HOLISM IN NATION-STATE POLITICS
White Paper for the Symposium on New Paradigm in Politics
The current and now standard philosophy of contemporary politics and politicians is based on an obsolete concept of the human being and human society.
The New Paradigm in Politics as an ebook is now available to purchase.
Conclusions of Symposium ed. 2021
Premises and Conclusions of The Laszlo Institute’s Symposium on “The New Paradigm in Politics”
-by Ervin Laszlo
The LINPR hosted a live online symposium engaging 35 speakers from across 12 time zones…
-by Ervin Laszlo
A few weeks have passed since the Symposium on finding a new paradigm in politics…
-by Tim Olsson (from post blog)
The Symposium revealed that the spirit of democracy … is alive in the heart and mind of humanity.
-by Anneloes Smitsman & Alexander Laszlo
The New Paradigm in Politics as an ebook is now available to purchase. Co-editors and co-authors Anneloes Smitsman and Alexander Laszlo and the book’s series editor, Ervin Laszlo, provide an exploration of the necessary transformation of our contemporary political systems and practices.
This book summarizes the presentations of the New Paradigm in Politics symposium’s participants and brings together the key ideas and practices of 35 world-renowned thought leaders in the fields of systems science, futurism, consciousness research, public policy, law, social science, and philosophy who advocate the role of politics to create a new paradigm in human civilizational development. The New Paradigm in Politics provides the grounds for the design of systems of governance that are based on holism and interdependence—rather than the old mechanistic paradigm of dualism and separation.The symposium participants explored in their dialogues and essays the ways we can change from human unsustainability and collapse to a planetary regeneration and thrivability.
The book includes compelling case-studies and examples of new constitutions from grassroots initiatives that demonstrate a new paradigm in politics is already emerging. The way forward into the new paradigm will depend on embracing our opportunities to engage in participatory decision-making with all levels of society and following this with actions based on our shared visions and common responsibilities. The spirit of democracy is alive in the hearts and minds of people who want to respond to this evolutionary call of our time. This is the message that emerged from the dialogues and presentations about the new paradigm in politics as reported in this book.
You can buy the eBook on Amazon now! Click here.
On behalf of Ervin Laszlo and all our colleagues at the Laszlo Institute of New Paradigm Research, we are pleased to extend to you a special invitation to join our upcoming three-day global online symposium on “The New Paradigm in Politics”, scheduled for Friday, July 23, through Sunday, July 25, 2021.
The old, corrupt, and dysfunctional political order on planet Earth has reached the end of the line. To avoid universal disaster, our entire human family must now come together to establish a locally rooted, ecologically responsible, unlimitedly networked, and spiritually illumined global democracy worthy of the name. This is the defining task of our time. This is the next evolutionary leap in human consciousness and action that the “New Paradigm in Politics” online symposium proposes to serve. For this symposium, we have designed a sequence of lectures and conversations that we believe sets the stage for time timely emergence of just such a pattern.
On the first day, we will assess the world’s current political situation, offer an in-depth consideration of the nature and requirements of the New Paradigm in Politics, and survey the import of the vast number of governmental, non-governmental, and citizen-led initiatives already working to bring it into being.
On day two, we review the most promising initiatives to strengthen participatory democracy, identify the traditional and the new scientific understandings that affirm our prior unity, explore the promise of the collective intelligence that develops, expands, and integrates our emerging networks, and outline a path to developing a citizen-led global consensus or constitution equal to the requirements of this time.
Our third and final day will take the form of a collectively led, fully participatory workshop in which we apply what we have learned to the critical task of designing a program to engage our entire human family in the creation of just such a constitutional consensus.
Thanks for being a part of the New Paradigm in Politics global online symposium! We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.
We are thrilled to have brought together so many thought and action leaders from around the world. Many new ideas, trends, opportunities and solutions emerged. Let’s continue our exchanges and brain-storming, heart-speaking, hand-engaging!
Here www.facebook.com/thelaszloinstitute you can find recorded speeches and photos to share. The talks from the event will be individually uploaded to the Laszlo Institute’s YouTube channel very soon, so don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube Channel for notifications when the videos appear.
Daily Schedule
DAY ONE
Friday, July 23
On Day One of this symposium we will get a comprehensive and integrated briefing on the perilous state of the world’s political, economic, ecological, and social systems and the prospects for transitioning to a new sustainable world-order, engage in an in-depth consideration of the cultural, scientific, and spiritual foundations of the New Paradigm in Politics, and survey the import of the complex technological, psycho-social, and evolutionary developments already driving transformational governmental, non-governmental, and citizen-led initiatives.
Read more about Day One
We begin the day with the Invited Guest Lecture by Dr. Nafeez Ahmed, who will then be joined by two panelists discussing the rise tide of political and religious authoritarianism.
This is followed by a rich, in-depth consideration of how esoteric spirituality, time-tested Asian cultural wisdom, and the new coherence physics of the quantum vacuum (Akashic field) may contribute to a post-egoic, locally based but globally integrated political and cultural synthesis.
We complete this day with remarkable briefings from harbingers of our emerging cooperative planetary civilization. These are activist-scholars who connect the evolution of human consciousness to profound transformations underway in democratic political engagement, global security, ecological awareness, economic justice, transdisciplinary education, revised social organization, and the emergence of non-violent human relations.
