Series 1: We need a New Story – Introduction

As a species we are at the end of an evolutionary cycle.

We are hitting two “walls” at the same time. First is an “ecological wall”: our way of living is not sustainable anymore; we are destroying the planetary environment. In order to change our way of living on Earth, to become again a functional part of the Great Circle of Life, we have to “reinvent” ourselves at the species level. And here comes the second “wall” we are hitting: the evolutionary one. We do not have too much time to manage such a radical transformation as individuals and societies.

We have reached a point in our evolution when even inventing “better” technologies will not help us anymore to find our way further. Because of our current metaphysical orientation, we are employing them to “better” exploit Nature and other humans. What we need is not better technologies but to use them wisely, in a way that is Life-enhancing.

As a civilization, we have reached a bifurcation point: our world will never be the same. A species, at its bifurcation point, either evolve, either collapse. What we have to evolve is a more integrative level of consciousness that would allow us to overcome our social and ecological crisis: we have to evolve a level of consciousness that is able to take in account the well-being of the Planet as a whole. We need a new metaphysics able to inform the evolution of such a consciousness. Only then we will be able to use constructively our powerful technologies. The New Story probably you already have heard about – The Story of the Living Universe – is able to inform the evolution of such a consciousness.

Some of us are on the way of transformation toward a more cooperative and ecological way of living. For them – and for everyone who understand that we need to evolve in order to overcome our crisis – are intended these series of seminars, as well as the whole Butterfly Communities open-project, who aims to create an alternative social space conducive to cooperation, fairness and authentic self-expression.

The Courses and Seminars we are offering are ways to introduce the metaphysics of the Living Universe and to present a vision of a possible holarchic human community that mimics Life in its organizing principles. “Butterfly Communities” is an open-project where everyone could join to co-create a fair social space for themselves and their children.

We propose 9 series of seminars (each consisting of 7 seminars).

The first series is speaking about the need for a New Story/ a new metaphysics. Even though we are not very aware, the metaphysics we employ (consciously or not) informs our values and beliefs, our perceptions and motivations and, finally, our decisions and actions. As we are acting now, we are heading toward collapse. In order to change this outcome, we have to act differently – as individuals and communities. But we can not act differently, if we not change the metaphysics that informs our perceptions, values, decisions and actions. only the “story” we choose to tell ourselves about how the world works could inform a different way of living, because the story “we choose to tell ourselves about how the Universe works” inevitably becomes the lens we perceive the reality through.

If you want to understand better why we need a New Story and what kind of difference the Living Universe perspective could make, engage this series of seminars! I said “engage” because it will be as inter-active as possible for a seminar. I would like that each seminar and each series of seminars to be engaged as a journey of discovery. Everyone of them was thought of as a puzzle of a map. Connecting these puzzle pieces in your own way, you can craft your own map that could help you better orient in our changing world.

Each seminar will have 2 parts. In the first part – around only 25 minutes – I will try to answer 5 questions. I chose to build up the seminar around answering 5 questions because the questions themselves are more challenging for you, having the power to trigger your own quest for answering them. I do not want to make it complicated. I will make it so you to have time to take some notes. in the second part – around two hours – each of you could come with its question and I will answer. Hence, the discussion will be always oriented to your interest. Anyway, I will be glad a third part to follow – free discussion between audience triggered by the presentation. I will happily join this dialogue, ready to listen to your points of view and to improve mine.