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Now You Can Understand Why Connecting To Other People Is Great, Thanks To This Shouting Sociologist

Now You Can Understand Why Connecting To Other People Is Great, Thanks To This Shouting Sociologist

The benefits of a connected life outweigh the costs!”

Nicholas Christakis, MD PhD, in his powerful TED Talk “The Hidden Influence of Social Networks,” lays down the omnipotent role of social networks and the benefits of connecting with other people…

Social Networks Naturally ‘Sustain & Nourish The Good’ & ‘Reject The Bad’

We form social networks because the benefits of a connected life outweigh the costs. If I was always violent towards you or gave you misinformation or made you sad or infected you with deadly germs, you would cut the ties to me, and the network would disintegrate.

So the spread of good and valuable things is required to sustain and nourish social networks. Similarly, social networks are required for the spread of good and valuable things, like love, kindness, happiness, altruism and ideas.

If we realized how valuable social networks are, we’d spend a lot more time nourishing them and sustaining them, because I think social networks are fundamentally related to goodness. And what I think the world needs now is more connections.”

An Example Showing How Certain Properties Reside Not In Individual Parts, But In The Interconnections Between Them

Think about these two common objects. They’re both made of carbon, and yet one of them has carbon atoms in it that are arranged in one particular way – on the left – and you get graphite, which is soft and dark.

But if you take the same carbon atoms and interconnect them a different way, you get diamond, which is clear and hard. And those properties of softness and hardness and darkness and clearness do not reside in the carbon atoms; they reside in the interconnections between the carbon atoms, or at least arise because of the interconnections between the carbon atoms.

So, similarly, the pattern of connections among people confers upon the groups of people different properties. It is the ties between people that makes the whole greater than the sum of its parts. And so it is not just what’s happening to these people – whether they’re losing weight or gaining weight, or becoming rich or becoming poor, or becoming happy or not becoming happy – that affects us; it’s also the actual architecture of the ties around us.”

Human Beings Are Not Reducible To The Study Of Individuals, But Must Be Understood In Reference To The Collective

Our experience of the world depends on the actual structure of the networks in which we’re residing and on all the kinds of things that ripple and flow through the network. Now, the reason, I think, that this is the case is that human beings assemble themselves and form a kind of superorganism.

Now, a superorganism is a collection of individuals which show or evince behaviors or phenomena that are not reducible to the study of individuals and that must be understood by reference to, and by studying, the collective. Like, for example, a hive of bees that’s finding a new nesting site, or a flock of birds that’s evading a predator, or a flock of birds that’s able to pool its wisdom and navigate and find a tiny speck of an island in the middle of the Pacific, or a pack of wolves that’s able to bring down larger prey.

Superorganisms have properties that cannot be understood just by studying the individuals. I think understanding social networks and how they form and operate can help us understand not just health and emotions but all kinds of other phenomena – like crime, and warfare, and economic phenomena like bank runs and market crashes and the adoption of innovation and the spread of product adoption.”

Watch Nicholas Christakis’ TED Talk ‘The Hidden Influence Of Social Networks’

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A Mutual Approach: Economists And Politicians On The Need For Global Cooperation To Treat The Global Financial Crisis

A Mutual Approach: Economists And Politicians On The Need For Global Cooperation To Treat The Global Financial Crisis

We’ve got these big problems that require people to take a longer-term view than just their own selfish individual or national interest… We must now reform the international financial system around the agreed principles of transparency, integrity, responsibility, good housekeeping and cooperation across borders.”

– Gordon Brown, Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, in an interview with Piers Morgan on CNN.

Self Interest Gets In The Way Of Cooperation

At the London G20 summit on 2 April 2009, world leaders committed themselves to a $5tn (£3tn) fiscal expansion, an extra $1.1tn of resources to help the International Monetary Fund and other global institutions boost jobs and growth, and to reform of the banks. From this point, when the global economy was on the turn, international cooperation started to disintegrate as individual countries pursued their own agendas.”

– Larry Brown, The Guardian economics editor, in the article “Global Financial Crisis: Five Key Stages 2007-2011”

The Call For Mutual Cooperation, If Limited, Has Not Dwindled

We face the most difficult economic conditions in generations. The international community must unite to tackle the downturn and set the path toward a sustainable future… Only by working together can we meet the challenge.”