WELCOME – Introduction and Overview of the Symposium
8:00 – 8:05 (PDT): Welcome to the symposium – Ervin Laszlo
08:05 – 08:10 (PDT): Overview of the Symposium – William Stranger
Assessing Our Civilizational Political Crisis
8:10 – 09:15 am (PDT): Invited Guest Lecture and session with panelists
09:15 – 09:30 am: Interactive Q&A session with audience
Moderator: William Stranger
Guest Lecturer and Panelists: Nafeez Ahmed, Istvan Teplan and Jeffrey Kripal
Synthesizing and distilling decades of his work, our Invited Guest Lecturer, Dr. Ahmed, will give us a “toolkit” of comprehensive systems frameworks to see and sense-make both the global systems breakdown driven by the old industrial, materialist-reductionist worldview and the factors giving birth to a radically new post-materialist paradigm operating in harmony with earth systems. Afterwards our panelists will offer their reflections on rising challenges to the world’s political democracies, the recent sudden increase in authoritarian regimes, and the difficult relationship between politics and religion.
Watch the video
Foundations of the New Paradigm in Politics
10:00 – 11:00 am (PDT): Dialogue session with panelists
11:00 – 11:30 am: Interactive Q&A session with audience
Moderator: William Stranger
Panelists: Ervin Laszlo, Frederick Tsao, and Arthur Versluis
In session 2, our panelists examine what we mean by “politics”, consider how politics, law, and worldviews both reflect and create culture, and identify core principles of the New Paradigm in politics. We will especially explore how mystical gnosis, next stage quantum physics, and time-tested Asian cultural wisdom offer converging avenues for the reinvigoration of democratic self-governance.
Watch the video
Evolution in Action
In this time of “blessed unrest”, tens of millions of our fellow humans are taking direct action to challenge and transform outmoded and dysfunctional systems and structures.
12:00 – 1:00 pm (PDT): Dialogue session with panelists
1:00 – 1:30 pm (PDT): Interactive Q&A session with audience
Moderator: Garry Jacobs
Panelists: Janani Ramanathan, Jonathan Granoff, Kurt Barnes, and Garry Jacobs
Moderated by Garry Jacobs, this panel of scholar-activists discerns in their respective fields of work and public service clear signs that humankind is already embarked upon a vitally necessary evolutionary leap in consciousness. This psycho-social progression is the essential foundation for planetary renewal.
Watch the video
DAY TWO
Saturday, July 24
On Day Two, we review the most promising initiatives to strengthen participatory democracy, identify the traditional and the new scientific understandings that affirm our essential unity, explore the promise of the collective intelligence that develops, expands, and integrates our emerging networks, and outline a path to developing a citizen-led global consensus or constitution equal to the challenges of this time.
Read more about Day Two
We begin with a review of the promising emerging initiatives such as liquid democracy and cosmolocalism. We will also identify traditional and new scientific understandings and explore the promise of collective intelligence strategies, tools, and initiatives that can co-develop, expand, and integrate emerging networks at the meta-level.
We complete this day by outlining pathways for developing citizen-led global and decentralized self-governance, consensual models of decision-making and the initial foundations for the co-creation of a new “Earth Constitution” for guiding humanity through this challenging time of transition.
Igniting Sacred Democracy in a Secular Era – an Earth Agora
8:10 – 09:00 am (PDT): Invited Guest Lecture and session with panelists
09:00 – 09:30 am: Interactive Q&A session with audience
Co-Moderator: Anneloes Smitsman and Alexander Laszlo
Panelists: Jean Houston, Joussef Mahmoud, Alexander Schieffer, and Rama Mani
This session is moderated by Anneloes Smitsman and Alexander Laszlo as a dialogue between the panelists to explore the governance potentials of future civilizations based on the vision of a future informed Earth Agora. Igniting sacred democracies as an interfaith expression of our commitment to thrivability.
Watch the video
Networking the Networks – Toward an Ecocivilisation of Belonging
Live Networking the Networks demonstration session with global change catalysts
From the story of separation to the story of Interbeing – exploring how to be the systems we want to see in the world.
Format: Moderated Interactive Demonstration Case in Fishbowl format
Description: This session will be run as an interactive demonstration case in a fishbowl format to illustrate the dynamics of a New Paradigm approach to collective self-empowerment. Exploring the relationship between individual and collective identity through an experience of the kind of sense of belonging that holds the potential of drawing us together in common-unity. Collectively personifying how belonging can be created through a process of recognizing our essential interdependence. From the story of separation to the story of Interbeing — exploring how to be the systems we want to see in the world.
10:00 – 11:00 am (PDT): Dialogue session with panelists
11:00 – 11:30 am: Interactive Q&A session with audience
Moderator: Alexander Laszlo
Commentator: Anneloes Smitsman – Voice of Cosmic Coherence
Three Conversation Teams:
Team 1 Focus: Visioning the Potential of Humanity and common-unity
- Violeta Bulc – Ecocivilization Movement
- Stephen Cook, Donna Nelham – Unstitution
Team 2 Focus: Systems Thinking, Design and Scaffolding
- Stefan Blachfellner – Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science
- Tim Olsson, Oliver Bream McIntosh – Crowdpol/Co:Do
Team 3 Focus: Next Generation Learning and Collective Intelligence
- Pavel Luksha, Pim Van Geest – Global Education Futures
- Bill Stranger – California College of Regenerative Design
Process flow of Session 2
Watch the video
Designing and Constitutionalizing the New Paradigm in Politics
12:00 – 13:00 pm (PDT): Dialogue Panel among invited speakers
13:00 – 13:30 pm: Interactive Q&A session with audience
Moderator: Anneloes Smitsman, supported by Alexander Laszlo
Panelists: Charles Eisenstein, Jack Bizlall, Flavia Valgiusti, and Naresh Singh
This session is moderated by Anneloes Smitsman as a dialogue between the panelists to explore how the New Paradigm Evolutionary Principles of unity, holarchy, and evolutionary coherence can be applied for the redesign and transformation of our legal, economic, and political systems. With special emphasis on how to prepare for the making of the new constitutions as a unifying movement for New Paradigm Politics.
