Revision of Burning questions of the Evolutionary salon participants from January 4, 2006 - 20:07

BILL WILLIAM AAL

How do we engage people in conversations about social healing and social creativity in ways that encourage them to act on their values?

JOHN ABEE

What is the role of discontinuities in evolution? Some come from outside the system in question (e.g. large meteors striking Earth), others are a result of evolutionary processes in the system itself (e.g. humans developing domestication). What discontinuities are we likely to face, what discontinuities do we want to generate?

MARGO ADAIR

How can we build communities where we trust each other inside the communities and where an atmosphere of trust is also built between communities?

DANA LYNNE ANDERSEN

Why are Creativity and Imaginative Intelligence treated as decorative icing on the cake when they are fundamental to evolution and critical to our survival? When we can access our own creativity we trust that there are infinite resources within. When we are in touch with our inner life it is impossible to violate our sense of Dharma.

How can we turn on the lights of creative vision- in individuals and in our collective imagination?

How can we rouse the fiery vision in the lost and hopeless youth?

TERRI ANDERSON

What is the relationship between our cosmology "story" and our sense of belonging to a specific place? And how does our sense of place influence our behaviors and ethical stand in life?

JENNIFER ATLEE

(1) Within the context of evolutionary uncertainty, how do we seed the system changes needed so that human and organizational creativity naturally lead toward sustainable and restorative practices?

(2) What is the relationship between inquiry and action that is most generative and productive?

(3) I see a pattern where quality conversations create great project ideas which are then lost due to lack of sustained focus/time/energy. While acknowledging that many of these ideas are food for future/better ideas, I wonder how evolutionary social change can be facilitated by dialogue-to-action. What forms exist or could be developed for social incubators that could help facilitate the growth of these ideas?

RIA BAECK

CONNIE BARLOW

Can we find practical and inspiring ways to infuse processes and institutions promoting Collective Intelligence and Social Creativity with the intelligences pervasive in the entire Earth Community, including the elder wisdom of bacteria as well as the needs of our more closely related kin that now face extinction?

ELLEN BERNSTEIN

HOWARD BLOOM

How do we bring science to each human with such delicious power that it makes the very marrow sing?

And what new insights and technologies do we need to stop preaching and protesting and to actually END hatred and war? Not just to end hatred on our side, but to end hatred on the side of those who loathe us, too.

TREE BRESSEN

How can we invoke "the conscious evolution of increasingly conscious social systems" — systems that serve life, justice, and joy? (What interconnected rituals and processes are needed, and how are each of us individually & collectively going to make it happen?

ALAN BRISKIN

What does the future require of us, individually and collectively, to perceive and act in alignment with a world that works for all?

JUANITA BROWN

How can we nurture the evolution of collective wisdom and conscious social systems in ways that serve life-affirming futures?

CHRIS BUI

What is the architecture and implementation strategy needed to create a transformative, national level dialogue and social issue solutions program that can compete in the marketplace of attention and transform the hearts, minds, and souls of people and institutions everywhere? How can we create a national infrastructure to radically elevate the effectiveness of social solutions from the nonprofit and public sectors that would parallel the impacts and benefits of venture capital, stock exchanges, and educational and training resources in the for-profit sector? How can we tap into and channel the forces of competition and excess in our country to create a similar level of focus, attention, and connection to working on the great issues of our day: for example, how do we generate an equal or greater amount of energy going into working on childhood poverty in our country as we do on college football games each Saturday during the "season"?

TOM BUXTON

What are the actions we should take, as caring and responsible individuals, to act effectively toward our 100-year vision of the future?

SUSAN CANNON

MICHAEL COOK

(1) Am I willing to show up as the truth, in the truth, no matter what? (2) What will the world look like if I do?

ASHLEY COOPER

One trend I am witnessing in society is a great longing for intimate, resonant, communal experiences and an active reaching out in efforts to satisfy this need. This pull towards connection seems to be closely aligned with the evolution of consciousness and evolutionary awareness. How best can the energy of this vast human potential be channeled? How can large numbers be inspired and supported in finding their calling and becoming active agents of social creativity? What does this look like in the day-to-day world? What does this need in order to sustain the force with which it is being birthed?

PETER A. CORNING

(1) Will long-term climate changes rain on the parade?

(2) How can our propensity for lethal conflict be contained?

CHRIS CORRIGAN

BARBARA CUSHING & EMMANUEL VAUGHAN-LEE

DREW DELLINGER

JORGE A. DIAZ-LOPEZ

MICHAEL DOWD

(1) What are the most effective ways of bringing people together and harnessing their collective intelligence?

