My first exposure to the media was the Army/McCarthy hearings in 1954; I remember because the gavel to gavel coverage interrupted my seeing the Hopalong Cassidy and Lash LaRue cowboy serials that I watched every day after school. I was seven. Senator Joe McCarthy, the virulent anti-communist who ruined scores of careers and lives, was being investigated by his own committee for attempting to get the army to provide preferential treatment for a former aide. My recollection of Joseph Welsh, the Special Counsel to the committee, shaming McCarthy for his demagoguery is probably colored by seeing film of the hearings when I was older but my memory of my father’s reaction is still very clear. A staunch Republican, he was upset in a way that I had not seen before. It was my first experience of how information communicated through a television could have a profound impact.
Archive for August, 2008
From The Head To The Heart
Wednesday, August 13th, 2008
Wednesday, August 13th, 2008
Global Prayer Project
Prayer, Meditation & Discussion
with James & Salle Redfield
_______
Tuesday, August 12
8-9 pm Eastern/US
convert to your local time
Accessible via Live Teleconference & Webcast
- see below -
If you can’t join us, please hold a supportive prayer vision for the world at that time…
_______
This week’s prayer visualization
With the beginning of the Olympics in China, and the recent news that the Dalai Lama is willing to meet China halfway, we will focus our collective visualization to uplift this important country in the direction of human rights improvements and its occupation of Tibet.Follow-up discussion
How do we deal with nations that don’t value human rights? What about those who say each country has the right to create its own form of government?
______
Our twice-monthly gatherings have been making a powerful difference, both in people’s individual lives and the world at large. Many of you have written us saying that the energy generated from this network of spiritually-minded participants is “indescribable,” and we look forward to continuing this healing circle of focused prayer. Like all prayer experience devoted to helping others, many participants have felt the results in their own bodies and received guidance for their own lives.
Research tells us that the more people praying together, the more powerful the prayer and the greater the level of energy felt by the participants. We invite you to join the largest regular prayer network in the world. If you would like to take an active role in maintaining a circle of positive intention across the globe, while going deeper and heightening your own spirituality, join us on Tuesday, August 12.
_______
US & CANADA
Tuesday, August 12
8 pm New York
5 pm Los Angeles
AUSTRALIA
Wednesday, August 13
10 am Sydney
EUROPE
Wednesday, August 13
1 am London
_______
Teleconference:
Call 212/461-5860 OR 646/519-5860
Caller ID: 6999#
The phone line will open at 7:55pm EDT. Call the number above and follow the directions. Once you are connected to the call, please say your name and where you are from, and then press *6 to mute yourself so the noise level will be kept to a minimum. Each participant will be responsible for their own long-distance phone charges.
Live Webcast @ http://www.celestinevision.com/
_______
Let’s see how large we can grow, and how much difference we can make…
Blessings,
James Redfield
Salle Merrill Redfield
EXTENDING PRAYER FIELDS
For centuries, religious scriptures, poems, and philosophies have pointed to a latent power of mind within all of us that mysteriously helps to affect what occurs in the future. We are now finding that this prayer power is a field of intention, which moves out from us and can be extended and strengthened, especially when we connect with others in a common vision.
The Eleventh Insight
Who We Have Been Waiting For
Friday, August 8th, 2008The two Op-Ed pieces in the New York Times yesterday (July 31, 2008) were compelling not only because of their content but also because they remind us that there is much more to the world and the human experience than a falling stock market and an unraveling financial system.
Roger Cohen wrote about Champagne. Sounds like it might only be for snobs but it’s really about a preservation of excellence in the face of the economics of globalization.
Nicholas Kristof wrote about animal rights from his perspective as a farm boy growing up in Oregon. These are thoughtful, sometimes passionate, sometimes evocative commentaries about the human condition and the expansion of awareness.
Whatever is happening in our financial markets, something even greater is happening in the human experience. We are on the edge of an explosion of creativity not only in the technology that will provide us with free energy and clean water; we are also in the midst of a redefinition of what has value and a better sense of our obligations to each other. We are beginning to understand that our connectedness is not compartmentalized in some sense of “spiritualism” that is disconnected from our daily experience. We are beginning to understand that the separation between the truths that we aspire to and the reality that we live in is an artificial separation – one that makes less and less sense.
Last night I watched the local news – something I almost never do. The sequence of stories were – murder, multiple rape, murder, murder, Governor Schwarzenegger puts everyone on the state payroll on minimum wage, the weather, sports and then, mercifully, good night. Someone once said words to the effect that “for every act of evil there are a million acts of kindness”. Think of all the things that we don’t hear that would provide validation for our thoughts and encouragement for our efforts.
Over the past year we have seen Barack Obama draw larger and larger crowds. He has made a point in telling people that the election is about them, not him. Whether or not he believes that it has always seemed to me that the gathering of people has been far more important than the candidate. Some pundits sneer at what they call Obamamania and there is certainly precedent for the public to embrace a savior only to be disillusioned when they turn out to be human. But whether he wins or not he has provided a channel for the expression of a desire to live without the constant fear that we inflict on our selves on a daily basis. It really is about all of us – not him or any other candidate.
It’s difficult not to be frightened. The messages we get everyday, whether in the media or in conversations with friends and family are easily converted into a sense of unease and apprehension. But these are choices we make. These are choices about where we decide to place our attention. Fear is immobilizing. The cure that I find helpful is to go outside at night and look up – or out actually. Things are much larger than my small concerns and I am much better off than most on the planet.
This month might be a good time to take a step back from the focus on the financial system spiraling out of control and take a look at what the real forces are in our lives. As Ian Lungold said so many times before he passed, “we are who we have been waiting for”.
