Strategic Vision

THE REALM OF POSSIBILITY PROJECT – OUR DECLARATION

A PROJECT COMMITTED TO EXPLORING AND FOSTERING AN UNDERSTANDING OF ‘THE REALM OF POSSIBILITY’ IN CREATING A SUSTAINABLE WORLD

‘Few would deny humanity faces existential threats.

Our world is in an unsafe state – environmentally, economically, sociologically.

Unintended consequences from our technologically advanced society are contributing to a future for all sentient beings and for nature that is not assured.

The problems we face are systemic.

These threats notwithstanding, humanity has the collective power to bequeath to our children and future generations a sustainable, stable and life-supporting world.

It is clear that our current ways of redressing those threats are inadequate.

We need a systemic approach – and this document puts forward such an approach.

The Realm of Possibility Project’s vision is to foster and support a systemic, enlightened approach to achieving a sustainable future.

This declaration sets out a direction and an approach with which we hope you, upon investigation, will want to engage.

It is an approach whereby individuals, families, private- and public-sector organisations and governments recognise how each of us, individually and collectively, either create and sustain ourselves and our environment, or work against that stable, sustainable state.

Humanity is faced with a clear choice:

1) continue along the low-road that we are on, or

2) wake up, reset and take the high road – i.e. being in service to the common good and redressing what ails the world.’

– John Wood, 2014

OUR VISION PURPOSE and VALUES

VISION

We see a future in which our children and future generations live in an environmentally, economically and socially life-supporting world; one where kindness, understanding, wisdom and common sense prevail.

PURPOSE

To fulfill our VISION by facilitating and fostering community understanding of what is behind the simple words ‘Possibility’ and ‘impossibility’, and how these two states of mind determine how we see reality and create our world.

VALUES

Each of us independently will pursue our collective PURPOSE around the sustainability of our total environment by looking in the direction of our innate Realm of Possibility, embracing the spirit of kindness, understanding, wisdom and common sense that imbues our thinking, feelings and actions upon seeing into that reality.

PHILOSOPHY AND RATIONALE

The Realm of Possibility Project is a non-partisan, apolitical, not-for-profit, charitable Foundation, offering tax deductibility for donations made within Australia.

We offer a service to individuals and organisations of all political convictions, ethnicities, religions, sexual orientations and philosophical views: to redress what ails society via the quality of human thinking and our use of Thought. That is the genesis of what ails humanity in every aspect of our lives – environmentally, economically and socially.

The evidence of widespread environmental devastation, economic imbalances, and social ill-will addiction, hatred, violence and war tells us clearly that humanity is not at peace with itself. We are misusing the gift that makes us human: our unique capacity to think.

Transforming the prevailing trend is possible with widespread, concerted, ongoing facilitation in seeing a fresh way forward.

With our limited understanding of how we create our personal reality, and therefore our world, we add daily to the sum of human distress and, potentially, to the destruction of our habitats and societies.

It is our individual and collective lack of awareness that threatens the sustainability of our planet and thus our lives. That deficiency is global, currently unyielding, and seemingly increasing.

Looking within, we come to understand what living our life from Possibility or impossibility means to us, our families, neighbours, communities and nations. As a result, we see with fresh eyes our lives and our relationships – including with the planet, all sentient beings and the totality of nature.

MISSION

Our MISSION is three-fold:

1. To demonstrate the relationship between the quality of our thinking, our attitudes and therefore our behaviour towards our natural environment and our fellow sentientent beings.
2. To encourage each other in this understanding and in taking personal responsibility and accountability for the state of our relationship with our self; our families; our organisations – private and public; our community; other nations; and, critically, with the natural world.
3. To assist and encourage others in seeing Possibility, in contrast to seeing only impossibility, and thereby understand how we, you and I, transform our relationships for the benefit of the common good and the sustainability of our planet.

OUR AIMS

In honouring our DECLARATION, The Realm of Possibility Project will provide a rallying point, be a credible resource and multi-faceted communications centre for seeing Possibility and the outcomes achievable from that seeing.

