In this dialogue, I talk with one of our fellow visionaries (and media activist) Duane Elgin about certain of the core themes Living Dialogues has expressed since its inception. Included among these Living Dialogues perspectives are: (1) the fact that we live in an “alive universe”, in which our dialogues as humans are not exclusively with ourselves, or even “within ourselves”, but from my perspective, also with all of manifest and unmanifest creation -- involving a feeling for the natural world and the cosmic potential for goodness (acknowledged by Einstein among countless others), which supports us in our hope for an evolved future beyond the destructive fragmentation of our current cultural settings; (2) the recognition that as a species, our human family is currently in an adolescent stage of development, now beginning a kind of collective rite of passage into a greater maturity, so that we can go beyond demonizing dualism as a survival strategy into a greater sense of understanding and unity within diversity (“out of the many we are one”) – and so keep pace as a species within the evolutionary imperative coming from an infinitely expanding universe, which science shows us is continuing to further complexify and integrate at an ever more rapid pace; and (3) recognizing that, as I often say, “dialogue is the language of evolutionary transformation”, that we can only make this evolutionary adaptation and survival leap in concert with one another, a shared midwiving if you will -- involving multiple ongoing dialogues between all participants in this birthing of a new and deeper required understanding of ourselves and our world.

As the well-known anthropologist Margaret Mead once said: “For humanity to evolve, the conversation must deepen”. This is what the program Living Dialogues is about, with myself, my guests, and all of our deep listeners continually and collectively evoking further insights of this new understanding from and with one another.

In this Part 1 of my 3-part dialogue with Duane Elgin, we set the overview and lay the foundation for our subsequent two dialogues, in the process referring to certain themes discussed on previous Living Dialogues on this website (scroll down and see, for example, Programs 31 and 32 with Richard Tarnas and Program 37 with Paul Ray). Among other topics, we talk about the 20th century role of Joseph Campbell in helping us prepare for this next great initiation: the creation by all of us together of certain new planetary myths (beyond the tribal myths Joe documented and explained so well). We talk about how this collective initiation of the human family in the 21st century involves a time of reflection, taking an assessment of ourselves in our personal and social actions. I believe this process is a kind of collective vision quest going out beyond the range of both our ancestors and our conventional modern world perspectives, to a new third consciousness, capable of sustaining us in this time of ever more rapid change.

Among the key dialogues that need to take place are those among youth and elders, men and women, different ethnicities, different nations, indigenous and modern cultures.

I talk about the “ethical dialogue” psychologist and historian Erik Erikson said all civilizations need to nurture between youth and elders in order for a civilization to remain vital and survive and thrive. This dialogue about the values we proclaim and being accountable for the gap between those values and our culture’s lived reality is essential. Idealistic youth bring a certain wisdom to the table in that they have a passion for these values to create a world that will live as long as they do (sustainability), and they have a familiarity with the rapidly changing technology of communications. And real elders, like Socrates in his time, support that hope by stressing the importance of integrity and truth, in ourselves and in our actions in the larger world, in order to create change that will benefit the whole and endure.

The first step to creating a sustainable future together is mutual understanding and finding common ground beyond dualities of gender, race, nationality, generations, etc. Then we use new forms of technology (video, internet, etc.) to democratize and vitalize our communications beyond the non-reflective, manipulative, commodity and consumerist driven commercial consciousness perpetuated and reinforced by our current mass media, in order to make the leap to a new and deeper consciousness. Duane Elgin talks about his passion for bringing our mass media back into a responsible role in our cultural dialogue, offering the perspective for his focus on media transformation: “It is primarily through our ‘social brain’ (i.e., the television system and its interconnected computer and satellite networks) that the mindset of the species will be established and cultivated. How we use our tools of mass communication is not just another issue – it is the basis for understanding and responding to all issues.”

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WEEKS HEAR DUNCAN CAMPELL’S DIALOGUES WITH OTHER GROUND-BREAKING TRANSFORMATIONAL THINKERS LISTED ON THE WEBSITE WWW.LIVINGDIALOGUES.COM. TO LISTEN TO PREVIOUS RELATED DIALOGUES ON THIS SITE, SCROLL DOWN ON THE LIVING DIALOGUES SHOW PAGE HERE -- OR CLICK ON THE NAME OF A GUEST ON THE LIST AT THE RIGHT -- TO HEAR DUNCAN’S DIALOGUES WITH DR. ANDREW WEIL, MATTHEW FOX, COLEMAN BARKS, RUPERT SHELDRAKE, JOSEPH CHILTON PEARCE, DEEPAK CHOPRA, CAROLINE MYSS, VINE DELORIA, JR., MICHAEL DOWD (THE UNIVERSE STORY OF THOMAS BERRY AND BRIAN SWIMME), STANISLAV GROF, RICHARD TARNAS, MARC BEKOFF AND JANE GOODALL, RICHARD MOSS, PAUL HAWKEN, PAUL RAY, JOSEPH ELLIS, AND OTHER EVOLUTIONARY THINKERS FROM AROUND THE WORLD.

To order a full transcript of this program you can contact me at my website: www.livingdialogues.com or at [email protected]. Many thanks again for your attentive deep listening in helping co-create this program. All the best, Duncan