Watch the video
DAY THREE
Sunday, July 25
Becoming the New Paradigm Politics for Thrivable Civilizations
Facilitators: Anneloes Smitsman and Alexander Laszlo
Contributors: Tom Atlee
Format & Focus. This final day will take the form of a collectively led, fully participatory workshop. We will apply what we have learned through day 1 and 2 to the critical task of designing inclusive pathways and practices for engaging our human family in becoming the thrivable civilizations.
Read more about Day Three
Our focus for this day is on inclusive engagement, collaboration, and the making of a participatory plan for collective action. We will explore how we can start to ‘constitutionalize’ the new paradigm principles and practices. This may eventually take the form of an Earth Constitution and support the constitutional reform that is required in many countries for becoming thrivable civilizations. This day also provides time for networking and collaboration.
Creating our Vision Map
08:00 – 09:30 am (PDT)
- Harvest from Days One & Two by Alexander.
- Summary of essential New Paradigm Principles.
- Presentation of the SEEDS Constitution by Anneloes with a Visioning session for activating our future human potential.
- Small working groups for sharing our visions of future governance and politics.
- Outcome: Vision map for becoming thrivable civilizations.
Download resource: SEEDS by Anneloes Smitsman
Watch the video
Creating our Synergy Map
10:00 – 11:30 am (PDT)
- Messages from the field by Tom Atlee for inspiring collective action.
- Small working groups for exploring collaborative synergies.
- Outcome: Synergy map for collaboration.
Watch the video
Creating Our Collective Action Map
12:00 – 01:30 pm (PDT)
- Working group session for creating an outline of key principles for new paradigm governance and self agency that everyone can start to apply in their own lives and bring home to their communities.
- Working group session for creating actionable recommendations that can be brought to governing bodies (local, national, corporate, or community based), political parties, and focal groups for advocacy and implementation.
- Outcome: Collective Action map for developing the New Paradigm Politics and Constitutions.
Watch the video
Please note: All times are in Pacific Day Time (PDT)
Speakers – In order of appearance
Ervin Laszlo
Founder and President
Ervin Laszlo, Docteur d’Etat (Sorbonne) is Director of the Laszlo Institute of New Paradigm Research (Italy), Founder and President of The Club of Budapest, Fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science, Member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the International Academy of Philosophy of Science, Senator of the International Medici Academy, and Editor of the international periodical World Futures: The Journal of New Paradigm Research.
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He is the recipient of the Goi Peace Prize (2001), the International Mandir of Peace Prize (2005), the Conacreis Holistic Culture Prize (2009), the Ethics Prize of Milan (2014), and the Luxembourg World Peace Prize (2017). Laszlo is Honorary citizen of the City of Buenos Aires and Honorary Professor of the Buenos Aires Institute of Technology and holds Honorary Ph.D’s from the United States, Canada, Finland, and Hungary.
He is the author or co-author of hundred and one books translated into twenty-four languages. Laszlo was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 and 2005.
William Stranger
Director of Symposia, The Laszlo Institute of New Paradigm Research
Founder and Editor, DharmaCafé Books and www.dharmacafe.com
New Paradigm Spirituality
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Bill’s background in the history of consciousness, classical spirituality, and post-Cartesian political, scientific, artistic, and cultural paradigms, along with his work as author, lecturer, literary agent, editor, and publisher, gives him a broad knowledge of today’s nascent cultural renaissance. He is currently leading a group working to establish an innovative transdisciplinary college devoted to training a new generation of global leaders.
Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed
Research & Creative Consultant
Dr Nafeez Ahmed is an award-winning 20-year investigative journalist, bestselling author and transdisciplinary systems theorist working at the interface between global crisis and the potential for transformation. He is founding Executive Director of the System Shift Lab, an emerging collective intelligence network working on science-based systems frameworks to address our biggest global challenges, and is currently leading on the climate implications of technology-driven societal disruptions for the technology forecasting think-tank RethinkX.
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Ahmed is a Research Fellow at the Schumacher Institute for Sustainable Systems; Special Investigations Reporter at Byline Times; and system shift columnist at VICE. He was previously an environment writer at The Guardian, and his journalism has been published in The Independent, The Times, Sunday Times, The Scotsman, Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Foreign Policy, The Atlantic, Quartz, New York Observer, Boston Globe, Toronto Star, The New Statesman, Prospect, Le Monde diplomatique, The Correspondent, Yes! Magazine, New Internationalist, Huffington Post UK, Al-Arabiya English, AlterNet, The Ecologist, and Asia Times, among other places.
He is a Commissioner at the Club of Rome’s Transformational Economics Commission, system change advisor on the COP26 Global Assembly’s Knowledge & Wisdom Committee, and was recently a Commissioner at the Cambridge University Sustainability Commission on Scaling Sustainable Behaviour Change. He is the author of seven books including Failing States, Collapsing Systems: BioPhysical Triggers of Political Violence (Springer-Nature, 2018) and A User’s Guide to the Crisis of Civilization: And How to Save It (Pluto, 2010).
Istvan Teplan
President and Co-Founder of the Brussels based PROSUM Foundation
Dr. István Teplán is an economic historian, sociologist and educator; educated in Hungary and the USA. He is the President and Co-Founder of the Brussels based PROSUM Foundation.
He was one of the founders of the Central European University (CEU) and as Executive Vice President he served CEU between 1992 and 2007. He served as the Director General of the Government Center for Public Administration of Hungary, and was a board member of the European Institute of Public Administration.