– Alistair Darling, Scottish Labour Party politician, in the article “International Cooperation Is the Way Out of the Financial Crisis”

A… new model is needed to acknowledge that we live together in a multicultural, multi-ethnic and multi-religious world. Prevailing values will have to increasingly accommodate diversity with substantial challenges for national and individual identities. We will only make lasting progress by recognizing that we are different but interdependent. Thus, we have to cultivate a much greater feeling of regional and global togetherness.”

– Professor Klaus Schwab, World Economic Forum founder and chairman, in the article “The Great Transformation – Shaping New Models”

It’s not a crisis that will be resolved by one group of countries taking action. It’s going to be hopefully resolved by all countries, all regions, all categories of countries actually taking action.”

– Christine Lagarde, International Monetary Fund Chief, in a U.S. State Department conference.

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Waking Up – An Open Source Film

Waking Up – An Open Source Film

Woman: There are a lot of things I haven’t told you about our world, but we don’t use money anymore in this culture, on this planet.

Man: You don’t use money?

Woman: No

Man: So you could have anything you want?

Woman: Well, yes, but we don’t want more than we need. It works pretty much the same way as your old libraries used to work, except that we can keep whatever we want or need as long as we need it. Don’t worry. You’re going to love the future. We’re one big family on this planet now!

The above script is taken from the video below, which acts as a short film that may or may not appear in the final version of the movie Waking Up.

Watch Waking Up Forest Scene

Waking Up forest scene from Harald Sandø on Vimeo.

About Waking Up

Waking Up is a open source film about a positive future for humanity, for a change. The film is in the making by several people, and you can contribute to the writing of it on wakingupmovie.com. Visit the site for more info on this film.

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A Cultural Goal In The 21st Century: Building A Global Village [TED Talk]

We don’t want to be all the same, but we want to respect each other and understand each other.”

Sheikha Al Mayassa is chairperson of the Qatar Museums Authority. In this TED talk she focuses on her small Middle Eastern state of Qatar—and the new emphasis the nation is placing on redesigning their culture to resemble a global village.

We are changing our culture from within but at the same time we are reconnecting with our traditions… It’s important for us to grow organically. And we continuously make the conscious decision to reach that balance.”

Global & Local

And this is what the leaders of this region are trying to do. We’re trying to be part of this global village, but at the same time we’re revising ourselves through our cultural institutions and cultural development.”

Towards A Global Village

Now over and over again, people have said, ‘Let’s build bridges,’ and frankly, I want to do more than that. I would like to break the walls of ignorance between East and West… Culture’s a very important tool to bring people together. We should not underestimate it.

This is a very interesting journey. I welcome you on board for us to engage and discuss new ideas of how to bring people together through cultural initiatives and discussions. Familiarity destroys and trumps fear. Try it.”

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Be Careful With What You Think, Do & Say – Biologist Rupert Sheldrake Explains Social Influence & Interdependence Through Morphic Resonance

What you do, what you say and what you think can influence other people by morphic resonance. So we’re more responsible for our actions, words and thoughts on this principle than we would otherwise be. There is no immoral filter in morphic resonance, which means that we have to be more careful about what we are thinking if we are concerned about the affect we have on others.”

British biologist Rupert Sheldrake, author of over 80 scientific papers and books, the most recent being The Science Delusion: Freeing the Spirit of Enquiry

What Is Morphic Resonance?

Morphic resonance is a memory principle in nature. Anything similar in a self-organizing system will be influenced by anything that has happened in the past, and anything in the future that happens in a similar system will be influenced by what happens now. So it is a memory in nature based on similarity, and it applies to atoms, molecules, crystals, living organisms, animals, plants, brains, societies, and indeed, planets and galaxies. So it is a principle of memory and habit in nature.”

 

Interconnectedness Of People & Nature Explained Through Morphic Resonance

An important aspect of morphic resonance is that we’re interconnected with other members of social groups. Social groups also have morphic fields, for example a flock of birds, or a school of fish, or an ant colony. The individuals within the larger social groups and the larger social groups themselves have their own morphic fields, their own organizing patterns. The same is true of humans.

