Empowering a Generation – Nexus Global Youth Summit – September 22, 2012

The Memnosyne Foundation is proud to be one of the program designers and collaborating sponsors for NEXUS 2012 in New York City. Memnosyne’s program, titled, “Empowering A Generation”, will occur on the 4th day of the conference, September 22nd, and will feature, Ervin Laszlo of The Club of Budapest – Americas (COBA), Don E. Beck – Advisory Board Member of the Memnosyne Foundation, Mitch Fine of Earth-NT, and the groundbreaking work of Michael Gosney. It will be hosted by Memnosyne’s co-founders, Joshua Raymond Frenk and Mary Ann Thompson-Frenk.

The Nexus Global Youth Summit is for ages 20 – 40 and convenes from September 19th to the 22nd, 2012, in New York City. The event will take place at different venues around Manhattan, but primarily on the campus of New York University at Washington Square Park.

The summit ensures that wealth is being spent in the right places and is already creating an impact. According to co-founder Daniel Karpantschof on an interview with Do It In Person, “More than 10 million dollars changed hands within three hours, from young wealth-holder to young social entrepreneur.”

Akasha Think

Akasha Think is a new column now published at Huffington Post. The first post (below) can be found at Akasha Think on Huffington Post. A follow up post has also been published as Akashic Think… World Changing. The posts will be monitored at the Huffington Post site by myself and the Akashic “A-Team.”

“You can’t solve a problem with the same kind of thinking that gave rise to the problem”       — Albert Einstein

There is something new on the horizon — a new kind of thinking. One that could solve the problem — the entire complex conglomeration of challenges that makes our world unsustainable, intolerant, and prone to violence. This is not thinking out of the blue: It is thinking that has been around for thousands of years. What is new is that it’s rediscovered — of all things, at the cutting edge of the sciences. It is “Akasha think.”

In this column with my Akashic “A-team” I will review for you the principal dimensions of Akasha think — the rediscovered revolutionary concept of life and universe, and freedom, wholeness, and wellbeing. New answers to questions we have all been asking since the beginnings of time.

Adam and Eve, Socrates and Plato, Constantine and the Crusaders, Henry VIII and Pope Clement VII, Hitler and Churchill, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King and Gandhi, yes even now Obama and Romney are giving us answers. Every answer has been given thinking that it is right. Yet with each delivery, the great divides are inexorably forged — in color, creed, genders and territories. How many answers were really right? Right now, as our precious world cries out because of the collateral damage of all our answers, how many of our answers, your answers, about the economy, education, energy, your health and life, can you be sure are right?

Try Akasha think. Here you get different answers. Find out what they can do for you — and through you, for the world.

Are you ready? Here is a question that can get you started:

What Is Akasha Consciousness — For You?

What is Akasha consciousness for you, a dream — or a nightmare? Or could it be your own deep consciousness — “re-cognized” for what it really is? Your answer could make a difference — a difference to you and to the world. See how you resonate with the 16 ideas that hallmark this consciousness.

1. I am part of the world. The world is not outside of me, and I am not outside of the world. The world is in me, and I am in the world.

2. I am part of nature, and nature is part of me. I am what I am in my communication and communion with all living things. I am an irreducible and coherent whole with the web of life on the planet.

3. I am part of society, and society is part of me. I am what I am in my communication and communion with my fellow humans. I am an irreducible and coherent whole with the community of humans on the planet.

4. I am more than a skin-and-bone material organism: my body, and its cells and organs are manifestations of what is truly me: a self-sustaining, self-evolving dynamic system arising, persisting and evolving in interaction with everything around me.

5. I am one of the highest, most evolved manifestations of the drive toward coherence and wholeness in the universe. All systems drive toward coherence and wholeness in interaction with all other systems, and my essence is this cosmic drive. It is the same essence, the same spirit that is inherent in all the things that arise and evolve in nature, whether on this planet or elsewhere in the infinite reaches of space and time.