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He was the founding Director General of the Hungarian National Institute for Environment and served as the appointed Envoy for the Budapest Water Summit, held in October 2013 in Budapest.
He was a Board member of the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe between 2009-2016. He also was a member of the Management Board of the European Environment Agency (EEA). Dr Teplán is a contributor of several articles and papers to international conferences and journals and taught at several universities.
As a scholar he contributed to the book, Budapest and New York, Studies in Metropolitan Transformation 1870-1930.
Dr. Istvan Teplán is a recipient of the Officers Cross of Merit of the Hungarian Republic.
Holds the J. Newton Rayzor Chair in Philosophy and Religious Thought at Rice University
One the most creative figures in academic life today, Jeffrey Kripal work engages “the comparative study of religion as a philosophical political, moral, and spiritual force in the world of vast, still unseen implications.”
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As cofounder of America’s first doctoral program on mysticism, at Rice University (GEM, or Gnosticism, Esotericism, Mysticism), author of many books and articles using the field of comparative religion to engage contemporary topics as diverse as human sexuality, comic books, UFOs, paranormal phenomena, and contemporary science, and through collaborations and curated symposia on behalf of the Esalen Institute’s Center of Theory and Research and other institutions, he is bidding to instigate a public conversation that breaks the deep cultural impasse between secular and sacred worldviews.
Frederick Tsao
Founder/CEO, OCTAVE Institute
Chairman, IMC Pan Asia Alliance Group
Permanent Honorary President, FBN Pacific Asia Chapter
Born in the east and educated in the west, Frederick Chavalit Tsao is fourth-generation leader of IMC Pan Asia Alliance Group. He became chairman in 1995 and transformed the family business from a traditional shipping company to a diverse, multinational conglomerate.
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With more than 40 years’ experience as an entrepreneur, Fred has worked successfully with business partners and governments in multiple markets across diverse cultures. Not afraid to push boundaries, as Chairman of Intercargo, Fred repositioned the dry bulk industry from a shipper to one that plays a role within the global supply chain.
He later founded Family Business Network Asia and served on the board of Family Business Network International, where he inspired the exploration of family businesses’ role within the global system. Fred founded East West Cultural Development Centre in Singapore in 1995 to research on sustainability and modernity. His exploration into Eastern Wisdom led him to focus on Chinese esoteric traditions and Western quantum science. Both are paradigms of conscientiousness and evolution.
Fred has since published over 30 books in Chinese, concluding that we are amidst a major consciousness shift and at the dawn of a new era of wellbeing. He advocates that business should transform and reform our era. For this, he founded OCTAVE Institute, a comprehensive integrated life journey approach towards wellbeing.
In 2019, Fred co-authored “Quantum Leadership, New Consciousness in Business” with Chris Laszlo, published by Stanford University Press. Fred also contributed a piece titled “Reconnecting to the Source in the Mirror of Chinese Culture” to the book by Ervin Laszlo titled “Reconnecting to the Source” published by St. Martin’s Press in 2020.
Arthur Versluis
Chair of the Department of Religious Studies and Professor in the College of Arts & Letters at Michigan State University
Arthur Versluis is one of America’s foremost scholars of Western esoteric philosophy and spirituality. His many books include novel studies of Neoplatonic mysticism, Christian theosophy, the American transcendentalist tradition, and Native American spirituality.
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He is the founding president of the Association for the Study of Esotericism and the founder and editor of the Journal for the Study of Radicalism. His recent book The Mystical State: Politics, Gnosis, and Emergent Culture explores how mysticism can inspire political and cultural renewal.
Garry Jacobs
President, The Mother’s Service Society
www.msresearch.org and www.cadmusjournal.org
The Process of Social Evolution
Garry Jacobs is an American author, social scientist, and business consultant who has spent the past fifty years studying and applying Sri Aurobindo and the Mother’s integral approach to the process of growth and development in business, economics, education, global governance, psychology, and the process of social development.
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He is President of the Mother’s Service Society, an educational and social science research institute in India. He is also President and CEO of the World Academy of Art and Science. He is author of two books on the process of business growth, a report to the UN on peace and development, a strategy to create 100 million jobs in India, a novel on spirituality in business, and more than one hundred articles applying principles of consciousness in various fields of life.
Janani Ramanathan
Research Associate, The Mother’s Service Society
www.mssresearch.org and www.cadmusjournal.org
Converting Social Evolution into Conscious Social Transformation
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She is engaged in an exploration of the relationship between literature, psychology, history and social development, which examines the correlation between the characters and events depicted in literature and the changing human values and social behavior. This project is part of her larger career goal to evolve new criteria for literary criticism based on an understanding of the process of social evolution, that in turn leads to a deeper understanding of the principles that govern life.
Jonathan Granoff
President, Global Security Institute
A New Paradigm in the Human Security Agenda
Jonathan Granoff is an attorney, author and international advocate emphasizing the legal and ethical dimensions of human development and security, with a specific focus on advancing the rule of law to address international security and the threats posed by nuclear weapons.
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He serves on numerous governing and advisory boards including: Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy, Fortune Forum, Jane Goodall Institute, the NGO Committee on Disarmament, Peace and Security, Parliamentarians for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament, and Middle Powers Initiative. He is a recipient of the Rutgers University School of Law’s Arthur E. Armitage Distinguished Alumni Award and a 2014 nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize. He is the Senior Advisor and United Nations Representative of the Permanent Secretariat of the World Summits of Nobel Peace Laureates, Ambassador for Peace, Security and Nuclear Disarmament of the Parliament of the World’s Religions, and Chair of the Task Force on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Advisor to the Committee on National Security of the International Law Section of the American Bar Association.
