Quotes and Excerpts
Willis W. Harman
Former President, Institute for
Noetic Sciences
International Spirit at Work Award
:
'"A re-spiritualization of society is taking place, but one more experiential and non-institutionalized, less fundamentalist and sacerdotal, than most of the historically familiar forms of religion. Such a change in the basic picture of reality must inevitably be accompanied by a long-term shift in value emphases and priorities. As a result all institutions can be expected to go through major changes, including particularly the industrial, economic and financial ones.' - Willis Harman...
"
This award was inspired by the work of
Willis Harman, PhD (1919-1997) who was a visionary thinker, futurist and social scientist who continuously articulated the possibility for humankind to transcend the limits of out-moded thinking. He was the author of several books including
Creative Work: The Constructive Role of Business in a Transforming Society (with John Hormann),
An Incomplete Guide to the Future, and Global Mind Change. He was co-editor of
The New Business of Business: Sharing Responsibility for a Positive Global Future (with Maya Porter). He was also
co-founder of the World Business Academy (1988), president of Institute of Noetic Sciences from 1973 until late 1996, a social scientist and futurist with SRI International
in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and a professor at Stanford University prior to these other affiliations. This award honors organizations who are living examples of Willis Harman’s vision that business will play a major role in
transforming social consciousness."
Willis Harman
Biography:
"...I
taught engineering systems at Stanford University for a good many years and
then I became a futurist at Stanford Research Institute for 16 years and
then I was invited to come up to the Institute for Noetic Sciences,
and I have been here since 1977....
"...I had a series of
experiences that resulted in concluding that we only seem to be separate
in one level but that
we are all
connected and all part of the whole. We can learn some things about that
whole by looking outward and we learn quite a different sort of thing by
looking inward.... When you look inward, it seems to me
that the universal conclusion is that we are here to discover, to learn and
to act in the service of that whole.
"When we die there is as great a diversity of experience as there is when we
are living.... Of course
where this all seems to end is that the farther you go the more
you realize you are the whole."
A Changing worldview:
"This emerging
trans-modern worldview, involves a shift in the
locus of authority from external to 'inner knowing.' It has basically turned
away from the older scientific view... and trusts perceptions of the wholeness and
spiritual aspect
of organisms, ecosystems, Gaia and Cosmos. This implies a spiritual reality,
and ultimate trust in the authority of the whole. It amounts to a
reconciliation of scientific inquiry with the "perennial
wisdom" at the core of the world's spiritual traditions. It
continues to involve a confidence in scientific inquiry, but an inquiry
whose metaphysical base has shifted... to a more holistic and
transcendental metaphysical foundation....
"The core of the current challenge to the scientific
worldview can be taken to be 'consciousness,' which has come to be a
code word for a wide range of human experience, including conscious
awareness or subjectivity, intentionality, selective attention, intuition,
creativity, relationship of mind to healing, spiritual sensibility, and a
range of anomalous experience and phenomena....
"...we must realize that
thoughts are not merely a reflection on reality, but are also a movement of
that reality itself. The mapmaker, the self, the thinking
and knowing subject, is actually a product and a performance of that which
it seeks to know and represent....
"The epistemology we seek will
recognize the
partial
nature of all scientific concepts of causality.... In some
ultimate sense, there really is no causality - only a Whole evolving....
"In his Introduction to Metaphysics the
eminent French philosopher Henri Bergson said of the 'much-desired union of
science and metaphysics' that it would 'lead the positive sciences, properly
so-called, to become conscious of their true scope, often far greater than
they imagine.'"
Willis Harman -- Global Mind Change:
"To the empowering principle that the people can withhold legitimacy, and thus change the world, we now add another: By deliberately changing the internal image of reality, people can change the world. Perhaps the only limits to the human mind are those we believe in."
"In a
Washington Post article titled "Experts Say Too Much is Read Into
Illiteracy Crisis," Willis Harman and Thomas Sticht (Senior Scientist,
Applied Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences, Inc., San Diego and a member of
SCANS: Secretary's Commission
on Achieving Necessary Skills) explain that
"Many companies have
moved operations to places with cheap, relatively poorly educated labor. What
may be crucial, they say, is the dependability of a labor force and how well it
can be managed and trained -- not its general educational level, although a
small cadre of highly educated creative people are essential to innovation and
growth. Ending discrimination and changing values are probably more important
than reading in moving low income families into the middle class."
Thomas Sticht and Willis Harman, "Experts Say
Too Much is Read Int Illeteracy Cristis," The
Washington Post, August 17, 1987.
"Global Consciousness Change:
Indicators of an Emerging Paradigm"
by Duane Elgin.