People form all sorts of social groups within modern society, such as a football team, for example. Each player in the team is working as part of a larger whole — the team — and the team works together to score goals. The connections between members of social groups link them together through the morphic field. They’re interconnected through this field and the field is an invisible interconnection that links them. It continues to do so even when they’re far away.

The next time you are far away from somebody you know well, think about them and form the intention to telephone them. They may just pick up on that thought and start thinking about you. Then all of a sudden the phone rings and it’s that person. I call that telephone telepathy, and it is the most common kind of telepathy in the modern world. It’s just another way in which we are all interconnected.”

The More People That Learn Something, The Easier It Becomes

If somebody learns a new skill, say windsurfing, then the more people that learn it, the easier it becomes for everyone else because of morphic resonance. However, if you train rats to learn a new trick in one place, like Los Angeles, then rats all over the world should be able to learn the trick more quickly because the first group of rats learned it.

That’s what I’m saying morphic resonance does. It’s the kind of interconnection between all similar organisms across space and time. It works from the past and connects like a kind of collective memory, and it interconnects all the members of a species.”

Watch Dr. Rupert Sheldrake Discussing Morphic Resonance

Further Reading:

Images: [1] Drops and Ripples by Pictoscribe. [2] The Puzzle of Life by Pictoscribe. [3] Kermit by Pictoscribe. [4] The Erosion of a Log by Pictoscribe

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We Are All Connected – Carl Sagan, Richard Feynman, Neil deGrasse Tyson & Bill Nye ‘Symphony Of Science’ Song

We Are All Connected, a song made up of sampling scientists’ quotes on the interconnectedness of the person, humanity, nature and the universe, is part of the Symphony of Science musical project of John D Boswell, a project that aims to raise awareness of scientific and philosophical knowledge in musical form.

 

Watch ‘We Are All Connected’

 

Lyrics Of ‘We Are All Connected’

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]
We are all connected;
To each other, biologically
To the earth, chemically
To the rest of the universe atomically

[Richard Feynman]
I think nature’s imagination
Is so much greater than man’s
She’s never going to let us relax

[Carl Sagan]
We live in an in-between universe
Where things change all right
But according to patterns, rules,
Or as we call them, laws of nature

[Bill Nye]
I’m this guy standing on a planet
Really I’m just a speck
Compared with a star, the planet is just another speck
To think about all of this
To think about the vast emptiness of space
There’s billions and billions of stars
Billions and billions of specks

[Carl Sagan]
The beauty of a living thing is not the atoms that go into it
But the way those atoms are put together
The cosmos is also within us
We’re made of star stuff
We are a way for the cosmos to know itself

Across the sea of space
The stars are other suns
We have traveled this way before
And there is much to be learned

I find it elevating and exhilarating
To discover that we live in a universe
Which permits the evolution of molecular machines
As intricate and subtle as we

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]
I know that the molecules in my body are traceable
To phenomena in the cosmos
That makes me want to grab people in the street
And say, have you heard this??

(Richard Feynman on hand drums and chanting)

[Richard Feynman]
There’s this tremendous mess
Of waves all over in space
Which is the light bouncing around the room
And going from one thing to the other

And it’s all really there
But you gotta stop and think about it
About the complexity to really get the pleasure
And it’s all really there
The inconceivable nature of nature

 

The Neil deGrasse Tyson ‘We Are All Connected’ Quote In Full

Neil deGrasse Tyson

Recognize that the very molecules that make up your body, the atoms that construct the molecules, are traceable to the crucibles that were once the centers of high mass stars that exploded their chemically rich guts into the galaxy, enriching pristine gas clouds with the chemistry of life. So that we are all connected to each other biologically, to the earth chemically and to the rest of the universe atomically. That’s kinda cool! That makes me smile and I actually feel quite large at the end of that. It’s not that we are better than the universe, we are part of the universe. We are in the universe and the universe is in us.”