6. There are no absolute boundaries and divisions in this world, only transition points where one set of relations yields prevalence to another. In me, in this self-maintaining and self-evolving coherence- and wholeness-oriented system, the relations that integrate the cells and organs of my body are prevalent. Beyond my body other relations gain prevalence: those that drive toward coherence and wholeness in society and in nature.

7. The separate identity I attach to other humans and other things is but a convenient convention that facilitates my interaction with them. My family and my community are just as much “me” as the organs of my body. My body and mind, my family and my community, are interacting and interpenetrating, variously prevalent elements in the network of relations that encompasses all things in nature and the human world.

8. The whole gamut of concepts and ideas that separates my identity, or the identity of any person or community, from the identity of other persons and communities are manifestations of this convenient but arbitrary convention. There are only gradients distinguishing individuals from each other and from their environment and no real divisions and boundaries. There are no “others” in the world: We are all living systems and we are all part of each other.

9. Attempting to maintain the system I know as “me” through ruthless competition with the system I know as “you” is a grave mistake: It could damage the integrity of the embracing whole that frames both your life and mine. I cannot preserve my own life and wholeness by damaging that whole, even if damaging a part of it seems to bring me short-term advantage. When I harm you, or anyone else around me, I harm myself.

10. Collaboration, not competition, is the royal road to the wholeness that hallmarks healthy systems in the world. Collaboration calls for empathy and solidarity, and ultimately for love. I do not and cannot love myself if I do not love you and others around me: We are part of the same whole and so are part of each other.

11. The idea of “self-defense,” even of “national defense,” needs to be rethought. Patriotism if it aims to eliminate adversaries by force, and heroism even in the well-meaning execution of that aim, are mistaken aspirations. A patriot and a hero who brandishes a sword or a gun is an enemy also to himself. Every weapon intended to hurt or kill is a danger to all. Comprehension, conciliation and forgiveness are not signs of weakness; they are signs of courage.

12. “The good” for me and for every person in the world is not the possession and accumulation of personal wealth. Wealth, in money or in any material resource, is but a means for maintaining myself in my environment. As exclusively mine, it commandeers part of the resources that all things need to share if they are to live and to thrive. Exclusive wealth is a threat to all people in the human community. And because I am a part of this community, in the final count it is a threat also to me, and to all who hold it.

13. Beyond the sacred whole we recognize as the world in its totality, only life and its development have what philosophers call intrinsic value; all other things have merely instrumental value: value insofar as they add to or enhance intrinsic value. Material things in the world, and the energies and substances they harbor or generate, have value only if and insofar they contribute to life and wellbeing in the web of life on this Earth.

14. The true measure of my accomplishment and excellence is my readiness to give. Not the amount of what I give is the measure of my accomplishment and excellence, but the relation between what I give, and what my family and I need to live and to thrive.

15. Every healthy person has pleasure in giving: It is a higher pleasure than having. I am healthy and whole when I value giving over having. A community that values giving over having is a community of healthy people, oriented toward thriving through empathy, solidarity, and love among its members. Sharing enhances the community of life, while possessing and accumulating creates demarcation, invites competition, and fuels envy. The share-society is the norm for all the communities of life on the planet; the have-society is typical only of modern-day humanity, and it is an aberration.

16. I recognize the aberration of modern-day humanity from the universal norm of coherence in the world, acknowledge my role in having perpetrated it, and pledge my commitment to restoring wholeness and coherence by becoming whole myself: whole in my thinking and acting — in my consciousness.

If you had an “aha experience” while reading even just one of these ideas, you have the foundations of Akashic consciousness. And if you had this experience all the way through, you already possess this crucial consciousness.

How did you resonate with what you have read? Tell us — and we shall do our best to respond.

Your A-team:

Charlie Stuart Gay, Györgyi Szabo, Kingsley Dennis, Alexander Laszlo, and Ibolya Kapta

Ervin Laszlo is the author of 89 books published in 24 languages, including his bestselling Science and the Akashic Field. His latest book is The Akasha Paradigm, just released on the Internet: http://www.akashaparadigm.com/

Quantum Consciousness: Our Evolution, Our Salvation

I was delighted and honored to have the following article posted in the Pathways to Family Wellness magazine Spring 2012 issue. The article, as printed in the New Edge Science section of the magazine, is available in pdf format.

