Russell Brand’s Fantasy of a Socialist Egalitarian Utopia – Red Ice Commentary

RSA Spirituality

My review on the RSA talk called Beyond Belief: Taking Spirituality Seriously.

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My blog is with regular news updates and inspiring content. https://broadeningyourhorizons.wordpress.com/

Artwork a collage edited by myself
With artwork by Alex Grey  (Adam and Eve)
and by digitalreflexion
http://digitalreflexion.deviantart.com/art/Metaphysical-151887821

3-D Printed Guns in UK: British Police Move On 3-D Printing of ‘Gun Parts’

October 27, 2013 By 21wire Leave a Comment

21st Century Wire says…

The state will use intimidation and force, in order to preserve corporate cartel market price-fixing and control of the supply chain. 

British authorities have raided a workshop, for allegedly ‘printing illegal gun parts’. Police believe that that the basis of their raid in Manchester, England, was that:

“Police believe the parts represent the “next generation” of firearms, which can be created by gangsters in the privacy of their own homes and smuggled with ease due to the fact they can avoid X-ray detection.

Police found what is suspected to be a 3D plastic magazine and trigger which could be fitted together to make a working gun.”

3-D printers are still in their infancy, but they pose a threat to corporate hegemony, so it’s expected that both US and UK authorities will seek to make this new technology heavily regulated and licensed, if not illegal. Their main point of attack on the technology will be the ability to make a gun or extended magazine with a 3-D printer. 

Making guns for personal use has been legal for decades, but doing so has required machining know-how and a variety of parts. You can make a crude shotgun, or a deadly sling shot with materials available in most garden sheds. With 3-D printers, users download blueprints from the Internet, feed them into the machine, and make the parts they need. 

The Washington Post reported earlier this year on the impact of this new technology for the better of humanity:

“Restrictions are difficult to enforce in a world where anybody can make anything,” said Hod Lipson, a 3-D printing expert at Cornell University and co-author of the new book, “Fabricated: The New World of 3D Printing.” “Talking about old-fashioned control will be very ineffective.”

21WIRE reported on the man who tested the forst 3-D printed gun, Cody Wilson (photo, above), founder of Defense Distributed back in May 2013, as well is information you can go to now to see how to create your own 3-D printed item.

RT reports…

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Lock, stock and a smoking printer? UK police seize ‘3D-printed gun parts’

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A handout picture taken on October 24, 2013 and released by Greater Manchester Police on October 25, 2013 shows a 3D printer seized by British police during an operation that also resulted in the seizure of plastic 3D components that police believe could be used to make a viable 3D-printed gun in the Baguley area of Manchester, northwest England on October 24, 2013. (AFP Photo)

British police say they’ve seized a 3D printer and 3D-printed gun components, including a trigger and a magazine capable of holding bullets, during a raid in Manchester. Critics, however, say they found nothing more than spare printer parts.

The alleged gun parts were discovered, along with the 3D printer, when officers from the Greater Manchester Police force carried out a search Thursday in the Baguley area of Wythenshawe, in the south of Manchester. 

If the parts prove to be legitimate, the bust would represent the first-ever seizure of the next-generation weapon, which can be constructed by a 3D printer almost entirely out of plastic – creating the possibility of evading detection by airport security metal detectors. 

The components are now being forensically examined by firearms specialists to establish if they could be used to construct a functional device. 

A man has been arrested on suspicion of making gunpowder and is currently in custody for questioning. 

Police fear such weapons can be created by criminals in the privacy of their own homes, thus evading detection by security scanners at airports and other high-risk targets. 

“If what we have seized is proven to be viable, components capable of constructing a genuine firearm, then it demonstrates that organized crime groups are acquiring technology that can be bought on the high street to produce the next generation of weapons,” Greater Manchester Detective Inspector Chris Mossop told Sky News. 

“In theory, the technology essentially allows offenders to produce their own guns in the privacy of their own home, which they can then supply to the criminal gangs who are causing such misery in our communities,” he said. “Because they are also plastic and can avoid X-ray detection, it makes them easy to conceal and smuggle. These could be the next generation of firearms.” 