 

Watch Neil deGrasse Tyson Pumping Out The ‘We Are All Connected’ Quote

 

Image at top: A More Glorious Dawn by garlandcannon ©

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Big Love. Big Hearts. A Plan For The Creation Of One Global Extended Family

Big Love. Big Hearts. A Plan For The Creation Of One Global Extended Family

Big Love. Big Hearts. A Plan For The Creation Of One Global Extended Family

With the current globalization of our problems, we need to extend our circle of empathy and view humanity as a worldwide extended human family. As long as we refrain from facing that challenge, divisiveness and unsolvable conflicts will persist.”

Professor Rodrigue Tremblay is an author and Emeritus professor of economics at Université de Montréal. In addition to his writings on economics, he has also written extensively on the subject of ethics; and most recently, on the urgent need for a new level of universal ethics, morality, and empathy to be developed and maintained in the world.

The Super Golden Rule

[In a more universal civilization], first and foremost, the scope of human empathy would be more universal and more comprehensive, and would not merely apply to some chosen people, to members of a particular religion or to persons belonging to a particular civilization. In practice, this would require that we establish a higher threshold of human morality, beyond the traditional norm of the Golden Rule (‘Treat others as you would have others treat you.’)

It would require that we adopt what I call a Super Golden Rule of humanist morality that incorporates the humanist rule of empathy: ‘Not only do to others as you would have them do to you, but also, do to others what you would wish to be done to you, if you were in their place.’ — Of course, the corollary also follows: ‘Don’t do to others what you would not like to be done to you, if you were in their place.’”

 Three Interrelated Moral Imperatives

Three interrelated moral imperatives that have always been sound moral values, but which I feel will become increasingly required for humanity to go forward and survive. And I refer to:

  1. More human EMPATHY.
  2. More interpersonal TOLERANCE.
  3. More interpersonal SHARING (altruism and generosity) as a foundation for a more harmonious, for a freer and for a more prosperous world.”

 The Empathy Principle

According to the empathy principle, one must aim at treating others as if one were in their place, and not necessarily expecting reciprocity as is the case in the traditional Golden rule of morality that one finds in virtually all moral systems (‘Do to others as you would have them do to you’).

The empathy principle can thus be framed this way: “Do to others what you would wish to be done to you, if you were in their place.

That is why I say that empathy can be the solid foundation of a more civilized global society based on the solidarity of all human beings. It is the awareness that other people can suffer, be happy and flourish just as one does, and that one should treat others accordingly.”

 Ten Commandments For A Global Humanism

Lastly, here is Tremblay’s ten commandments for the creation of global humanism, a foundation for the building of a global extended family:

  1. Proclaim the natural dignity and inherent worth of all human beings.
  2. Respect the life and property of others.
  3. Practice tolerance and open-mindedness towards the choices and life styles of others.
  4.  Share with those who are less fortunate and mutually assist those who are in need of help.
  5. Use neither lies, nor spiritual doctrine, nor temporal power to dominate and exploit others.
  6. Rely on reason, logic and science to understand the Universe and to solve life’s problems.
  7. Conserve and improve the Earth’s natural environment—land, soil, water, air and space—as humankind’s common heritage.
  8. Resolve differences and conflicts cooperatively without resorting to violence or to wars.
  9. Organize public affairs according to individual freedom and responsibility, through political and economic democracy.
  10. Develop one’s intelligence and talents through education and effort.

Here is Professor Tremblay speaking further on the necessity for the development of universal global ethics:

[seeing as the video is an extended interview, many topics are covered throughout—fast-forward-to (20min. 53seconds) for content of the Professor speaking specifically on the topic of global humanism]

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/4404833

Quotes of Professor Tremblay courtesy of The Code for Global Ethics, and his blog.

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Forced Positive Thinking Doesn’t Solve Problems [RSA Video]

Forced Positive Thinking Doesn't Solve Problems [RSA Video]

My very radical suggestion is realism where we try to figure out what is actually happening in the world, and see what we can do about those parts of it that are threatening or hurtful.”

Barbara Ehrenreich, journalist, author and political activist

began to see a pattern and found it in more and more aspects of American life: this mandatory optimism and cheerfulness.”

 

Ignoring Problems Doesn’t Solve Them

One area where it is strongly concentrated now and has been for some time now is the corporate world.