Kurt Barnes
Founder and Chair of EARTHwise Centre
Founder and CEO of 3CS
Dr. Kurt Barnes (ND, DEA, Histoire Uni of Paris 8) is a senior psychologist with extensive professional experience working with individuals and organizations from all levels of society in Mauritius and internationally. He is founder and Chair of EARTHwise Centre and founder & CEO of 3CS. He is an international psycho-social expert who has worked in this capacity among migrants in Africa, providing training and consultancy to improve their living conditions and eco-psychological health. He carried out this work with knowledge regarding implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to these issues.
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Kurt’s current project involves setting up PFA training to prevent the development and escalation of psychosocial unrest and violence. This includes a preliminary survey on the correlation between the rise of temperature and increases in violence and unrest. He is also an Indigenous Talking Circle Leader and Facilitator, certified by the Four Worlds International Institute (FWII).
Kurt worked for many years in Europe and North America. He is also a registered Naturopathic Physician and applies this with his specialisation in psychology, psychotherapy & bio-feedback. Kurt was trained in psychotechnics and higher states of Consciousness for the bio-feedback by Maxwell Cade and Geoff Blandell from the Institute for Psychobiological Research in 1979. His research expertise includes the history of impact of eco-mutations on epidemics. Kurt’s rich multi-cultural background enables him to create important bridges of understanding and has made him a well sought-after adviser both in Mauritius and internationally. In 2004 he was Knighted in the Order of Academic Palms of the French Republic for his outstanding service.
Anneloes Smitsman
Founder and CEO of EARTHWise Centre
New Paradigm Consciousness
Anneloes Smitsman, PhD, LLM, is a visionary scientist, published author, futurist, system architect, and leadership catalyst for the transition to a Thrivable Civilization. She is Founder and CEO of EARTHwise Centre and a founding member of the Creative Board of the Laszlo Institute. She holds a Masters degree in Law and Judicial Political Sciences from Leiden University, the Netherlands, and a degree of Doctor from the Maastricht Sustainability Institute (formerly ICIS), Maastricht University, the Netherlands.
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Her groundbreaking Ph.D. dissertation “Into the Heart of Systems Change“, addresses how to diagnose and transform key systemic barriers of our world crisis through its proposed Transition Plan for a Thrivable Civilization. Anneloes is the co-author of the Future Humans Trilogy with Dr. Jean Houston, and is the author of the Amazon International Bestseller “Love Letters from Mother Earth – The Promise of a New Beginning”, as well as many scientific articles and chapters in international peer-reviewed journals and books. Anneloes is the lead architect of the EARTHwise Tipping Point System, the lead author of the r3.0 Educational Transformation Blueprint, an architect of the SEEDS Constitution and strategic advisor of Hypha for co-developing the Regenerative Renaissance tools, currencies, systems, and cultures. She is a member of the Evolutionary Leaders Circle of the Source of Synergy Foundation.
Alexander Laszlo
Director of Research, the Laszlo Institute
President, the Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science
Alexander Laszlo is President of the Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science (BCSSS), Director of Research at the Laszlo Institute of New Paradigm Research (LINPR), Co-Founder and Global Collaborator at Global Education Futures (GEF), Scientific Director at EARTHwise Centre, and Chief Edunaut of the Evolutionary Learning Ecosystems program in Argentina where he currently resides.
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He served as the 57th President and Chair of the Board of Trustees of the International Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS), was Director of the Doctoral Program in Management at the Graduate School of Business Administration & Leadership (EGADE-ITESM), Mexico, and Founding Director of the Doctoral Program in Leadership and Systemic Innovation at ITBA, Argentina. He is also President of the Honorary Board of Advisors of the World Complexity Science Academy (WCSA), and has been named a Level I Member of the National Research Academy of Mexico (SNI).
He is on the Editorial Boards of eleven internationally arbitered research journals, recipient of the Gertrude Albert Heller Award, the Sir Geoffrey Vickers Memorial Award, and the Förderpreis Akademischer Klub award, author of over 100 journal, book and encyclopedia publications, and a 6th Degree Black Belt in traditional Taekwon-do. Born in Fribourg, Switzerland, he is holder of a PhD in the interdisciplinary field of Science and Technology Policy from the University of Pennsylvania from where he also received his MA in History and Sociology of Science. His BA is from Haverford College, with a major in International and Comparative Political Science and a minor in Human Physiology.
Jean Houston
Founders of the Human Potential Movement
Prof. Dr. Jean Houston, Ph.D., is a legend in her own time as a world renowned scholar, futurist, and researcher in human capacities, social change, and systemic transformation. She is one of the principal founders of the Human Potential Movement and one of the foremost visionary thinkers and doers of our time.
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She is also a founder of the field of Social Artistry, “Human development in the light of social change.” She has been a key player in the empowerment of women around the world, and was awarded the Synergy Superstar Award 2020 by the Source of Synergy Foundation for her exemplary work inspiring us to source our highest human capacities. A powerful and dynamic speaker, and renowned for her gifts as a mythic storyteller, Dr Houston holds conferences, seminars, and mentoring programs with leaders and change agents worldwide. She has worked intensively in over 40 cultures, lectured in over 100 countries, and worked with major organizations such as UNICEF, UNDP, and NASA, as well as helping global state leaders, leading educational institutions, business organizations, and millions of people to enhance and deepen their own uniqueness.