A commenter on the California tech-blog GigaOM noted, however, that the parts being paraded in the media “are actually spare parts for a 3D printer,” and not components for a weapon. 

“If the police thinks that the part on the photo is a trigger, just search mk8 on thingiverse.com and you will see that it’s a upgrade part for a printer. I really don’t get this media/police fascination relating to 3d printers with guns… it’s a tool to make 3d parts, not guns,” user nuno gato wrote. 

A handout picture taken on October 24, 2013 and released by Greater Manchester Police on October 25, 2013 shows a plastic component that British police suspect to be a trigger that could be used to make a viable 3D-printed gun, seized by police during searches as part of an operation in the Baguley area of Manchester, northwest England on October 24, 2013. (AFP Photo)

Hours later, New Scientist came to the same conclusion, noting the “trigger” identified by police appears to be part of a MakerBot 3D printer designed to extrude 3D-printing plastic to make an object. The “clip,” incidentally, looks like a part intended to hold spools of plastic. 

“It does look like the MakerBot part,” Stuart Offer, of 3D-printing firm 3T RPD in the UK city of Newbury, told the magazine. “These 3D printed guns seem to have hit the headlines, but I’ve no idea why they take off so much,” he said, noting that homemade weapons were not that difficult to manufacture. ”A little engineer in his shed with a mill down the bottom of the garden could make a proper metal barrel capable of firing a high-velocity bullet.” 

A handout picture taken on October 24, 2013 and released by Greater Manchester Police on October 25, 2013 shows a plastic component that British police suspect to be a magazine that could be used to make a viable 3D-printed gun, seized by police during searches as part of an operation in the Baguley area of Manchester, northwest England on October 24, 2013. (AFP Photo)

3D printed weapons first came to the attention of law enforcement officials worldwide after Defense Distributed announced it had successfully test-fired a handgun created with a 3D printer. 

In May, the organization, founded by a 25-year-old crypto-anarchist Cody Wilson, posted blueprints for the single-shot .380-caliber Liberator online. 

The files were downloaded more than 100,000 times in just two days before the US State Department demanded that they be removed. Britain was the No. 5 downloader of the plans upon publication, with Germany, Brazil, the United States and Spain filling out the top four positions. 

A working version of the Liberator went on display in September in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. 

The only non-plastic part of the Liberator is a tiny nail that acts as the firing pin, as well as a .380 cartridge it fires. Wilson is reportedly working on fabricating plastic bullets, a move that would make it nearly undetectable at security screenings.  3D-printed firearms can also be manufactured without serial numbers or unique identifiers, tripping up ballistics testing. 

Anyone with a sufficiently sophisticated 3D printer, which can be bought for $1,725 or even less, can make such weapons. 

After users download designs for guns or components, the printers themselves ejects molten plastic to produce 3D shapes of whatever design has been downloaded. 

An actual 3D gun can be made for as little as $25, according to a report by Forbes magazine. 

Police agencies in Germany, Austria and Australia (http://rt.com/news/3d-gun-australia-police-758/) have been testing 3D weapons to get a better sense of their efficacy. Preliminary tests indicate a strong likelihood users could maim or kill themselves instead of the intended target, however, though the guns are expected to become increasingly sophisticated as technologies advance. 

“In Germany and in most European countries, the possession of an unregistered weapon, even if it is manufactured at home, is illegal and punishable by law,” Michael Brzoska, a security expert and director of the Institute for Peace Research and Security Studies at the University of Hamburg, recently told the New York Times. “But the temptation to try, if it’s technically possible, is a great one.” 

While it is currently legal for a person to manufacture a firearm for personal use in the US, the production of weapons using 3D printers is already banned by a European Union directive to member countries.

The UK imposed a ban on handguns after the 1996 Dunblane Primary School massacre, when a gunman shot 16 children and one adult before committing suicide. 

So far, there are no reported violence crimes committed with 3D printed weapons.