The biggest evidence is the financial meltdown of 2007. People who tried to raise problems would be shut up or fired:

  • You couldn’t be inside Countrywide Mortgage Company and say ‘I’m worried about our sub-prime mortgage exposure’ or you’d be out.
  • People within Lehman Brothers who tried to point out that the housing prices could not last forever were fired. It was willful ignorance.”

 

To Solve Problems, They Need To Be Raised & Worked On

We are hard-wired to be vigilant…and on guard, that is how our ancestors survived, not by saying everything’s probably okay.

My very radical suggestion is realism where we try to figure out what is actually happening in the world, and see what we can do about those parts of it that are threatening or hurtful.”

 

Watch ‘Smile Or Die’ With Barbara Ehrenrich

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Revising The Formula For Happiness And Success [TED Talk]

What we’re finding is it’s not necessarily the reality that shapes us, but the lens through which your brain views the world that shapes your reality. And if we can change the lens, not only can we change your happiness, we can change every single educational and business outcome at the same time.”

Shawn Achor, author of The Happiness Advantage, founder of Good Think Inc. and frequently on-demand speaker for a variety of audiences, discusses problems with the workplace’s current formula for happiness and success, proposes a new formula based on his research and some techniques for its implementation.

 

The Current Formula For Happiness & Success Is Broken

If I work harder, I’ll be more successful. And if I’m more successful, then I’ll be happier. That undergirds most of our parenting styles, our managing styles, the way that we motivate our behavior.”

What’s The Problem With This Formula?

First, every time your brain has a success, you just changed the goalpost of what success looked like. You got good grades, now you have to get better grades, you got into a good school and after you get into a better school, you got a good job, now you have to get a better job, you hit your sales target, we’re going to change your sales target. And if happiness is on the opposite side of success, your brain never gets there. What we’ve done is we’ve pushed happiness over the cognitive horizon as a society. And that’s because we think we have to be successful, then we’ll be happier…”

 

“But the real problem is our brains work in the opposite order.”

If you can raise somebody’s level of positivity in the present, then their brain experiences what we now call a happiness advantage, which is your brain at positive performs significantly better than it does at negative, neutral or stressed. Your intelligence rises, your creativity rises, your energy levels rise.

In fact, what we’ve found is that every single business outcome improves. Your brain at positive is 31 percent more productive than your brain at negative, neutral or stressed. You’re 37 percent better at sales. Doctors are 19 percent faster, more accurate at coming up with the correct diagnosis when positive instead of negative, neutral or stressed. Which means we can reverse the formula. If we can find a way of becoming positive in the present, then our brains work even more successfully as we’re able to work harder, faster and more intelligently.

What we need to be able to do is to reverse this formula so we can start to see what our brains are actually capable of. Because dopamine, which floods into your system when you’re positive, has two functions. Not only does it make you happier, it turns on all of the learning centers in your brain allowing you to adapt to the world in a different way.”

 

The Solution – Train Your Brain By Creating New Positivity-Inducing Habits

We’ve found that there are ways that you can train your brain to be able to become more positive. In just a two-minute span of time done for 21 days in a row, we can actually rewire your brain, allowing your brain to actually work more optimistically and more successfully.

We’ve done these things in research now in every single company that I’ve worked with, getting them to write down three new things that they’re grateful for, for 21 days in a row, three new things each day. And at the end of that, their brain starts to retain a pattern of scanning the world, not for the negative, but for the positive first.”

By training your brain just like we train our bodies, what we’ve found is we can reverse the formula for happiness and success, and in doing so, not only create ripples of positivity, but create a real revolution.”

 

Watch The Happy Secret To Better Work TEDx Talk With Shawn Achor

Quotes from this post were taken from this video:

What Is The Happiness Advantage? By Shawn Achor

Images from this post were taken from this video:

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Bruce Lipton – The New Biology: Where Mind And Matter Meet

You are personally responsible for everything in your life once you become aware that you are personally responsible for everything in your life.”

– Bruce Lipton, Ph.D.

Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVECAlT4AXY

Part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zcg_ldoU40c

Related Materials:

Bruce Lipton’s complete library of DVD’s and video is available through:
Spirit 2000, Inc.
1 (800) 550-5571

Visit:

Write:
Spirit 2000, Inc.
P.O. Box 41126
Memphis, TN
38174-1126