Let's hear about a kind of experience-based spirituality unique to the United States starting far back and long ago, long before the founding of the nation. It is a spirituality of unlimited vision and yet practical concern, of utopian goals and pragmatic methods, of aspiration blended with a yearning for freedom and justice. 

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"Lamplighting" is my term for a new kind of change-making in the world by visionaries, dreamers, intuitives, and depth workers gathering in service to deep cultural (and personal) transformation. Those of us who work on ourselves have the privilege of a large and effective toolbox. Perhaps it's time to bring it more fully out into the world, and to make change through imagination, inspiration, and creativity. 

See "Carrying Light in Dark Times: Resources for Lamplighters" at Chalquist.com.

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There is no shortage of examples of ring-kissing, selling out, and being a moral windsock as entire companies, departments, and branches of government kiss up to authoritarian bullies. Isn't this when the heroes emerge? Some are. But the figure of the junzi, the exemplary person from Chinese folklore and philosophy, has something to offer as a model for integrity and courage. 

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How many times must we be fooled by unscrupulous and event violent leaders until we wake up and get conscious? Persephone and Innana might be good examples of how to obtain the "night vision" of recognizing when we are being mistreated and refusing to put up with it. 

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Jung taught us that "imaginary" and "fictional" characters possess their own kind of autonomy and reality. I give some examples from how I write fiction to indicate my own creative conversation with such characters as they move their stories forward along with my own. (My thanks to Nigel Calvaire and Brenda Espuma, the fictional characters who volunteered to be examples.)

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In dark and difficult times, it's easy to fall into a psychology of contraction: self-guarding, self-protection, defense, diminished influence, lowered voice. But what if such times call instead for an expansion into possibilities that can inspire us?

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In the West, self-development (self-improvement, self-realization, individuation) is a multi-billion dollar industry. It is also defined in terms of a narrowly boundaried self. What if we pushed past the introverted take on self-development long enough to bring more of its methods out into the world?

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For all its long life, SF has predicted future events. It has even done this when the events seem improbable or impossible. How does it do this? What does SF say today about where we might be headed?

Link to my novel Soulmapper, first book of the Lamplighter Trilogy.

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What do authoritarian followers, religious fundamentalists, and domestic violence perpetrators have in common? Idealization of a dual father image that alternates between violent and loving. Why is this? 

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What can storytelling, visioning, mythologizing, and pleasure contribute to resisting oppression and injustice, especially when widespread? What would "the new Mythietai"--storytelling troublemakers who opposed tyranny in the ancient world--be like? 

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