Max Keiser – Crowdfunding George Galloway | London Real

BBC News – Manchester United apologises over ‘swastika’ logo

Manchester United apologises over ‘swastika’ logo

Manchester United said any offence was “entirely unintended”

Manchester United has apologised after a ‘swastika-style’ logo was sent out to fans in a newsletter alongside the Nazi affiliated title “New Order”.

The similarities between the logo, which spelt out the letters MUFC, and the Nazi symbol were pointed out after United Uncovered was issued via email.

Manchester United said any offence caused was “entirely unintended”.

It said the title related to the band New Order, and that the feature was about the club’s young players.

The statement, which was emailed to fans, said: “In this week’s United Uncovered email newsletter, a graphic spelling the letters MUFC ran alongside a feature about Manchester United’s younger squad members entitled New Order.

“While the headline was intended to reference the band of the same name, it has been pointed out that the graphic had design similarities to a swastika which, combined with other connotations of the phrase ‘new order’, has caused offence which was entirely unintended.

“For this, United Uncovered unreservedly apologises.”

The club’s head of media David Sternberg responded to a number of complaints over Twitter.

He tweeted: “The creative is completely inappropriate; we apologise unreservedly and are taking appropriate internal action.”

http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-24691368

 

Are conspiracy theories destroying democracy?

By Brian Wheeler Politics reporter, BBC News

The more information we have about what governments and corporations are up to the less we seem to trust them. Will conspiracy theories eventually destroy democracy?

What if I told you I had conclusive proof that the moon landings were faked, but I had been told to keep it under wraps by my BBC bosses acting under orders from the CIA, NSA and MI6. Most of you would think I had finally lost my mind.

But, for some, that scenario – a journalist working for a mainstream media organisation being manipulated by shadowy forces to keep vital information from the public – would seem entirely plausible, or even likely.

We live in a golden age for conspiracy theories. There is a growing assumption that everything we are told by the authorities is wrong, or not quite as it seems. That the truth is being manipulated or obscured by powerful vested interests.

And, in some cases, it is.

‘Inside job’

“The reason we have conspiracy theories is that sometimes governments and organisations do conspire,” says Observer columnist and academic John Naughton.

It would be wrong to write off all conspiracy theorists as “swivel-eyed loons,” with “poor personal hygiene and halitosis,” he told a Cambridge University Festival of Ideas debate.

They are not all “crazy”. The difficult part, for those of us trying to make sense of a complex world, is working out which parts of the conspiracy theory to keep and which to throw away.

Continue reading the main story

Conspiracy theories through the ages

• ‘Secret societies’: Paranoia was rife in the 19th Century in the wake of the French revolution. British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli (pictured) warned of “secret societies which have everywhere their unscrupulous agents, and can at the last moment upset all the governments’ plans”
• Freemasons: A secret society tracing its roots back to the 14th century, freemasonry has been accused of everything from controlling the judiciary to faking the moon landings
• Illuminati: Initially referred to the Bavarian Illumaniti, a secret society founded in 1776 to oppose religious influence over public life. Outlawed in 1785 but name now linked to alleged conspiracies to create New World Order
• Dreyfus affair: A young artillery officer of Jewish extraction, Alfred Dreyfus, was wrongly convicted in 1894 of treason and sent to Devil’s Island in a case that divided France. Nationalists believed there was a Jewish conspiracy against Catholicism
• Protocols of the elders of Zion: An anti-semitic hoax supposedly describing Jewish plans for world domination. Publicised by the Nazis despite already being exposed as fraudulent
• McCarthyism: Named after Senator Joseph McCarthy who led a witch-hunt against suspected communists in American public life in the first half of the 1950s

Mr Naughton is one of three lead investigators in a major new Cambridge University project to investigate the impact of conspiracy theories on democracy.

The internet is generally assumed to be the main driving force behind the growth in conspiracy theories but, says Mr Naughton, there has been little research into whether that is really the case.

He plans to compare internet theories on 9/11 with pre-internet theories about John F Kennedy’s assassination.