As the world's senior scientists have warned, the industrial era paradigm is now generating far more problems than it is solving. The only way the human family can understand and solve these problems is by shifting to a larger paradigm that includes the entire Earth as a living system. Such a transformation seems to be underway. Peter Drucker, the well-known management expert, is just one observer who believes that the western world is undergoing a paradigm change:
"Every few hundred years in Western history there occurs a sharp transformation. Within a few short decades, society -- its world view, its basic values, its social and political structures, its arts, its key institutions -- rearranges itself. And the people born then cannot even imagine a world in which their grandparents lived and into which their own parents were born. We are currently living through such a transformation."
"
As pervasive as the communications revolution is, it seems to be taking place within a larger and deeper revolution in consciousness and culture. We are living in a time of paradigm shift. What should we call the emerging paradigm? In this report, we are calling it the "reflective/ living-systems" paradigm or perspective. This name incorporates the two primary features of this perspective.
The first is our growing capacity for self-reflection. ...A second
hallmark of the new consciousness is its 'whole-systems' or 'living-systems' view.
"
...in the emerging perspective, seemingly empty space is not empty, but filled with immense amounts of energy. Our cosmos is seen as a
living, unified system. This new paradigm moves from a view of separation and isolation to one of
profound wholeness and interconnection. At a fundamental level, people are viewed not as separate beings, but as intimately involved with one another in the deep web of life.
If everything is intimately interconnected, then the quality and integrity of all kinds of relationships are of paramount concern. A natural expression of this paradigm is to
bring into balance all the key relationships in our lives -- inner and outer, masculine and feminine, personal and global, intuitive and rational, and more. This perspective tends to
bridge differences, connect people, celebrate diversity, harmonize efforts, and look for higher common ground. A reflective/living-systems orientation brings a unifying approach and offers hope in a world facing deep material, social, and spiritual fragmentation."
A look at the 9/11 Truth Statement signers:
"Paul H. Ray, Ph.D., sociologist, author, The Cultural Creatives. Proponent of Systems Philosophy. His book is a somewhat modernized and toned-down version of the elitist New Age
'change agent' social vanguardism found in earlier works like
Marilyn Ferguson's
Aquarian Conspiracy, which in turn was based on ideas like the 'Open Conspiracy' of Fabian Society globalist H.G. Wells, and more especially, the
semi-secret 1974 report from Stanford Research Institute co-authored by Willis Harman, Duane Elgin (Club of Rome), Joseph Campbell, et. al., the notorious 'Changing Images of Man'.
One of SRI's main funding sources is Bechtel (as in, George Shultz's Bechtel).
...
"
Global Business Network
(GBN) is a consulting think-tank formed by veterans of Stanford Research Institute and Royal Dutch Shell. Exemplary of the
'California Ideology', they offer corporate management consulting based on the usual cybernetics systems theory background....
[Paul] Hawken's 'Natural Capitalism' is based partially on the the work of corporate management
'transformation' guru and systems theorist Peter Drucker, who was an early leader in establishing group dynamics methodologies like
Total Quality Management (derived from Tavistock 'T-groups')."
What Can Aspiring Leaders Be Taught?
"The time is NOW. If family, society, K-16 and life haven't brought MBAs to a sufficient level of humanity, decency, maturity, understanding, and wisdom, then business schools need to take on this mission. Why us? Because
Willis Harman and Peter Drucker tell us that this 21st century will see the global business community as the leading edge of massive change around the globe. Like it or not, products, sneakers, computers, services, advertising, and cars move around the earth with
'attachments.' These 'attachments' include values, ethics, cultural characteristics, definitions of the
'good life.' We need business leaders who understand that every decision made has the potential to engender or endanger the planet's survival/progress.
"'Every few hundred years in Western history there occurs a sharp transformation. Within a few short decades, society - its worldview, its basic values, its social and political structures, its art, its key institutions -
rearranges itself. We are currently living through such a time." - Peter Drucker...
“The best way to determine the future is to create it” – Peter Drucker
Transformational Leadership and
General Systems Theory:
"Let’s see…'vision' and 'purpose'…Where have we heard those terms before? No, well it must be a coincidence. Right? Surely conservative Evangelicals would never adopt the methodologies and terminologies of those who are adepts in the occult sciences and
'black arts.'…Or would they? ...
"
Spiritual Politics, written in 1994 is endorsed inside the cover by well-known occultists David Spangler and
Willis Harman with the forward written by the Dalai Lama. This book is heralded on its cover as
'cutting edge stuff that takes up where The Aquarian Conspiracy left off.” The concepts are consistently promoting
'a new paradigm,' a 'new world order,' and communitarian principles.