(2) How can we further the evolutionary impulse and organize/govern ourselves as a species (globally, nationally, regionally, and locally) so that there are real and effective incentives for individuals, corporations, and nation-states to cooperate and serve the common good (each benefits substantially by doing so), and equally effective incentives against disregarding or damaging the common good?

(3) How can the epic of evolution be told in a mythic way, as a big picture sacred story, so that it inspires and motivates billions of human beings with different worldviews to really want, and then to successfully manifest, the possibilities expressed above?

ANNE DOSHER

How to develop collective intelligence in order to be responsible for our actions? How to learn to harvest the collective wisdom that I hope lies within us?

MARK DUBOIS

TREE FITZPATRICK

Do you have enough? If so, I'd like to hear about what constitutes enough for you. If not, I'd love to learn what it is that you would need to have enough. Can we create systems in which everyone can have enough? What will such a system look like?!

GLENNA GERARD

What is the invitation that is emerging in the work of so many of us all over the world, as we gather to live into what is possible for humans when we create places of belonging and grace? How do we come fully present and in being/doing so become portals for possibility?

DAVID GERSHON

I look forward to strategizing with folks who are asking the big questions about how to develop the fullest potential of our human experiment. I am particularly interested in exploring two questions that grew out of the follow-up meetings of several of us from the first salon. (1) How do we develop the DNA code for social evolution? (2) What would a think tank, capacity-building program and diffusion strategy for social system evolution look like?

CRAIG HAMILTON

How can the progressive edge of the culture move beyond its infatuation with pluralism and individual freedom and discover a new and higher (yes, higher) unifying moral and spiritual context in which to ground our collective social/political change efforts?

KALIYA HAMLIN

PEGGY HOLMAN

What do we already know about seeding, growing and evolving enlightened communities and inspired organizations?

How can awakening people to their place as the current face of evolution support them in identifying their calling to contribute to the whole?

JON HOST

FRITZ HULL

How do we help ourselves and others sustain hope, confidence, compassion, and truly creative efforts in light of the environmental and social challenges we currently face — and that will become all the more perilous in coming decades?

VIVIENNE HULL

THOMAS J. HURLEY

FERNANDA IBARRA

How can we participate in speeding the collective stream of evolution of human consciousness in a more effective way? How can we help human comunities to align to a shared intention of serving the health of the whole? As Yasuhiko Kimura inquired, How can we create a culture in which people can come together in alignment in the face of disagreement, where everyone may be the center of idea generation?

RICK INGRASCI

If, as Dostoevsky says, "Beauty will save the world," then what would The Beauty Way as a strategy for social transformation look like?

DAVID ISAACS

What if a critical mass of people are already becoming awakened to the collective experience that humanity is remembering its connection to life and nature? If that hypothesis is valid, in what ways will we now choose to learn and act together?

JAIR

WILL KEEPIN

How can we become the most effective living instruments [not just advocates or intellectual spokespersons] for infusing divine love and healing into human society?

KEVIN W. KELLEY

LION KIMBRO

"What's our roadmap?"

ALEXANDER LASZLO

What do we need to learn (skills, competencies, abilities, senses) to better harmonize with the dynamics of being and becoming that surround, embrace, and flow through us in order for the legacy we leave (individually and collectively) to be life-affirming, future-creating, and opportunity-enhancing?

KATHIA CASTRO LASZLO

What will it take for us, humanity, to waken to the joy and meaning of creating a global sustainable evolutionary-learning society?

PAULINE LE BEL

JOEL LEVEY

What are the most skillful ways to help individuals and groups to learn to source their individual and collective wisdom from the deepest Source of Guidance in service of awakening all beings to their true nature highest potentials?

MICHELLE LEVEY

What are the questions that humanity and Gaia as a whole are calling us to ask at this time in order to awaken our highest collective wisdom and bring forth the collective actions needed for social transformation and planetary healing?

MICHAEL LINDFIELD

What is the spark of inspiration that will ignite the collective human spirit and call us to re-imagine and re-configure our world so that all our societal forms reflect and honor our deeply-held core values?

HENRI LIPMANOWICZ

What incentives might motivate corporate leaders to reinvent/evolve the products they manufacture to make them fully recyclable or biodegradable and eliminate toxic waste? What actions might help those incentives to emerge?

LAURA LOESCHER

How can we build lasting bridges among people (individuals, organizations and movements) committed to a common vision of a better world, but who have very different life experiences, theories of change and capacities for collaboration? What is needed to inspire vastly larger numbers of people to commit their lives to creating a world that works for everyone?

MANUEL MANGA

CARLOS MOTA MARGAIN

DAVID MARSING

JOSEPH MCCORMICK

RUBEN (Butch) NELSON

"What would we do, if we truly knew where we were and what we were doing?" The more immediate question that is rising within me runs something like this: "Can we who are privileged to participate in this conversation learn to co-operate deeply enough to become truly effective as a societal force?" Maybe the reason I responded quickly and wholeheartedly to the invitation to participate in the salon is my hope that we can.