 Pathways to Family Wellness is a non-profit quarterly print and digital magazine with a mission to support you and your family’s quest for wellness.

I call it “quantum consciousness”: the consciousness we access when we use the potential of our quantum-computer brains. The brain is a macroscopic quantum system, yet we use it as if it were exclusively a classical biochemical system. With its quantum-system functions, our brain can receive information not only from our eyes and ears, but directly from the wider world with which we are “entangled”–nonlocally connected. Insightful people throughout history, whether shamans or scientists, poets or prophets, have extensively used this capacity, innate to all human beings. Today it is widely neglected. This impoverishes our world picture, and causes a nagging sense that we are separate from the world around us.

I believe that quantum consciousness could be the next stage in the evolution of our consciousness–and that this evolution could be our salvation. Let me explain.

The first thing I ask you to note is that human consciousness is not static, fixed once and for all. It’s the product of a long evolutionary development, and is capable of further development. In the 50 thousand–year history of the species we proudly call homo sapien, the human body didn’t change significantly, but human consciousness did. And it can change again.

In a variety of “alternative cultures,” a new consciousness is already emerging. The members of these cultures–the green movement, the peace movement, the sustainable living movement, the movement of cultural creatives, and others–share similar social values and are open and interactive with the larger society; they don’t seek isolation or indulge in promiscuous sex.

They aim to rethink accepted beliefs and values, and adopt a more responsible style of living. They shift from matter- and energy-wasteful ostentation toward voluntary simplicity and the search for sustainability and harmony with nature.

A new consciousness is now struggling to be born. Does this mean that the consciousness of humanity itself is evolving? Some famous thinkers have said so. The Indian sage Sri Aurobindo spoke of the emergence of superconsciousness in ever more people, and this, he said, is the harbinger of the next evolution of human consciousness. In a similar vein, the Swiss philosopher Jean Gebser spoke of the coming of four-dimensional integral consciousness, rising from the prior stages of archaic, magical and mythical consciousness. The Canadian mystic Richard Bucke called the new consciousness “cosmic,” and in the colorful spiral dynamics developed by Chris Cowan and Don Beck, it’s the turquoise stage of collective individualism, cosmic spirituality and Earth changes. For philosopher Ken Wilber, these developments signify an evolutionary transition from the mental consciousness characteristic of both animals and humans, to subtle consciousness, which is archetypal, transindividual and intuitive, to causal consciousness, and then, ultimately, to “consciousness as such.”

Psychiatrist Stanislav Grof summed up the characteristics of the emerging consciousness as “transpersonal.”

There is remarkable agreement among these visionary concepts. Superconsciousness, integral consciousness, cosmic consciousness, turquoise-stage consciousness, and consciousness as such are all forms of consciousness that transcend the divide between you and me, the individual and the world, the human being and nature. If these thinkers are right, this kind of consciousness will be the next stage in the evolution of the consciousness of our species.

Quantum consciousness–QC–could perhaps be the next stage in the evolution of the mind of humanity, but why would it be our salvation?

The answer is simple common sense: because QC is a consciousness of directly intuited, felt connection to the world. It inspires empathy with people and with nature; it brings an experience of oneness and belonging. Quantum consciousness makes us realize that, being one with others and with nature, what we do to them, we do to ourselves.

Not only will QC make us behave more responsibly toward other people and the planet, it will also encourage us to join together to cope with the problems we face.

Most of us cooperate with members of our own families and communities. But cooperation has now become vitally necessary on the global level: It’s in all our best interest to cooperate with our fellows in the global community. Without such cooperation we’ll be hard put to overcome the global threats and problems that face us. Without cooperation we risk joining the countless species that became extinct because they couldn’t adjust to changed circumstances.