"Additionally, and most importantly for the purposes of this discussion, this book describes its so called
'transformational leadership' in the same terms as do Senge, Hybels, Stanley, Buford, Maxwell, and
Warren! Is this more mere coincidence? With the possible coincidences previously discussed in this manuscript, how many coincidences can one tolerate before this series of events evolves into something
closer to conspiracy than coincidence? When once then introduces organizations like the Lucis Trust, the Fabian Socialists, or even the United Nations into the discussion---Where will this trail of
'coincidences' lead?"
Global Mind Change--Deeper
Causes: Exploring the Role of Consciousness in Terrorism (John Mack,
Noetic Institute, founder of the Center for Psychology & Social Change)
:
"Toward A Consciousness Of Interconnection.
It is no longer just Buddhist monks or other holy people and religious leaders who are undertaking the practices that
create a consciousness of interconnection. A great shift in consciousness is taking place, even as the threat of annihilation grows around us. In the United States and throughout the world, a
vast and growing movement to return to ancient traditions is arising, creating new forms of
psychospiritual practice that can bring about the extension of empathy and the possibilities of knowledge beyond ourselves, the kind of knowledge of which Thich Nhat Hanh and his students write.
"This is taking place in several ways. For instance:
* the revitalization of established religions, enabling them to be more relevant to the challenges of our time;
* the recognition that strong intuitive powers,
sometimes crudely called 'psychic' abilities, are, at root, not psychopathological as they have sometimes been regarded in the mental health professions, but, if used appropriately, shortened avenues to transformation....
"Humanity seems to be at a turning point. We are experiencing a kind of race to the future between the forces of destruction and creation. The preservation of our lives and possibilities will come not from the strategies of terrorists, nor from the bombs of the self-righteous. This can happen only through a
great awakening, a worldwide shift of consciousness that can
transcend the habits of dualism, and enable the citizens of the Earth to become a genuine family of people and peoples, in which each of us can come to feel a responsibility for the welfare of all. As
Gandhi once said, 'We must be the change.'"
The Scythe Network:
"Profile of Willis Harman:
The professional career of Willis Harman was nearly equally divided into three twenty-year periods. Beginning as a professor of electrical engineering and system analysis, he went on to become a senior social scientist with SRI International, a global-futurist think-tank
'helping clients in government and business do strategic planning over a very wide range of practical policy issues. My particular task was to help them think about the issues in the context of the future environment in which the consequences of their decisions would manifest.' From 1977 until his death in 1997 he worked with the Institute of Noetic Sciences whose mandate is
'expanding knowledge of the nature and potentials of the mind, and applying that knowledge to the advancement of health and well-being for humankind and the planet.'"
Gorbachev's Plan For A United
World:
Again and again, the Communist leader and his hand-picked
'council of
the wise' or 'global brain trust' (does that sound like "democracy" or
elitist tyranny?) told the assembly of more than 1000 guests and
participants that a new set of inclusive universal values must replace
the Judeo-Christian world view. 'The wisdom distilled by all faiths'
must determine the values needed to guide the world into the 21st
Century. That means that familiar terms must be redefined to fit the new
global perspective -- and the old beliefs and political systems must be
abandoned. Poverty and oppression must be eradicated, and a new kind of
equality must be established....
As in our new
schools, all earth-centered or universalist religions fit the global
model -- but Biblical monotheism (belief in the biblical God) is
despised! No wonder the religious leaders invited to address the Forum
taught pantheism (all is god since one cosmic force connects all
things), universalism (all paths lead to the same ultimate reality), and
monism (all is one) as its spiritual foundation. Among them were New Age
educator Willis Harman, Esalen co-founder Michael Murphy, the Rajiv
Gandhi Foundation Founder Sonia Gandhi, and the respective leaders of
Vietnamese, Mongolian, and Cambodian Buddhism. Their input during panel
discussion and roundtable sessions left no doubt that biblical
Christianity was marked for decay.
The absence of Christian leaders prompted
a member of the press to ask Gorbachev why Western religious leaders
were not represented at the conference. Showing his ignorance of
Christianity, the Communist leader answered that "Western religion is
represented by many of the leaders of the Forum."
You
might wonder whom he had in mind. Surely he didn't mean his co-chair Ted
Turner, astronomer Carl Sagan, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, Carnegie
Chairman David Hamburg, or Maurice Strong, the Canadian New Age chief of
the UN's 1992 environmental conference in Rio de Janeiro?
Attempting to help answer the question,
Zbigniew Brzezinski, former National Security Advisor to
President Carter, CFR (Council of Foreign Relations) member and former
director of the Trilateral Commission, spoke up. "I happen to know that
President Gorbachev is a very good friend of the Pope -- and I am too."
Did he think this input would satisfy the
need for Christian representation?
