“I would like this event to be a celebration of what is possible,” said Sir John Whitmore, opening the three-day, inaugural Be The Change event in London. The conference took its name from Mahatma Gandhi’s words: ‘Be the Change You Want to See in the World’.
The gathering was organized in a record 16 weeks and provided space for over 300 individuals and organizations to explore ways of achieving true and effective systemic change – and making it happen!

 “You can never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change things you have to build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete”, the visionary architect, Buckminster Fuller, once said.  This view was shared by experts in change, in finance, business, politics and science, who brought new insights to the challenge of building ‘a world that works for everyone’.

All involved in Be the Change had a sense of urgency around current social, environmental and political challenges and a shared conviction that only a truly ‘integral’ or ‘whole systems’ approach can produce the necessary effective and lasting change. ‘Thrive and Let Thrive’ should be the slogan of the 21st Century said Dr. Don Beck. “The paradox is that we are more interconnected than ever, yet we are more fragmented.”

Neale Donald Walsh, the author of the best-selling Conversations with God and The New Revelations said one of the five fallacies about life is, “There is not enough of what human beings need to be happy. Other fallacies include the idea that: to get the stuff of which there is not enough, human beings must compete with each other; and it is appropriate for human beings to resolve severe differences created by these fallacies by killing each other.”

“The lie of scarcity is an entire condition in which we are all swimming,” said Lynne Twist, author of The Soul of Money. “The truth is we’ve crossed a threshold for humanity. There is now enough for everyone. The basic message is – There is Enough.” The Catch 22 is that classical systems of economics, organization and politics have not yet caught up with this fact.

Elisabet Sahtouris, the evolution biologist, looked forward to a time when we can mature like other species, from competition to co-operation, and build a human society in which the goals of individual and community, of local and global economy, of economy and ecology are met. This will shift us out of crises and into the happier, healthier world of which we all dream.

The speakers were just one part of the rich three-day event. The audience was made up of people already involved in Being the Change in different fields and the third day gave everyone an opportunity to share their projects and aspirations. As a result, further events will take place, both in Britain and abroad, before next year’s bigger three-day gathering starting 05/05/05.

Be the Change was organized by Sir John Whitmore, Nick Hart Williams and Chris Cooke. Sponsors include The Gaia Foundation, The Scientific & Medical Network, The Schumacher Society, Resurgence, Via3.net, The Institute for Noetic Sciences and Peace Child International. There is a growing number of discussions on the website and CDs or DVDs of the whole event will be available in due course. Big-PictureTV.com already has interviews with Neale Donald Walsh and Elisabet Sahtouris online.

(Source: Positive News: http://www.positivenews.org.uk/index.php) 

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