With dedicated and purposeful cooperation we can meet the challenges of human survival: We can have 7 billion or more people living peacefully and sustainably on the planet. We have the technologies, the skills and the necessary financial and human resources. Abject forms of poverty can be eliminated, energy- and resource-efficient technologies can be made widely available, water can be recycled and seawater desalinized, and sustainable forms of agriculture adopted. We can be more efficient and effective in harvesting the vast stream of energy that flows from the sun to our planet. And to finance these projects we would only need a small part of the enormous sums of money that we now commit to speculative, self-serving or downright destructive ends.

Cooperation on the global level is a new requirement in the history of our civilization, and we are not prepared for it. Our institutions and organizations were designed to protect their own interests in competition with others; the need for them to join together in the shared interest has been limited to territorial aspirations and defense, and to economic gain in selected domains. The will to cooperate in globally cooperative projects that subordinate immediate self-interest to the vital interests of a wider community is still lacking in the political and economic domains.

When all is said and done, the fundamental need of our time, the precondition of creating a peaceful and sustainable world, is the spread of a new and more evolutionarily adaptive consciousness—the quantum consciousness of oneness and belonging.

Forms and intimations of the new consciousness are already emerging in the world, but they haven’t yet reached the mainstream. When QC becomes mainstream, humanity will have reached a higher stage of maturity. It will have become a species that has not only the technologies and the skills, but also the wisdom and the will, to survive in the world it has itself created. 

Cybernetics and Systems Sciences Conference

Vienna as a strong and traditional hub of the current cybernetics and systems sciences in Europe

After 40 successful years a relaunch of the international research meeting occurs.

From the 10^th to 13^th of April, 2012, the 21^st European Meetings on Cybernetics and Systems Research take place at the campus of the University of Vienna.

More than 150 contributions from international scientists are dealing with the global challenges of our time. Technical, biological and social systems are at the focus. Current research wants to understand complexity, to be able to work with it in order to face the global challenges and opportunities. Transdisciplinarity, mutual learning and research with each other, is the basis of radical innovations. Here, the symposia offer a variety of theoretical and practical reflections on topics such as Systems Thinking, Agent-Based Modeling, from biology to IT and bio-informatics, Urban Design, complexity and management, innovation management and social responsibility of business, to management of complex disaster operations, and a strong focus on effective, vibrant and resilient organizations and crisis management.

The European Meetings on Cybernetics and Systems Research will create a strong European hub for the international systems science in Vienna. Based on a 40-year tradition a new culture of knowledge networking with a focus on two major aspects will be developed. On the one hand, once again the roots of the systems science will be cultivated in Vienna, in the sense of strengthening and deepening the knowledge. And on the other hand, the current social relevance will be illustrated by illuminating the impact and the practical applications of systems science.

In doing so the promotion of young scientific talents and the opportunity to network with the living founders of the systems science are in the foreground. To reach this target the Bertalanffy Center as the organizer sponsors a contest for outstanding research by graduate students.

Starting 2012 the participants of the European Meetings will present the core of their jointly developed knowledge in a publication for the general public after the meetings.

A number of worldwide recognized scientists are welcomed in Vienna 2012

In 2012 the famous philosopher of science, systems theorist and futurist Ervin Laszlo holds one of the keynote lectures at the EMCSR 2012. In his lecture he deals with the topic of coherence in nature and the problem of human systems, which are the only biological systems that cannot exhibit this quality. Péter Csermely, professor at the Semmelweis University, Budapest, illustrates in his keynote, what we can learn in crisis management of biological networks. The European Meetings are also looking forward to welcome the great French philosopher Edgar Morin as a guest, and Merrelyn Emery, one of the pioneers of organizational development who will hold the traditional Ashby Lecture.

The future of the European Meetings on Cybernetics and Systems Research

Starting 2012 the European Meetings on Cybernetics and Systems Research will also set a strong focus on promoting young researchers. The EMCSR understand itself as a platform for graduate students to strengthen the future of systems science in Europe again. This year a prize endowed with 1000 Euro is sponsored by the Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science. It will be awarded to a young scientist for an outstanding research. Participation in this competition was open to all doctoral students from technical, natural scientific and social disciplines.