Apparently, Gorbachev and his "council of
wise" world leaders just don't understand. Looking at reality through
the utopian filter of the new global paradigm, they have no idea what
Christians believe nor the value of the liberty we treasure -- the
unique freedoms established by the God who made America great.
http://www.newswithviews.com/Cuddy/dennis15.htm:
"The New Freedom Initiative primarily proposes using expensive antidepressants
and antipsychotic drugs as treatment for those failing their mental health
screening.... Psychotherapy will also be available as a treatment tool, and in that
regard one might consider the words of Willis Harman in ALTERNATIVE EDUCATIONAL
FUTURES IN THE UNITED STATES AND IN EUROPE:
'It is not enough to be
intellectually aware that at this point in history, nationalism is a suicidal
course....Educational experiences must be contemplated which are akin to
psychotherapy...that result in a felt realization of the inevitability of one
inseparable world, and a felt shift in the most basic values and premises on
which one builds one's life."
"Harman and other globalists like him repeatedly have criticized what they call
outmoded, narrow nationalism. Harman was on the Board of Planetary Citizens (two goals of which are to
redesign education for global awareness, and to give
the U.N. the authority to act on behalf of the common will of humanity), was
founder of Futures Research Group at Stanford (University) ...he was a consultant to the National Goals Research Staff of the White House
some years ago.
"On the cover of Harman's book, GLOBAL MIND CHANGE: THE NEW AGE
REVOLUTION IN THE WAY WE THINK, one finds quoted from THE SAN FRANCISCO
CHRONICLE: "There never has been a more lucid interpretation of New Age
consciousness and what it promises for the future than the works of Willis
Harman."
The Higher Self Gets Down to Business:
"Visualizing the future, several businesspersons at a Manhattan hotel are acting out what the ideal corporate board meeting will look like in 2012.
'May all the decisions we make today be guided by values and by love,' the board chairman says.
'Let's meditate on it. Tune in to your intuition on all levels.'
...
"It's the Spirit in Business World Conference, where more than 500 businesspeople and assorted
'change agents' have come to help unleash each other's inner powers. They will spend three days spurring each other on to
positive thoughts at the Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers, a sanctuary from the grit and litter outside. Then they will go to the ends of the earth as part of a fledgling movement to transform the world.
"Yes, they're believers—in human potential. They believe in the power of enlightened business to imbue life with meaning. Many of them, especially their leaders, believe business will help
usher in a universal shift in consciousness.
"They mean many things by the term shift in consciousness, including the notion that businesspeople should
rely less on rational thought and more on intuitive 'inner wisdom.'
"[This Spirit in Business
conference] is one of a cluster of conference organizers unifying the disciples and doctrines of a constellation of
neopagan and panreligious philosophers, metaphysical futurists, and self-proclaimed gurus who recognize the power of business in today's society....
"The preferred term within the movement,
emerging mainstream, is telling. Into the mainstream, indeed, basic
New Age tenets are flowing through the culvert of business....
"Peter Senge, senior lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and author of the organizational theory classic The Fifth Discipline, addressed the conference. Historically, spirituality has been inseparable from religion, he said. Standing no more than 10 feet from the
multicultural altar of world religions, he went on to say that a solution awaits this
'profound problem—how we can disentangle the confines of religion from spirituality.'
...
"'What we think, what we
feel, actually matters,' Senge said. The point being: The elements are alive, in line with the Gaia hypothesis of Earth as a conscious organism.... Moreover, a conscious planet is all the more fit to be worshipped (if you're a neopagan) or to be one with the Universal All (if you're a New Ager)....
"In many ways, they are inadvertent
allies to building biblical values into the workplace. Some of the movement's key tenets—such as bringing the
'authentic' or 'whole' self to work...
have been stated in other terms by... mainstream management icon Peter Drucker....
"....The esoteric use of ordinary words like
self-actualization, intuition, and visualization in the New Business spirituality (see "Utopia or Kingdom Come?" p. 36) cannot be appreciated without considering their role in the cosmic scheme of
the movement's unofficial father: metaphysical futurist Willis Harman.
Harman, who died in 1997, founded the Institute of Noetic Sciences and helped start the World Business Academy.
Noetic comes from the Greek word for intuitive knowing. Intuition was... for Harman... the very means of
connecting to the one Universal Mind. Nor was visualization merely a
means of clarifying goals, but of altering material reality.
Both intuition and visualization were central in the evolution of consciousness that Harman envisioned."
Willis Harman,
former director of policy research at Stanford Research Institute and a
consultant to Fortune 5000 corporations, was a speaker at the 1979
Evangelical
Consultation
on the Future
sponsored by the Billy Graham Center.