Our key aim is to point in the direction of Possibility and thus positively influence the community on:

1. The cause of humankind’s dysfunction – our poor use of the gift of Thought – with too many of us living in the effect of that, i.e. our impossibility thinking, feelings and behaviour toward each other and the planet.
2. The solution to humankind’s dysfunction and the state of the planetary environment – i.e. our understanding of Thought. Therefore, we aim to help people live more of their lives influenced by the realm of Possibility and the inherent kindness, understanding, wisdom and common sense guiding our thinking, feelings and behaviour toward each other and the environment.

To achieve this end, we recognise certain elements critical to The Realm of Possibility Project’s success or failure. The Project will be and remain relevant only if:

• we provide quality materials that point clearly in the direction of our innate wholeness – kindness, understanding, wisdom and common sense.
• our retreats and training programs deliver to participants an experience:
  • that enables them to see Possibility and therefore experience the wholeness inherent in each of us
  • that shows how we innocently live unconsciously from our accumulation – our lifelong beliefs, opinion and judgements, believing them to be ‘the truth’; thus we live from impossibility.
• we grow our membership and retain and foster our members’ involvement and support.
• we keep foremost in mind that our sustainability lies in the integrity and authenticity we bring to our PURPOSE, AIM, VISION AND VALUES; and reviewing and revising as necessary our MISSION, OUTCOMES AND MEANS.

What We Stand For

The Realm of Possibility Project is created by concerned, committed and motivated human beings in service to a sustainable world.

People who recognise that understanding the source (for good or ill) of all human experience is Thought and the quality of our thinking.

People who see that understanding the nature of Thought and thinking is essential if we are to witness humanity at peace with itself and as the protective custodians of our natural environment.

Our single focus is to show how we can experience our innate human qualities of kindness, understanding, wisdom and common sense – qualities we all share at our most fundamental level when experiencing the origins of Thought – in that space we call The Realm of Possibility.

Moreover, in experiencing fresh thought, we foster and support the community will to redress the social, societal, economic and environmental problems facing humanity and the planet.

The Realm of Possibility Project recognises that humanity confronts vast challenges in sustaining itself. These include, but are not limited to:

1. Substantial environmental threats to the planet: our flora, fauna, oceans, rivers, rainforests, farmlands, the atmosphere, et al,
2. increasing population levels,
3. escalating social inequality and its devastating consequences,
4. economic chaos, from decades of poor decisions on a wide range of governance issues at the sovereign, corporate and personal level.

We assert that each of the above problems is a symptom of our individual and collective lack of awareness. Each problem humanity faces is a direct consequence of our lack of understanding that our misuse of Thought, individually and as a collective, is at cause in the parlous state in which we find ourselves.

NOTHING CAN TAKE PRECEDENCE OVER THE REALITY THAT WE, AS A COLLECTIVE, ARE AT CAUSE IN BOTH THE PROBLEMS WE FACE AND, EQUALLY, IN THE SOURCE OF THE SOLUTIONS TO WHAT AILS US.

We welcome the support of people who see beyond the limitations and ideological constraints of politics and all forms of coercive power and control to be a part of this project. And we understand that we must work constructively within the political systems.

Our sole motivation is the sustainability of planet Earth, the natural world and all sentient beings.

We cannot be plainer. Our very function is to dispel the myths that blind us and, with kindness, understanding, wisdom and common sense, to counter those myths with the reality that we are both the cause of the problems and the source of the solutions. And to point to how we can contribute to the solutions in an engaging, inspiring way that taps the essence of who we are as human beings.

In summary, we understand that people:

• who become informed and engaged in seeing the cause of the prevailing reality of our own and, as a consequence, of global unsustainability and,
• who, as a result of that engagement, experience a change of mind and therefore heart,
• (that is, their worldview around what is at cause in creating this parlous state environmentally, economically and socially, and what they need to do),

will themselves transform and, with their fresh thinking and new behaviours, will become part of the solution, helping to create the massive planetary transformation necessary.

ASSISTING, FACILITATING, ENCOURAGING AND SHOWING THOSE INTERESTED INDIVIDUALS A WAY FORWARD IN CREATING CHANGE IS THE REALM OF POSSIBILITY PROJECT’S JOB. IT’S OUR ONLY JOB.