She is the co-author of the Future Humans Trilogy with Dr. Anneloes Smitsman, and has authored over 35 published books and a great many unpublished books, plays, and manuscripts. Dr. Houston is Chancellor of Meridian University and has served on the faculties of Columbia University, Hunter College, Marymount College, The New School for Social Research, and the University of California.
Dr Houston was also President of the American Association of Humanistic Psychology, and is presently the Chair of the United Palace of Spiritual Arts in New York City. She is a member of the Evolutionary Leaders Circle of the Source of Synergy Foundation.
For more information visit – www.jeanhouston.com
Joussef Mahmoud
Senior Adviser at the International Peace Institute
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Prior to these assignments, he held other senior United Nations positions, notably as UN Resident Coordinator in Guyana, Director in the UN Department of Political Affairs, and Head of the Office of the Undersecretary-Secretary-General for Political Affairs. In 2015, he served as a member of the UN Secretary-General High-Level Panel on Peace Operations (HIPPO) and simultaneously a member of the High-Level Advisory Group for the Global Study on Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security.
In 2019, he led an independent strategic review of the UN peace operation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO), pursuant to UN Security Council resolution 2463. He is currently a Visiting Professor at the African Leadership Centre, King’s College London, and serves on the Boards of several non-profit organizations in the US and Tunisia. Dr. Mahmoud has a Ph.D. in Linguistics from Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.
Dr Mahmoud is also the Co-Chair with Prof Jean Houston of Home for Humanity’s Unity Circle and Earth Agora, whose intention is to ‘co-create a just, inclusive and regenerative Earth Civilization’.
His book ‘Whose Peace are we Building: Leadership for Peace in Africa’ was just published in April 2021 by Tauris, a profound reflection on his life-times experiences and lessons as a UN leader heading peace operations and country-wide development programmes.
For more information visit – www.ipinst.org/by/youssef-mahmoud
Alexander Schieffer
Co-Founder of Home for Humanity and of TRANS4M Academy for Integral Transformation
Prof. Dr. Alexander Schieffer, Ph.D. is, simultaneously, a transformative educator, engaged activist, passionate community builder, integral philosopher, and spiritual poet and performer. He is Co-Founder of Home for Humanity; Co-Founder of TRANS4M Academy for Integral Transformation; Co-Series Editor of Routledge Transformation and Innovation Book Series; Lecturer, University of St. Gallen; Spiritual Poet-Performer.
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In 2006, together with Professor Ronnie Lessem, Alexander co-founded TRANS4M Academy for Integral Transformation, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, with an active, interconnected community of transformative scholar-practitioners spread on all continents. Since 2019, Alexander is evolving TRANS4M further into a cohesive community of “worldmakers”, sharing the vision of “co-creating a world that’s a Home for Humanity”. To strengthen this vision, he co-founded, together with his wife and performer-peacebuilder Dr. Rama Mani, “HOME FOR HUMANITY” in rural France near Geneva, that serves as a living home-campus, integral role model and community hub for a growing global community of agents of transformation. For more information visit – www.homeforhumanity.earth
Rama Mani
Founder of Theatre of Transformation Academy
Co-Founder Home for Humanity
Dr. Rama Mani is a transformative leader, educator, peacebuilder, poet and performance artist whose life, work and art are devoted to human and global transformation. She received the Visionary Leadership Lifetime Achievement Award from the Visioneers International Network in Canada in 2020, the Excellence in Leadership Award of the Global Thinkers Forum in the UK in 2018, and the Peter Becker Peace Prize in 2013 in Germany.
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She was made a Fellow of the World Academy of Arts and Sciences in January 2021. Dr. Rama Mani is the Founder of Theatre of Transformation Academy, whose purpose is to champion and support the creative power of humanity to shape our shared future.
She is the Convenor of the Enacting Global Transformation Collaborative Initiative at the University of Oxford’s Centre for International Studies, which seeks to redefine paradigms of power, and shape creative and humane responses to current global crises. Rama is the Co-Founder, with her husband, Professor Alexander Schieffer, of Home for Humanity: a global vision, transcultural alliance and catalytic home campus for integral transformation, to enact a just and regenerative future for all life on our home planet. Rama is a Councilor of the World Future Council which protects the rights of future generations and awards the Future Policy Awards. She was a Jury member of the ‘Alternative Nobel Prize’ or Right Livelihood Award.
Rama has a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Cambridge, UK, an M.A. in International Affairs from Johns Hopkins University, USA, and a B.A. from Bryn Mawr College USA in Politics and French Literature. She is a French national and an Overseas Citizen of India, where she grew up.
Violeta Bulc
Curator of the Ecocivilisation Movement
Former European Commissioner for Transport and former Deputy Prime Minister of Slovenia
Violeta Bulc is an open-minded former European Commissioner, devoted to solving problems in a collaborative and innovative way. The essence of her work is directed at improving the quality of life for people in the European Union. She is a G100 Global Chair. The Ecocivilisation movement that she has started in March 2020 was named among top 100 projects for the future of the world by the WWEF.
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Her work often involves the creation of networks and develop strategies that address societal demands for greater connectivity, mobility and global awareness. As European Commissioner for Transport, her policy goals aim to make mobility solutions environmentally friendly, competitive and inclusive, to create jobs, growth and maintain social fairness. She is well recognised innovator, entrepreneur, politician (former Deputy Prime Minister of Republic of Slovenia), sports person and much more.
Stephen Cook
Strategist, Conductor and Optimist. Co-Founder at Unstitution. Co-Founder at Age of Human.
Co-Founder at Unstitution – a purposeful coalition, a mindscape, a work-net, a do-tank and a robust methodology set that brings together people and organisations from across civil society, business and government sectors to a) dance with and tame the multiple monsters that prevent meaningful societal progress and b) build the binding coalitions that can co-create systemic social change, solve complex social challenges and, through their unique constructs and conduct, have lasting, valuable social impact – so that humanity wins.