Like the other researchers, he is wary, or perhaps that should be weary, of delving into the darker recesses of the conspiracy world.

“The minute you get into the JFK stuff, and the minute you sniff at the 9/11 stuff, you begin to lose the will to live,” he told the audience in Cambridge.

Like Sir Richard Evans, who heads the five-year Conspiracy and Democracy project, he is at pains to stress that the aim is not to prove or disprove particular theories, simply to study their impact on culture and society.

Why are we so fascinated by them? Are they undermining trust in democratic institutions?

David Runciman, professor of politics at Cambridge University, the third principal investigator, is keen to explode the idea that most conspiracies are actually “cock-ups”.

“The line between cock-up, conspiracy and conspiracy theory are much more blurred than the conventional view that you have got to choose between them,” he told the Festival of Ideas.

“There’s a conventional view that you get these conspirators, who are these kind of sinister, malign people who know what they are doing, and the conspiracy theorists, who occasionally stumble upon the truth but who are on the whole paranoid and crazy.

What constitutes a conspiracy theory?

“Actually the conspirators are often the paranoid and crazy conspiracy theorists, because in their attempt to cover up the cock-up they get drawn into a web in which their self-justification posits some giant conspiracy trying to expose their conspiracy.

“And I think that’s consistently true through a lot of political scandals, Watergate included.”

‘Curry house plot’

It may also be true, he argues, of the “vicious” in-fighting and plotting that characterised New Labour’s years in power, as recently exposed in the memoirs of Gordon Brown’s former spin doctor Damian McBride.

The Brownite conspiracies to remove Tony Blair were “pathetically ineffectual” – with the exception of the 2006 “curry house” plot that forced Blair to name a departure date – but the picture painted by Mr McBride of a “paranoid” and “chaotic” inner circle has the ring of truth about it, he claims.

Gordon Brown was a keen student of conspiracy theories

And Mr Brown – said to be a keen student of the JFK assassination – knew a conspiracy when he saw one.

“You feel he sees conspiracies out there because he has a mindset that is not dissimilar to the conspiracy theorists,” said Prof Runciman.

He is also examining whether the push for greater openness and transparency in public life will fuel, rather than kill off, conspiracy theories.

“It may be that one of the things conspiracy theories feed on as well as silence, is a surfeit of information. And when there is a mass of information out there, it becomes easier for people to find their way through to come to the conclusion they want to come to.

“Plus, you don’t have to be an especial cynic to believe that, in the age of open government, governments will be even more careful to keep secret the things they want to keep secret.

“The demand for openness always produces, as well as more openness, more secrecy.”

Which brings us back to the moon landings. I should state, for the avoidance of any doubt, and to kill off any internet speculation, that I am not in possession of any classified information about whether they were faked or not. My contacts at Nasa are not that good.

But then I would say that wouldn’t I?

Russell Brand Calls For “Massive Redistribution of Wealth”, “Socialist Egalitarianism” (VIDEO)

Russell Brand Calls For “Massive Redistribution of Wealth”, “Socialist Egalitarianism” (VIDEO)

 

Philosophy Political Opinion

Posted by Austin Petersen on 24 Oct 2013 / 27 Comments

howlifeworks.com

 

Comedian Calls For Socialism, And He’s Not Joking

“The plans may differ, the planners are all alike.” -Frederic Bastiat

Famed comedian Russell Brand has taken a step into the political sphere and become an editor at The New Statesman magazine. His new political agenda he says is a  ”socialist egalitarian system” involving a “massive redistribution of wealth”, “heavy taxation of corporations”, and adds that we must address the problem of “profits”. Brand believes that governments need massive centralization, while simultaneously calling for a revolution.

WATCH: Anarchism, Socialism, & Libertarianism Summit – Alternatives For Peace

 

Of course socialism is not revolutionary. Advocating for social safety nets and redistribution of wealth is more about risk aversion. True revolutionaries are risk-takers, and are people who are willing to take risks and accept hardships. Not so with socialism, which creates a nanny state to make decisions for the people. Socialism is central planning. It means central control of your life.