Full of tradition – the history of the European Meetings on Cybernetics and Systems Research

With the upcoming conference the EMCSR celebrate its 40^th anniversary. In 1972, the EMCSR offered for the first time a forum for discussion of converging ideas and new aspects of different scientific disciplines. The EMCSR was co-founded by the Austrian Society for Cybernetics studies, chaired by Robert Trappl, which established the Austrian Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Vienna too. Since then every two years senior scientists meet in Vienna to present in workshops and symposia their latest research results and discuss the rapid developments in our society.

The current event is organized by the Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science, supported by the Austrian Computer Society, and in cooperation with the world’s leading organizations of cybernetics and systems science: the International Federation for Systems Research, the International Society of Systems Sciences, International Academy for Systems and Cybernetic Sciences, European Union for Systemics, World Organisation of Systems and Cybernetics, Hellenic Society for Systemic Studies, Sociedad Espanola de Sistemas Generales, Ukrainian Synergetic Society, Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research, Giordano Bruno Global Shift University and the Change the Game Initiative.

Web: http://www.emcsr.net

Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/78mra7h

Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/emcsronline

Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/emcsr/

Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/emcsr

EMCSR 2012 Interview Partners

We support you in making appointments with the interviewee of your choice. The following list is a selection of possible topics and people. If you have any special requests, please contact us. During the conference, we constantly create picture material of the presenters and participants. We provide you this material at your disposal.

Keynote-Speaker

Ervin Laszlo, Hungary

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ervin_Laszlo

Peter Csermely, Hungary

http://www.linkgroup.hu/petercsermely.php

Merrelyn Emery, Canada

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merrelyn_Emery

PhD Award Participant

Jessica Dylan Foley, Ireland

http://www.jessicadfoley.com/

System Sciences & Evolution in the natural sciences and the humanities

Gerhard Hanappi, Austria

http://www.econ.tuwien.ac.at/hanappi/

Werner Callebaut, Austria

http://www.kli.ac.at/werner-callebaut

Johannes Preiser-Kapeller, Austria

http://oeaw.academia.edu/JohannesPreiserKapeller

System Sciences & Applied Cybernetic Thinking

Ray Ison, UK

http://rayison.blogspot.com/

Ranulph Glanville, UK

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranulph_Glanville

Manfred Füllsack, Austria

http://homepage.univie.ac.at/manfred.fuellsack/

System Sciences & Applied Systems Thinking

Eva Gatarik, Czech Republic, Austria

http://research.fh-ooe.at/de/staff/29984

Nikitas Assimakopoulos, Greece

http://www.hsss.gr/eng/index.html

System Sciences, Complexity & Management: from innovation to social responsibility

Gerald Steiner, Austria

http://www.wcfia.harvard.edu/node/6687

Zdenka Ženko, Slovenia

http://zaposleni.epf.uni-mb.si/zenko_z/default.aspx

Helena Knyazeva, Russia

http://eng.iph.ras.ru/knyazeva.htm

Systems Science & research system of urban systems

Caterina Padoa-Schioppa, Italy

http://europaconcorsi.com/authors/69234-Caterina-Padoa-Schioppa

Jens Martin Gurr, Germany

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jens_Martin_Gurr

Christian Walloth, Germany

https://www.xing.com/profile/Christian_Walloth

System Science & Self-Systems – Information systems from biology to IT (bioinformatics)

Carlos Gershenson, Mexico

http://turing.iimas.unam.mx/~cgg/

Sander van Splunter, Netherlands

http://tbm.tudelft.nl/index.php?id=30955&L=1

System Sciences & Management of organizations in times of crisis

Andrée Piecq, Belgium

http://www.giros.be/Andree-Piecq

Alexandre Makarovitsch, France

http://main.csregistry.org/tiki-view_tracker_item.php?itemId=377

System Science & Design of effective organizations

Markus Schwaninger, Suisse

http://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/persons/Markus_Schwaninger

Raul Espejo, UK

http://www.syncho.com/People.html

System Sciences & vibrant and resilient organizations

Daniela Freudenthaler, Austria

http://www.designforumlinz.at/designforum-linz/mitglieder/f/daniela-freudenthaler.html