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Donna Nelham
Co-founder Unstitution
Chief Strategy Officer at Fractal Workspace
Donna Nelham is also known to some as an Inspiration Strategist and a cross-pollinator. With 30 years experience, she helps individuals and organizations across sectors reframe their ‘why,’ tackle the tough challenges and thrive on new, regenerative ways of working and being. Balancing hard science with messy humanness and always learning, she draws from multidisciplinary perspectives and integrative systems thinking to navigate through complexity and uncertainty.
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Her work at Unstitution is focused on building binding coalitions across sectors. At Fractal, she is co-creating a vibrant live-work-play community in a smaller Canadian city. In her roles at Unstitution and Fractal and in her private practice, she helps translate broad-brush strategy into a grounded working narrative. She researches globally, travelling down rabbit holes and building bridges between disciplines, industries and sectors. An abundance mindset guides her moral compass and helps her communicate meaningfully with varied stakeholders.
Stefan Blachfellner
Managing Director of the Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science (BCSSS)
Stefan Blachfellner is the Managing Director of the Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science (BCSSS) in Vienna, hosting the European Meetings on Cybernetics and Systems Research (emcsr/avantgarde) and the Circular Economy Forum Austria.
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He has broad international experience as an entrepreneur and business consultant in Fortune TOP 500 industries, and the service sector as well as in public administration and cultural and educational organizations. He has taught entrepreneurship, leadership, creativity and innovation management, digital business, future studies, and various systems theories and approaches at several Universities and in professional management training programs in Austria, Germany, Slovenia, France, Belgium, Vietnam, Taiwan, China and the USA.
From 2016 to 2018, Stefan was appointed as Special Adviser to the European Commissioner for Transport. He served as Secretary General and Vice President of the International Federation for Systems Research (IFSR), the largest global umbrella organization of systems research organizations in the natural, social, and technological sciences and systems engineering organizations, and Vice President of the International Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS), initially conceived in 1954 as the Society for the Advancement of General Systems Theory (by Ludwig von Bertalanffy, Kenneth Boulding, Ralph Gerard, and Anatol Rapoport in cooperation with James Grier Miller).
His current work is focused on the development of a General Systems Transdiscipline, developing educational and applied research opportunities on systems design, systemic innovation, nudging, and impact assessment at the intersection of the regenerative economy and digitalization, to improve methods for addressing complex challenges towards the so called Next Economy, in particular the Circular Economy.
Tim Olsson
Founder of Social Systems Labs and Project Manager of Crowdpol at Syntropi
Tim Olsson is a democracy enthusiast and systems innovator. He founded Social Systems Labs in Cape Town in order to further a practical discussion into what a new operating system for a sustainable global civilisation might look like if designed with the algorithms that underlie human behaviour in mind. An early prototype is Crowdpol (currently rebranding to CoDo), a social networking application for changemakers to support civic and environmental engagement.
Ollie Bream Mcintosh
Director of Social Systems Labs
Ollie Bream McIntosh is Director of Social Systems Labs (SSL), where he co-directs the creation of CoDo, a decentralised social network for changemakers.
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Alongside this role, Ollie is a steward of the Collaborative Technology Alliance and of the Open Co-Op, working on protocols for inter-network synergies, as well as a Teaching Associate at the University of Nottingham, where he leads a participatory course in Futures Studies. He has previously co-founded a UK-based social enterprise in alternative secondary education (TftFuture) and co-directed an international social arts enterprise (POTS CIC).
Pavel Luksha
Founder of Global Education Futures
Co-Founder of Learning Planet
Professor at the Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO
www.globaledufutures.org | www.learning-planet.org/en
Creating global learning ecosystems for societal transformation
Pavel Luksha a global thinker, change catalyst, and facilitator. He is Founder of Global Education Futures and University for the Planet, and a co-founder of Future Capital and Living Cities movements. He also sits on Boards of several global education startups, new international school networks, and research institutions.
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Pavel works with systemic social innovations in education, business, social entrepreneurship, culture, and urban development. Prior to his work in education, Pavel has spent 10+ years in corporate management, investment sector, professional services, and startups, working with strategy, business planning, and operations. He also pursued the academic research career in system sciences and evolutionary economics, working with the Institute of Economics in the Russian Academy of Sciences, The Higher School of Economics University, and the University of Hertfordshire in the UK.
Pim Van Geest
Chief Executive Officer at Global Education Futures
Pim Van Geest the Director of the Global Education Futures Foundation, a strategy consultant and creator of Executive Education Programs, connecting people, organisations, ideas, and cultures from different fields and countries. He creates new insights and connections for business initiatives through corporate development and executive education services.
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Pim has broad experience in Strategy, Marketing, Finance, (Executive) Education, International Business and ICT in different industries such as Education, Healthcare, Asset Management and others. And a broad network in the corporate and academic world. He is a highly associative thinker with a strong personal commitment to his clients and projects. Pim has a passion for Russia, and for connecting Russian and Dutch businesses and governments, and is partner in Bontemantel, a company that relates European and Russian businesses and governments through corporate development, executive education and public private partnerships.
Charles Eisenstein
Writer focusing on themes of civilization and human cultural evolution
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Eisenstein graduated from Yale University in 1989 with a degree in Mathematics and Philosophy and spent the next ten years as a Chinese–English translator. The author of Sacred Economics and, Ascent of Humanity, he currently lives in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania.