WATCH: Marxism Vs. Libertarianism Debate (VIDEO) 

Brand will likely crush the hopes of many libertarians who see this video and have enjoyed some of his previous TV appearances talking politics. Many people were stirred by Brand’s unwillingness to bend to the narrow political spectrum that the main stream media projects. That’s refreshing no matter what your politics. But his calls for socialism and for taxation show he is clearly not a revolutionary, nor a particularly original thinker. After all, we’ve had despotism for centuries.

READ: Was the 20th century the bloodiest? Yes! Thanks to communism!

The only truly radical philosophy today is the one that dares to claim that individuals own their own bodies and the fruits of their labors. It is the philosophy centered on economic freedom and personal liberty. It is the philosophy of natural rights and free markets. It is classical liberalism, the true laissez-faire. THAT is revolutionary, my dear friend. Socialism would be a step back.

Brand is advocating for nothing more than legal plunder. French philosopher Frederic Bastiat once wrote on the topic: “Now, legal plunder can be committed in an infinite number of ways. Thus we have an infinite number of plans for organizing it: tariffs, protection, benefits, subsidies, encouragements, progressive taxation, public schools, guaranteed jobs, guaranteed profits, minimum wages, a right to relief, a right to the tools of labor, free credit, and so on, and so on. All these plans as a whole—with their common aim of legal plunder—constitute socialism.”

READ: Democrats should move to North Korea! It’s a socialist paradise!

Despite Brand’s refreshing candor and undeniable charm, his misunderstanding of the true nature of centralization of government power is unforgivable. It’s intellectually lazy and in truth, dangerous.

Communism and socialism have been responsible for the death of possibly hundreds of millions of people in eastern Europe and Asia in the last century. The butchery of despotic socialist dictators such as Adolf Hitler, Mao Tse Tung, Che Guevera, Fidel Castro and Pol-Pot are historic testimonies as to the eventual endgame of the centralization of government power.

Central planning is the “The Road to Serfdom,” which means that when the government has planned everything for you for your life and you are no longer useful to the state, they will offer you their final plan.

Your execution.

The end of the road to serfdom.

Read more at TLR: Russell Brand Calls For “Massive Redistribution of Wealth”, “Socialist Egalitarianism” | The Libertarian Republic http://thelibertarianrepublic.com/russel-brand-calls-massive-redistribution-wealth-socialist-egalitarianism/#ixzz2irqBpXKv
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The Truth Movement

Alan Watt – “Never watch the Televison”

The Consciousness Project — Hopeful Solutions for Epic Problems

(I don’t agree with everything written such as that global warming can be solved by our consciousness for I don’t believe in man made global warming itself however I think we need to change the way we are interacting with nature, technology, materialism and our impact on the environment and this will be needing a ‘rise’ or evolution in consciousness however whether that influence or change happens internally or externally or even both is something for an entirely different debate.)

Posted: 07/01/2013 1:38 pm

Climate Change, Jim Walsh, The Consciousness Project, Consciousness, Consciousness Research, Overpopulation, GPS for the Soul News

By Deepak Chopra, MD and Jim Walsh

As founders and backers, we are announcing a major initiative to solve the epic problems that the world faces. Leading the way is global warming, with its eventual threat of mass extinction if worse comes to worst.

But climate change is linked to globalization, economic upheaval, overpopulation, and hostile tensions in the world’s hot spots. The link, we believe, is consciousness, and the only way to solve our epic problems is to arrive at an understanding of consciousness that will benefit humanity.

Whether in the short run or the long run, the choice is between a deteriorating planet or a new paradigm.

The existing paradigm is scientific, as we all know. Objective science is the hallmark of society today. It has an unrivaled power base. Its description of reality has molded the modern world. Its worldview holds sway over universities, governments and the public at large. Everyone who participates in the consensus view of reality has been touched by it. But the role of the observer has puzzled and intrigued physics since the quantum revolution a century ago. We feel that this issue offers a crucial opening for expanding the role of science.

