Welcome to the SpiritDAO newsletter, a community-created weekly column about applying our philosophy and practice to everyday life.
This weeks contributors: Ron Rivers
I've been drowning in browser tabs and have had The five dimensions of Futures Consciousness on my radar for some time after stumbling onto it via Twitter. This 2018 article analyzes the need for established language to better empirically study and develop the theory and some presently established frameworks of thinking about the concept. It also provides a context for framing future consciousness. Self-Actualization in the Age of Crisis develops an actionable framework for these requirements and will elaborate on why.
"Futures Consciousness consists of the following five dimensions: Time perspective, which allows the understanding of the past, present and future as well as the value of long-term thinking; Agency beliefs, which depicts one's trust in their ability to influence future events; Openness to alternatives, which enables critical questioning of established truths and seeing the possibilities that changes may bring about; Systems perception, which helps to see the interconnectedness between human and natural systems as well as the complex consequences of decisions; and finally, Concern for others, which makes one strive for a better world for everyone."
The embrace of inhabiting a relational universe governed by the single truth provides context for each dimension outlined in the article.
Time Perspective
Physics and cosmology have provided a nature-rooted authority from which we can reconceptualize our experience of being time through the reimagination of the core values we leverage to guide our personal philosophies and systemic organization. Our inhabiting an observable material infinity frames time as the experience of being the totality of the moment, providing the necessary context to free us from a past we had no say in choosing. We seek to align the two observable infinities to exercise our divinity in the moment, imagination, and creation, materializing into the direction of focus and energy within the immediate present.
Agency Beliefs
Self-actualization in alignment with a relational universe governed by the single truth seeks to maximize individual access and agency within the moment. Our embrace of the core values of relation, enthusiasm, and courage represent our acknowledgment of being both within and of an infinite universe, providing a framework of action aligned with nature and individually empowering. We reject paradise after death in favor of divinity within life to become more godlike through openness to what is rather than what history would like us to believe. Most importantly, individuals embracing the philosophies and practices feel restlessness, understanding that we cannot realize our vision of the good without a systemic project to elevate the agency of others. Through the empowerment of the collective, the individual becomes most powerful.
Openness to Alternatives
In Doubt, Desire, Death, and Dogmas, we explore why we reject the past's influence on the present. Today each of us inherits a long history of event chains via our birth lottery, which plays a significant role in determining the trajectory of agency we will develop throughout our lives. Self-actualization in alignment with the single truth and relational universe rejects our history of giving our creations power over us, understanding fully that they can never adequately embody us. We encode self-revision into our philosophy (the single truth is subject to itself!) and the systems we surround ourselves with. We intend to break free from the paradigm of static ideals and the preservation of the status quo baked into our institutions in favor of a more frequent and supported culture of challenge and change.
Systems perception
As a non-religion religion, self-actualization in alignment with the single truth and relational universe redefines "self" to more accurately represent the relationship between an individual and their circumstances within a given moment. We pursue self-actualization through the combination of individual actualization ("I") and systemic actualization ("we"). This foundation supports a reconceptualization as it relates to developing our creations and their roles within organized society. The Eight Dignities lay the groundwork for systemic rights unbound to any state or nation that root wealth in humanity's collective progress. It is a rejection of the present dynastic methods of transferring access and agency and a recognition of the divinity of the child who, through no fault of their own, enters a circumstance that progressively accelerates or limits their capacity to individually actualize. By expanding our systems perception, we develop a clear trajectory for freeing the latent imagination trapped in today's world.
Concern for others
Our struggle in the immediate present is how to transcend a zeitgeist that prioritizes the commodification and extraction of individuals over recognizing their inherent divinity. Much of this is rooted in the dominant spiritual technologies, especially the salvation religions, which each openly further the benefits of an ingroup at the expense of large swaths of outsiders. We seek to proliferate new frameworks of meaning and value that more greatly embrace our wholeness with the relational universe and others as a part of ourselves. Our core values of relation, equity, and restraint provide a clear context for elevating how we value others—imbuing an understanding of the shared totality we inhabit and dismissing historical dogmas about our rabid separation from the whole. Self-actualization in alignment with the single truth and relational universe is, at its core, an act of radical love that reimagines the human experience as it should be in rejection of embracing the past of least resistance—what is.
"Being conscious of what is possible, probable, and desirable in the future."
Every day I stumble upon more information about the more prominent emergence within our immediate present. Science and mythology synthesize into a broader understanding of what is so that we might reject the dominion of what was. Our efforts at SpiritDAO are to spread this expansive vision of the possible and build community around it. In doing so, we best equip ourselves to realize the systemic components of our spiritual purpose and mission. Self-actualization in alignment with the single truth and relational universe provides the most comprehensive framework for furthering future consciousness.
Analysis based on: Ahvenharju, S., Futures (2018), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2018.06.010
Bookstore and Library Outreach
Last week I leveraged GPT-4 and Auto-GPT to create a Yelp web scraper to locate bookstores and libraries within a 22 mile radius of my home. SpiritDAO members and supporters can help further our purpose and mission by connecting with libraries and local book centers to ask them to stock a physical copy of Self-Actualization in the Age of Crisis. The scraper provides an easy to use tool if you're willing and able to go the extra mile!
It's especially easy to contact your local library and request they carry the book!
Speaking of the book, have you left an Amazon review? If not, please do!
Thank you for reading!
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