Flavia Valgiusti
Director of the Institute of Neurosciences and Law
Bar Association – San Isidro, Argentina
Former judge, author, and speaker. Facilitator of Collective Trauma Healing in Argentina and Latin America at “Pocket Project” global research.
The focus of her work is on Trauma-Informed Law, and she advocates for the integration of law and spirituality through the development of a sacred vision of law as Essential Justice.
Naresh Singh
Professor & Vice Dean, Centre for Complexity Economics and Applied Spirituality for Public Policy (CEASP)
Dr. Naresh Singh is currently Professor and Vice Dean in the School of Government and Public Policy and Director of the Centre for Complexity Economics, Applied Spirituality and Public Policy at the OP Jindal Global University in Haryana, India. He concurrently serves as Visiting Professor at University of Ottawa, Senior Vice President, Global Partnerships at Global Development Solutions, Canada and special adviser on sustainability at the Toronto Centre, on financial supervision and regulation.
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Naresh has more than 30 years’ experience in international development and has held several senior positions including as Senior Scientist and then Executive Director of the Caribbean Environmental Health Institute; Program Director at IISD (International Institute for Sustainable Development), Principal Adviser on Poverty and Sustainable Livelihoods at UNDP, New York and Director-General at the CIDA, Federal Government of Canada. He was also Executive Director of the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor co-chaired by Madeleine Albright and Hernando de Soto and hosted by UNDP.
Dr. Singh has been recognized globally for his work on sustainable livelihoods which offers win-win options for poor people get out of poverty with conserving the environment. He has been a visiting professor at several Universities in Canada, USA and the Caribbean and is widely published. His book Legal Rights of the Poor was published in 2014. A new book chapter entitled Development as Emergent Creativity has just been published in Transforming: Applying Spirituality, Emergent Creativity and Reconciliation. (Lexington 2021) edited by Vern and Gloria Redekop.
Current Research Interests:
- Complexity and Public Policy: How to address wicked public policy problems in a world that is increasingly complex, nonlinear, uncertain, emergent m self-organizing and shows other characteristics of complex adaptive systems.
- Applied Spirituality and Public Policy: What would politics and public policy look like if these were informed by a shared consciousness of human beings, a recognition of the illusory sense of separateness from nature and each other and understanding of our true nature beyond the imaginary ego.
- Sustainable Development and Resilience. How can 1 and 2 above be used to help accelerate or initiate the transformations required in socio-ecological systems to help achieve the UN SDGs and beyond.
- Quantum Social Science. What can w learn from quantum like modeling and consciousness studies to address public policy problems.
Tom Atlee
VP and Research Director of the The Co-Intelligence Institute
Main site www.co-intelligence.org
Main blog www.tomatleeblog.com
Wise Democracy Pattern Language Project wd-pl.com
Tom Atlee is vice president and research director of the Co-Intelligence Institute, a nonprofit organization he founded in 1996. His early co-intelligence research in the late 1980s focused on the relationship between group dynamics and collective intelligence. Beginning in the mid-1990s through the mid-2000s, his focus shifted to developing society’s capacity to function as a wise democracy.
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From 2005-2010 he explored possibilities for the conscious evolution of social systems, grounded in a sacred science-based understanding of evolutionary dynamics. During 2011-2015 he focused on public wisdom, co-intelligent economics and participatory sustainability. Seeking more practice-based ways to engage people around the idea of wise democracy, he is now doing courses and developing a community of practice around the wise democracy pattern language. He hopes these intertwined, expanding explorations can help channel the energies surrounding our 21st century social and environmental crises into positive possibiities and system-transforming initiatives.
Tom’s social change vision is grounded most deeply in new understandings of evolving wholeness which recognize the value of diversity, unity, relationship, context, uniqueness and the spirit inside each of us and the world. Co-intelligence is intelligence that arises from that kind of wholeness. It has collaborative and collective dimensions, and intrinsic interconnectedness which we see clearly in wholesome forms of politics, governance and economics. Co-intelligence theory also highlights the many facets of intelligence (like head and heart), wisdom, and the higher forms of intelligence (natural and sacred) that move through and beyond us. Although Tom and the Institute focus on very practical issues of group, social, political, and economic dynamics, co-intelligence has many esoteric dimensions as well.
An early theoretician and advocate of collective intelligence, Tom’s inclusive mapping of the field has been featured in two major books on the subject – Mark Tovey’s Collective Intelligence: Creating a Prosperous World at Peace (2008) and Nasreen Taher’s Collective Intelligence: An Introduction (2006).
His work on “wise democracy” features his coined category of existing forms of “citizen deliberative councils” which he promotes in his books The Tao of Democracy: Using Co-Intelligence to Create a World that Works for All (2003) and Empowering Public Wisdom: A Practical Vision of Citizen-Led Politics (2012). He has been a significant theoretician in the field of dialogue and deliberation, being lead integrator of the Core Principles of Public Engagement (2009) and a major contributor to the GroupWorks pattern language of group process (2008-2012), as well as a steering committee member of the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation (2002-2005).
Much of his work features new visions of social change agentry – from the co-intelligent activism articulated in his books Participatory Sustainability,The Tao of Democracy and Reflections on Evolutionary Activism: Essays, Poems and Prayers from an Emerging Field of Sacred Social Change (2009), to his co-organizing of the Evolutionary Salon on Philanthropy (2006) and the Storyfield Conference (2007) to his many blog posts on social issues and action.
In addition to his books, blogs and websites, Tom has published extensively in alternative journals and publishes a newsletter featuring significant articles and websites by other commentators, as well as his own writings. He has also worked with a number of other leading authors on their books.
Tom’s complete BIO here: www.co-intelligence.org/tomatleebio.html