy. Many of those labeled as schizophrenic, bipolar, and other kinds of “mad” are not ill but simply experiencing different forms of spiritual awakening: they are seeing and feeling what is wrong with society and what needs to be done to change it. Farber shares his interviews with former schizophrenics who now lead successful and inspiring lives. He shows that it is impossible for society to change as long as the mad are suppressed because they are our catalysts of social change. By reclaiming their rightful role as prophets of spiritual and cultural revitalization, the mad–by seeding new visions for our future–can help humanity overcome the spiritual crisis that endangers our survival and lead us to a higher and long-awaited stage of spiritual development.

One thought on “Getting from Here to There, or, Brother Can you Spare a Paradigm?”

Hollywood Tomfortas says:

July 29, 2012 at 7:21 am

Suzanne, Your timing could not be more perfect! You put out a call for a new paradigm and voila! one appears, as if by magic.

Monday night’s guest on Coast to Coast is Seth Farber, a radical psychologist who has come up with a new paradigm for the mentally ill called “Mad Pride.”

Here is the blurb from the C2C website
http://www.coasttocoastam.com/show/2012/07/30

Madness & Spirituality
Date: 07-30-12
Host: George Noory
Guests: Dr. Seth Farber

Dissident psychologist and co-founder of the Network Against Coercive Psychiatry, Dr. Seth Farber, will discuss how the Mad Pride movement developed in the last ten years as the successor to the mental patients’ liberation movement, and teaches that many forms of “mental illness” are actually spiritual and supernatural experiences.
———————-

Here is the page on his website about the new book and I quote from a review which mentions it as a new paradigm:

The Spiritual Gift of Madness: The Failure of Psychiatry and the Rise of the Mad Pride Movement

http://www.sethhfarber.com/the_spiritual_gift_of_madness_the_failure_of_psychiatry_and_the_rise_of_the_mad__113226.htm

This revolutionary book tells how the Mad Pride movement developed in the last ten years as the successor to the mental patients’ liberation movement. It includes interviews with leaders in the movement as well as an interview with Paul Levy author of Wetiko, spiritual educator and ex-mental patient. Dr Farber believes the most important innovation to emerge from this movement is the proposition that madness is a dangerous gift. To explain this movement Farber has developed a new paradigm of madness and cultural transformation that builds upon the work of leading theorists in the existentialist, Jungian, Christian and Hindu traditions—including R.D. Laing, John Weir Perry and Sri Aurobindo. This paradigm helps to explain why this movement of “schizophrenics” and “bipolars” could change the world.

Here is the Amazon link, and I copy the book summary.

http://www.amazon.com/Spiritual-Gift-Madness-Psychiatry-Movement/dp/159477448X

The Spiritual Gift of Madness: The Failure of Psychiatry and the Rise of the Mad Pride Movement
Seth Farber Ph.D. (Author), Kate Millett (Foreword)

A bold call for the “insane” to reclaim their rightful role as prophets of spiritual and cultural transformation

• Explains how many of those diagnosed as schizophrenic, bipolar, and other forms of “madness” are not ill but experiencing a spiritual awakening

• Explores the rise of Mad Pride and the mental patients’ liberation movement

• Reveals how those seen as “mad” must embrace their spiritual gifts to help the coming global spiritual transition

Many of the great prophets of the past experienced madness–a breakdown followed by a breakthrough, spiritual death followed by rebirth. With the advent of modern psychiatry, the budding prophets of today are captured and transformed into chronic mental patients before they can flower into the visionaries and mystics they were intended to become. As we approach the tipping point between extinction and global spiritual awakening, there is a deep need for these prophets to embrace their spiritual gifts. To make this happen, we must learn to respect the sanctity of madness. We need to cultivate Mad Pride.

Exploring the rise of Mad Pride and the mental patients’ liberation movement as well as building upon psychiatrist R. D. Laing’s revolutionary theories, Seth Farber, Ph.D., explains that diagnosing people as mad has more to do with social control than therapy. Many of those labeled as schizophrenic, bipolar, and other kinds of “mad” are not ill but simply experiencing different forms of spiritual awakening: they are seeing and feeling what is wrong with society and what needs to be done to change it. Farber shares his interviews with former schizophrenics who now lead successful and inspiring lives. He shows that it is impossible for society to change as long as the mad are suppressed because they are our catalysts of social change. By reclaiming their rightful role as prophets of spiritual and cultural revitalization, the mad–by seeding new visions for our future–can help humanity overcome the spiritual crisis that endangers our survival and lead us to a higher and long-awaited stage of spiritual development.

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