Creation and Conformity

My passion, which I share with Joseph Chilton Pearce and many others, is:
Are we who we think we are?

When asked Joe said is driving interest is to understand our amazing capacities and self inflicted limitations. (see the full interview)

What is our innate potential - being at the very tip of evolution’s bursting into the present mystery? And why have human beings remained basically the same, socially-emotionally for thousands of years – the constant wars, poverty, domestic violence, rape, child abuse?

There is the ever-present creative spirit that pushes our blade of grass through the concrete sidewalk of our existence and there is our self-imposed sidewalk. Creation and conformity - two might forces that shape the human landscape.

We are born into a state of wonder and become conditioned, reflexive, habitual, conservative conformists and the driving force behind this transition is the formation of a social-cultural self image. Ashley Montagu devoted two books to these forces, The Dehumanization of Man and Growing Young. All of Joseph Chilton Pearce’s books deal with this, including his latest, The Death of Religion and Rebirth of Spirit.

My focus and that of Touch the Future has been for years what Joe calls the Model Imperative. All learning is in response to and therefore shaped by the model-environment. We, and our children, are DNA seeds, time-capsules containing billions of years of memory and potential, and we are planted in a particular kind of soil – this culture – now.

If the soil is rich we grow beautifully. If we are planted in sand we are retarded at every turn. Children are seeds. Parents and the culture they represent are the soil.

The basic question is: If you want to bring about a new generation of human beings, a generation more open, more intelligent, more aware, sensitive, empathic, egalitarian, truly environmental – where do you invest your attention and precious resources? Do you tinker with the seed or prepare the soil that seed is planted into?

We think that we need to condition the seed, modify its form and behavior as a potter would give shape to clay. We call this ‘being a parent,’ schooling, church, little league. This is our habit, OUR conditioning, a form of blindness.

Being driven by our conditioning which has taken the form of our self-image, do what I say or else, we are blind to the actual fact that in this state, obsessed with molding the child in our image and likeness, there is very little original wonder, curiosity, attention, empathy, flexibility or affection.

Being blind we don’t see that the child sees us as we are. What the child actually sees and experiences is dogma - not wonder which is nature’s agenda for optimum development throughout life.

There is ever-present creative spirit pushing our blade of grass through the concrete sidewalk of our existence and there is our self-imposed sidewalk. Creation and conformity – both have their place, both are necessary.

Are we blinded by our conditioning or is there some form of energy and attention that is free of this conditioning, that can actually see? Our fate, the fate of our children and the planet rest in the dynamic balance we maintain between these two forces.

Michael Mendizza