As a counterpoint to the science juggernaut, there is another view of reality supported by loosely aligned groups in religion, philosophy, and a minority in science. Their worldview is consciousness-based. Whatever their differences, supporters of consciousness place mind first in Nature and matter second. Such a worldview has no significant financial backing comparable to mainstream science. It has been excluded from experimentation in major universities and all but banished from respectability, depending on the rich heritage, East and West, of saints, sages, and seers who fall outside the scientific method.

A New Vision

The vision of The Consciousness Project is to close this gap by expanding science and at the same time submitting consciousness to experimental research. The opening for this vision has already appeared among a generation of researchers who regard the fusion of mind and body, consciousness and matter, physics and biology, as paramount. Objective science has failed to explain how consciousness arose from matter. The consciousness tradition has yet to explain how mind could create matter. Two worldviews depend on one of these explanations being true. Until we can show how molecules learned to think or how thoughts create molecules, the full truth about Nature and reality will remain hidden.

As to specifics, The Consciousness Project will focus on the most urgent questions that would lead to a final answer:

1. Does consciousness leave traces in the physical world? If so, can they be measured and replicated?

2. Are the brain processes associated with mind a cause or an effect?

3. Is there mind outside the brain?

4. Since all living organisms display biological autonomy – the ability to make decisions that are not predetermined by physics and chemistry – is this evidence of mind in all life forms?

5. Is the activity of consciousness on any level where it might exist – human, biological, physical, or cosmic – consistent with the proven findings of quantum physics?

6. Is the universe conscious?

7. Did human awareness evolve from systems throughout Nature that self-organize in an intelligent way?

The fact that these primary questions are being addressed after decades of neglect spurs the need for even more expanded research. The benefits to society could be incalculable. Through the objective approach, technologies have burgeoned to improve material life. With a parallel advance in observer-based science, a huge domain of consciousness may reveal abilities in self-healing, mental communication, the eradication of inner conflicts that lead to war, and new areas of inspiration and intellectual breakthroughs.

We recognize that consciousness, although the hallmark of human existence, has suffered from problems of acceptance and credibility in mainstream science (despite the original quantum pioneers who became convinced that consciousness must be included in any observational scheme – such figures as Max Planck, Erwin Schrödinger, and Wolfgang Pauli). Moreover, the consciousness worldview has no center, critical mass, or focus that enables people to connect with it beyond changeable intellectual and spiritual fads.

The responsibility of The Consciousness Project then, is to create that critical mass, which will become the necessary core for consciousness-based science. To do this we will organize a five- year project, in both basic and applied research, starting with a funding of $1 billion dollars. Of this initial money, half will be raised from investors, half through worldwide participation by institutions and individuals. The latter will include a global social network program to educate and inspire people about our efforts. Everything we fund will be transparently outlined. We want as many as possible to grasp the basic consciousness premise, the reasons for working on it, and the potential benefits to society. Since the Project will act as the funding institution for qualifying researchers worldwide, we have enlisted advisers and consultants to act as enterprise partners if and when we discover technologies that measurably improve people’s lives.

The Consciousness Project aims to be open-minded but one-pointed in its focus. There are many competing definitions of consciousness, tracing their origins back thousands of years. East and West, each of these strands has something valuable to contribute. A modern definition of consciousness that all or most researchers can agree upon is highly desirable. Such a definition doesn’t exist at present. It is hidden at the junction of visible matter and invisible mind. Now that science has turned its gaze, at long last, to this junction, we believe it will be the very crux of reality. The Consciousness Project is going where reality leads us – this has been the impetus that resulted in every great scientific discovery, past, present, and future.

Action Steps

We realize that vision does not turn into reality without action. Given the epic problems all of us face, action here must be global. Therefore, we intend to use social media and the Internet to form a web of like-minded people who urgently want to find solutions. Through a worldwide community we have dubbed Indra’s Net, we invite the active participation of everyone with researchers and philanthropists in the lead but basing the entire project on individual needs as well.

