Changing Worldviews from the Inside Out

Modern society’s collective worldview is shifting toward sustainability. But for the first time in human history, the urgency of social and environmental problems requires a conscious effort to accelerate that shift. Can it be done? Can it be done in time?

Deep down the mind encloses a menagerie of beasts that would shame even the largest zoo collection. Lurking in the shadows, Carl Sagan’s dragons of Eden, parts of the brain evolved during the reptilian age 100 million years ago, still exert their influence on instinct. Repressed memories of traumatic events push upward against the consciousness. Images linger of past lives, some say, hinting the purpose of the current life. And deep down beliefs associated with worldviews pull the strings of human behavior beliefs so obscured that a person can be born into these and die without ever becoming aware of their existence. In this menagerie, it is not the beasts who are prisoner, but the jailer.

When a mysterious park interpreter arrives at the local state park...

and he offers a nature program to interpret the world in a three-day hike, the Benedict family thinks it’s a great way to celebrate Lewis and Rachel’s 30th wedding anniversary with the family.

Believing that “interpreting the world” is nothing more than marketing hyperbole for an enjoyable trip in the woods, the Benedicts could never have expected the trip would fracture their family and change their world(view). As if that were not enough, Meredith, the narrator, finds herself caught up in a grand scheme that goes right to the heart of modern American society. And changes it.

With system dynamics of worldview change in the background and adventure in the foreground, the book will carry the reader to a new understanding of how societies have changed throughout history and what the average person can do to help the dominant global society move toward sustainability.

(Continued from above) In every case, environmental and social conditions drove a fundamental shifting in deep sets of beliefs. These shifts, like the drifting of continents, depend on the interaction of certain processes: new ideas confront major problems, resistance from establishment thinking mounts and cracks, and new behaviors emerge.

Now for the first time in human history, a particular worldview, the one that drives civilization-building, is becoming conscious of its own impending fall (all previous civilizations collapsed probably without ever understanding why) and has the opportunity to consciously re-forge its worldview to confront the threat. Many people are moving ahead toward a new worldview, championing theories of holism, systems, equity, sustainability, spiritualism, environmentalism, and a host of others. But by whichever approach, understanding the system dynamics that govern how families of beliefs shift from one to another, society can find high leverage points in which to intervene and speed up the transition.

While many are working on different aspects of this story, no one studies a) the system dynamics of b) worldview change for a c) sustainable society. The Worldview Change Project attempts to link these three key areas. The initial objective is to integrate the three elements together in a fictional, yet well annotated, book for the general audience interested in societal change and then establish mechanisms based on the research to speed up the transition. As nothing less will do, the Project welcomes your support in this mission.