JEAN FRANÇOIS NOUBEL

More and more conscious people are individually committed to bringing consciousness into manifested forms, such as visions, projects, actions, memes, technologies, social structures, etc. How can they form circles and networks of circles that amplify and intertwine their actions, so that it contributes to manifesting consciousness at a planetary level?

KENOLI OLEARI

KATE PARROT

What is the nature of the collective and individual work that we must engage in to birth a higher order of consciousness in the human race?

GEORGE PÓR

(1) How to design evolutionary guidance systems—on all levels from local to global—optimized to benefit from the collective intelligence and wisdom of connected, multi-community conversations about questions that matter?

(2) Where are the cartographers of the vast ecosystem of everywhere emerging evolutionary initiatives? I would love to hear from, and explore opportunities for synergy with, anyone who can help answering these questions.

VICKI ROBIN

1. What actually makes a difference? I waffle between "only connect" (intimate, particular, loving connection) and a more intentional "using my gifts for the good of all" (where my deep gladness meets the world's deep need).

2. Is it hubris to imagine we can steer evolution? Is it folly — for awake, conscious people — to NOT steer?

3. Is "the collective" merely an assemblage of individuals, or is there an intelligent field that members of a collective participate in? If the latter, how does such a field arise and develop its "soul" — the integrity and tenderness that allows individuals to participate without fear? Is there always a point of focus, an individual who leads and either retains or passes on leadership to the next individual? How does this leadership get conferred, passed on and even, if ever, transcended? Do such fields persist once the individuals leave the space? Do they influence other individuals and fields? How are they like — and not like — the fields we each recognize and work with called our individual selves?

TRACY ROBINSON

What forms of leadership bring forth the greatest amount of possibility and creativity?

NEAL ROGIN

How can we accelerate the shift in human consciousness from the top end of first gear to the bottom of second, from arrogance to humility, from considering ourselves to be brilliant animals, to realizing we are ignorant gods?

LAUREL ROSS

How can we combine and connect existing efforts in consciousness evolution to build greater momentum for change?

BRANDON C S SANDERS

What is life?

JIM SCHENK

One of my particular interests is exploring whether there is a way we can help our fellow humans become aware that our survival is dependent upon living ecologically sensitive lifestyles. What we are doing now is not reaching enough people to make the change that needs to take place. Can we find a way to do it?

JACK SEMURA

What do these potential transformations (please refer to my background statement) mean to our understanding of life, consciousness, and our place in the universe? How do these changes fit within the context of long-term evolution in an emergent universe? What strategies can we adopt to approach the coming changes with knowledge and wisdom? How can we have a serious discussion and educate each other about these potential changes without being dismissed or marginalized?

GABRIEL SHIRLEY

What becomes possible when business fully embraces its role as an agent of positive change for humanity?

STEPHEN SILHA

What stories and what frames will help to catalyze more of us taking responsibility for social creativity? What's the best way to get those stories out?

TESA SILVESTRE

Where do we each need to step up and override our fears or discomfort so that we can personally model and embody the expanded level of leadership, courage, and faith which is being asked of all of us at this time? How can we individually and collectively support the emergence of a creative space that allows for the mystery's brilliance and guidance to come through each and all of us? How can we call forth a new form of collaborative leadership that can offer a collective model of what the Mandelas, Gandhis, and Martin Luther Kings of this world have so powerfully modeled at the individual level? And what is it truly going to take to be collectively ready for the major transition we need to undergo over the next few years if we are to create conditions conducive to the blossoming rather than the destruction of human life on this planet?

CHARLES TERRY

How can we wake up more fully to our potential as a species and as a planet, and begin to work together towards solving the major problems of our time? How can I bring my inner life and my outer life more into alignment in fulfilling my own destiny and in service to the world? Can we invite and engage in a co-creative partnership with energies and allies from other than physical levels of reality? How can we strengthen and deepen the connection among the innumerable people and organizations who are longing and working for a better world, how can we help catalyze a movement of awakening, cooperation, healing and community on Earth?

CHAIWAT THIRAPANTU

How could we develop insights and communicate the evolutionary worldview supported by new sciences and traditional (ancient) wisdom to facilitate creative interaction of a critical mass of co-creators around the word to catalyze and sustain the evolutionary journey to generate enlightened societies?

MARC TOGNOTTI

FINN VOLDTOFTE

What can emerge now?

NANCY WHITE

How can this set of competencies be of service to facilitate a positive impact on the evolution of humanity and the natural world?