Alexander Laszlo, USA

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Laszlo_%28scientist%29

Thomas Fundneider, Austria

http://www.tfc.at/de/About/principal.html

Violeta Bulc, Slovenia,

http://www.vibacom.com/page.php?22#VioletaBulc

Thomas Wallner, Austria

http://research.fh-ooe.at/staff/18659

The Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science (BCSSS)

Realising the global challenges of today and the resulting need for systems theory in 2004, the BCSSS was founded with the aim to inspire the development of systems science. The Center works to advance scientific research in the field of systems thinking and by doing so, revisits General System Theory (GST) as founded by Ludwig von Bertalanffy and others. The focus is the reassessment of the theory in the light of today’s global challenges and to illuminate the course of development systems science has taken since. The Research Center cooperates with every person or organisation supporting the same aim. It also owns the Ludwig von Bertalanffy archive and possesses a collection of publications of the systems movement.

The BCSSS wants to bring different research approaches in dialogue and provide a platform for discussions. Even non-systemic scientists should be made clear the value of the systemic approach in terms of the global challenges of today.

The BCSS

•    administrates the archive of Ludwig von Bertalanffy and makes it open to the public.
•    administrates also other collections which are of interest to the systems movement.
•    carries out and supports research projects in the field of systems sciences.
•    carries out and supports scientific activities like lectures, workshops, conferences and international co-operations of scientists interested in General System Theory and related fields.

The BCSSS is member of the International Federation for Systems Research, represented by its President Wolfgang Hofkirchner. The Scientific Council has internationally distinguished scientists such as Mario Bunge (Canada), Klaus Kornwachs (Germany), Ervin Laszlo (Hungary), Gerald Midley (UK), Edgar Morin (France), and Rainer Zimmermann (Germany) among its members. The Bertalanffy Center is located in Vienna.

Wolfgang Hofkirchner

Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science

c/o Technische Universität Wien

Favoritenstraße 9-11/187

1040 Wien, Austria

Mail: wolfgang.hofkirchner@tuwien.ac.at

Web: http://www.bertalanffy.org

Public & Media Relations by B original

We want to understand the patterns of life itself, on the intersection of science, art, and wonder. This is the beautiful story of stuff.

B original offers Business and Communication Design that enables our customers to tell a bigger story, to be the creative force of our universe, curating the emergence of a new cultural identity that moves us, that takes us places.

Contact

Stefan Blachfellner

B original Business & Communication Design

Steinerstrasse 9

5020 Salzburg, Austria

Tel. +43 662 642202

Mobil. +43 676 4930374

Mail: stefan.blachfellner@b-original.com

Web: http://www.b-original.com

Conception Day 2012

Barbara Marx Hubbard, visionary and evolutionary leader, is hosting a very special Birth 2012 event: Conception Day 2012. Celebrate and activate the Birth 2012 campaign nine months toward our planetary birth day! A live telecast from Los Angeles, California will take place on March 22, 2012. Watch from your home, office, or live gatherings worldwide. The event will include special messages from the Birth 2012 “Welcoming Committee”: Neale Donald Walsch, Jean Houston, Michael Beckwith, Jack Canfield, Lynne Twist, James O’Dea, Lynne McTaggart, Ervin Laszlo, Rinaldo Brutoco, Oscar Miro-Quesada, Dot Maver and Ashok Gangadean.

Francisco de Paula León Olea

The Memnosyne Foundation presents distinguished speaker Francisco de Paula León Olea on March 23rd 2012 at the Latino Cultural Center in Dallas, Texas. Francisco will discuss his past accomplishments in the arts, economics, literature and his newest role leading the Giordano Bruno GlobalShift University – International Academic Board, composed of Nobel Prize winners, former heads of state and spiritual leaders drawn from the Club of Budapest as well as outstanding scholars from culturally diverse religious, political and economic traditions, in an effort to bring a first rate education to those who couldn’t afford it in the past.

Findhorn

I’ll be visiting and speaking at the Findhorn community September 29 - October 5.