HOW WE VIEW THE NEXUS THAT EXISTS BETWEEN SEEING POSSIBILITY AND SEEING IMPOSSIBILITY

As The Realm of Possibility Project moves forward, we must strive to express ourselves in ways that make sense to those we speak with regarding the validity, potential and efficacy of our proposition. Essentially, we operate as human beings from either a state mind that is seeing or being influenced by having seen Possibility, or from a state of mind that is seeing impossibility.

The quality of our relationship with our self, with our life partners, with our family, friends, colleagues, neighbours and the rest of the world reflects that state – one of Possibility or one of impossibility.

We recognise that our state of mind is often poor – we see life from a state of impossibility. That is the beginning, the middle and the end to what ails the world.

To prosecute our case, we need to demonstrate that the remedy for what ails each of us is to see and be influenced from a state of Possibility more of the time. That is the task we face.

Moreover, we strive to identify the extent to which various broad groupings of people see and respond to the idea that we are the source of our problems via our erroneous thinking, and how they might think about and respond to our messages.

In the broadest possible terms, we have identified the following four groupings.

Keep in mind as you read the following four categories that each of us can be accurately categorised as doing the best we can see to do; waking up to seeing Possibility is the transformative element in moving forward.

Group A – AWAKE & THUS COMMITTED

These individuals acknowledge to a significant degree their own 100% contribution to the parlous state of the world. These individuals join the dots between their state of mind and a sustainable natural environment, a sustainable economic environment and a sustainable societal environment.

This grouping of individuals are living their lives within their community in a more conscious way, and are kind, understanding people who live life with a high level of wisdom and common sense.

Group A people demonstrate in their lives how to live in a stable, sustainable, giving and loving world.

This group is intrinsically motivated to protect the natural environment.

Group B – AWAKE & COMMITTED TO VARYING DEGREES

These individuals acknowledge to a limited degree their contribution to what ails themselves and the world. Their understanding of and attitudes toward human thinking being at cause in the problem the world faces varies widely.

They have concerns about the existential threats we face, such as climate change, the disparity between the haves and have-nots, and the breakdown in social cohesion throughout the world. But again, to varying degrees, these individuals currently feel lost, believing that anything they do doesn’t count in the grand scheme of things. Therefore, they are not drivers of kindness, understanding, wisdom and common sense within their communities in addressing our pressing environmental, economic and social problems.

Unlike Group A, these people are more likely to focus on personal, tangible concerns and priorities. These include job security, the economy, health, education and anything which appears to be more pressing and immediate than creating a sustainable world at peace with itself.

This Group, to a degree, is motivated intrinsically around caring for others and the natural environment, but their extrinsic values and personal needs and more materialistic lifestyles hold sway in their lives.

Group C – ASLEEP AND COMMITTED TO THEIR OWN BELIEFS, OPINIONS, JUDGEMENTS AND CIRCUMSTANCES

These individuals point at ‘them out there’ and to external problems as to what ails them and the world.

These people currently represent the largest part of the population. Variously, they may feel confused or lack interest in understanding the state of their own minds and therefore the state of the world they are creating.

They see the world coming at them, not being created by them.

This group is driven by its intrinsic need for survival – food and shelter and extrinsic values such as having enough money. These folks don’t recognise that the very things they need and value are at risk due to the existential threats to the stability and sustainability of the world.

Group D (Mixed Group) – THE DENIERS, IDEOLOGUES, MONEY- AND POWER-DRIVEN

These individuals also point to external problems as to what ails themselves and the world. These people represent a very influential, often financially and politically powerful section of the population, and are driven very strongly by their extrinsic values.

In the main, this group deny their personal 100% contribution to the world we create. Their heavy conditioning blinds them to seeing that we, not ‘them’, are at cause in the world we create.

Members of this group are often active in disputation, seeking power and control. Their level of activism may confine itself to the ballot box but frequently extends its influence to sectarian and other forms of violence. This group, because of its entrenched views, extrinsic values, is the hardest to reach.

FOR ALL OF US, YOU AND I, FALLING INTO THIS LAST GROUP IS THE BIGGEST THREAT WE FACE. WE MUST AVOID ‘SMOKING OUR OWN DOPE’ AND CONTINUE TO LOOK IN THE DIRECTION OF OUR INTRINSIC VALUES – KINDNESS, UNDERSTANDING, WISDOM AND COMMON SENSE: THE REALM OF POSSIBILITY AND SEEING AFRESH.