The activities of The Consciousness Project will have five main thrusts.

1. We have divided the project into three areas: Theory, Evidence, and Benefits. By keeping these separate, we can move quickly on some fronts while others move more slowly. Theory is abundant already, and so is evidence, even if mainstream science lags in recognizing the fact. Benefits will capture the most public attention, because consciousness impacts health, well-being, relationships, and the entire social fabric. These are our all-important link to individuals and improving their quality of life.

2. The project will offer substantial prizes for advances in consciousness, eventually aiming to compete with the Nobel Prize. The prizes will attract worldwide attention, recognizing advances in the three areas of theory, evidence, and benefits.

3. Associating the project with major scientists and thinkers will attract attention – we are seeking leaders in any field who will lend their public support to the crucial role that consciousness plays in advancing global solutions, scientific and social. We envision a growing body of advisors and consultants who will assess the research projects we fund and who will keep the world abreast of optimistic change for the future.

4. For visibility that remains daily and constant, we will launch a Consciousness Project website whose slogan is “Cracking the Cosmic Code.” It will encompass diverse elements: science news, a blog, interactive materials, and transparent financial information, all combined in one place. The website will be a clearing house for all avenues of consciousness research. It will also serve to advertise the prizes and to invite new proposals that the project can fund.

5. For quick visibility, our best funding option is to reward the most promising ongoing research. That way we don’t have to wait 3-5 years with start-up studies. Those are important, too, so the project will follow the model honed in Silicon Valley for balancing pure research, start-up studies, and ongoing work. This is the core of our financial commitment. The Consciousness Project will provide guidance and venture research funding for scientists worldwide who are developing consciousness based products that could benefit everyday lives. The focus will be in three primary areas of development – well-being, communications, and intentional technology. We are not simply theorists but pragmatic managers looking for tangible results that are robust and reproducible. While we may take decades to refine the basic definition and theory of consciousness it is the useful products that come out of the next five years of The Consciousness Project that will be its legacy.

6. We feel that compassion, being a quality of consciousness, falls under the aims of the Project. Our support will go to select humanitarian efforts to raise the quality of life through raising the quality of consciousness. Creating a global network of humanitarian efforts and sharing the practices of “Love in Action” will improve education and health, but ultimately we want to bring economic and social justice for all.

7. We will support the urgent global campaign to solve climate change and reach the totally necessary goal of a sustainable planet.

8. Conflict resolution has been making painfully slow progress in recent decades. We will support new solutions based on consciousness rather than military or nationalist interests. Only a common humanity can be at peace. We encourage creative solutions to conflicts around the world, putting the principles of “Peace is the Way” into global action.

It is especially important for us as founders that The Consciousness Project be totally open and transparent. The main obstacle to solving global problems is the boundary that divides nations, societies, income levels, and so on. But consciousness is common to every human being. It is our shared birthright and our greatest source of pride. The project wants to operate without boundaries, which is why all financial transactions will be transparent, updated on a regular basis. Every participant and contributor will be able to see where funds are going.

The Consciousness Project is itself an outgrowth of consciousness. Rising awareness gave birth to the idea as people around the world clamor for two things: a better life and freedom from the deep anxiety over a planet in dire straits. We have faith in the possibility that a better life doesn’t mean despoiling the environment. The two are compatible only if a new paradigm teaches people that they can be happy, prosperous, and successful while still engaging in a sustainable lifestyle. A time of despair can end, but only on the basis of consciousness. We’ve dedicated ourselves to this solution and invite you to join us in optimism and hope. Please submit your ideas to info@theconsciousnessproject.com.

Details of the Project and its vision for a new humanity will be released at a formal kick-off Press conference at the Sages and Scientists Symposium to be held from August 16-18, 2013 at La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad, CA. We will send you a full press release at that time.

Deepak Chopra, MD, Founder and Chairman, The Chopra Foundation, Board of Directors, HESA Institute

Jim Walsh, Founder and Chairman of HESA Institute, Board of Directors, The Chopra Foundation

deepakchopra.com