CHANGING ATTITUDES

SUSTAINED, RELEVANT, ENGAGING, FACILITATIVE COMMUNICATION will create openness.

The Realm of Possibility Project’s primary task is to facilitate transformation in people’s awareness so:

• there is a migration from Group B to A, and from Group C into B
• Possibility is seen by the most powerful and intrangient group, and a migration from D to C occurs

The more people who migrate into a more intrinsically motivated group – including politicians and other key spheres of influence such as industry, commerce and media – the greater will be the impact on our world.

Group A

Since these people are very concerned and willing, they form most of our initial support base either directly or indirectly.

Group B

These are our secondary target audience. When these Australians are effectively communicated with, influenced at the level of their intrinsic values and shown a way forward, large numbers will support the same personal and collective outcomes around self-awakening as Group A.

Once Group A increases in number, it will be a voting force that no political party of any persuasion can ignore. Indeed, politicians of all persuasions will seek the endorsement of these people.

(The Realm of Possibility Project contends that the critical mass and momentum to produce some change is upward of 20% of the population. For a significant change, critical mass is upward of 30%. Massive change requires upward of 40%. That said, as we materially influence a real and sustainable awakening, it is eminently possible that a further 5 to 15% will progressively grasp the significance of the inside-out nature of the human experience and create the community awakening needed).

Group C

Our outcome is to adopt fresh, powerful values-based communications to redress uninformed scepticism, lack of interest, and apathy. If we maintain our focus and energy to inform Group C, breathe life and engagement into our conversation with them and reinforce the links between inaction, and personal and family consequences in a way that encourages transformation rather than frightens people, there will be migration into Group B.

Group D

This group, like most of us a lot of the time, are certain they are right and others are wrong. We are not targeting this group, but need to respectfully acknowledge their beliefs, opinions and judgements without insisting on our own position. If we fall into that trap, we ourselves are firmly in Group D.

THE CHALLENGES IN SUMMARY

1. The current state of the world suggests too few people understand or appreciate the magnitude and immediacy of the threat that we, the people, pose to life on Earth.
2. Similarly, too few fully comprehend that our contribution via our seeing Possibility or seeing impossibility is the source of the threat we pose.
3. Knowledge of the availability of the simple but profound understanding we point to is almost non-existent, and its very simplicity in the face the prevailing world view – the beliefs, opinions and judgement – is its greatest virtue and perhaps its greatest challenge.
4. General community apathy is high. In this psychological environment, cynicism and inaction prevail. Without a shift in community understanding, and thus perception and attitude, the course humanity is on is one of self-destruction.
5. The world is hostage to our fears, ignorance and thus the society of expediency we have created.
6. Funding, volunteer skills, and awakened and thus motivated people are currently in short supply. Conveying THE REALM OF POSSIBILITY’S message rests largely on the extent to which we can energise and augment this existing small force.
7. Summing up: We will encounter people who are certain that what we point toward is a dubious concept at best, with questionable foundations, and therefore is not to be taken seriously.

A FINAL WORD

We recognise that THE REALM OF POSSIBILITY PROJECT’S intentions are bold. Some will say unrealistic, others a mission impossible.

We say in response: with a kind and consistent approach, we can and will, as a group looking in the direction of Possibility, halt the drift toward impossibility thinking – thinking which, in observing social media, watching the nightly news or reading the daily newspapers, is endemic.

Only by individual human insight into the realm of Possibility, sustained by a sufficient number of us over the long term, can we build community will to ultimately overcome the impossibility thinking that plagues the world and is at the heart of each problem humanity faces.

Without that action, our life-supporting ecological environment will collapse. We will face the devastation of our life-supporting arable land, precious waterways, clean air and, as a result, all sentient beings.

We must stop relying on our politicians to take the lead. We must show them the way forward.

The implications are clear if we do nothing. It’s not enough to be witness to disaster, and nor is it necessary. There is urgent work to be done by us all.

THE REALM OF POSSIBILITY PROJECT welcomes your support and involvement in whichever way/s you’re able to contribute to creating community understanding and thus a kinder, wiser populous and a more peaceful and sustainable world.