There are those among us who think clearly and speak the truth as they see it.
There are those among us who impose their dark, cloudy confusions on others and distort the truth with lies and manipulations.

There are those among us who live in the present and know grace.
There are those among us who are trapped in past or future and know only illusion.

There are those among us who listen quietly to their inner wisdom.
There are those among us who shout out their discomforts as they scream at the agony within.

There are those among us who have tasted sweet perfection.
here are those among us who are sure it’s all horribly, horribly wrong.

There are those among us who comprehend only things and say that they are being objective.
There are those among us who experience only feelings and say that they are being subjective.

There are those among us who are hollow and incomplete.
There are those among us who are joyful and replete.

There are those among us living in darkness if living it may be.
There are those among us dancing in light forever.

There are those among us with faces aflame in hatred and pain.
There are those among us with faces serene in compassion and understanding.

There are those among us who believe they are less than us.
There are those among us who know they are more than us.

There are those among us with nothing further to say.
There are those among us who never stop saying it.

« « § : § : § » »

In the silent, still coolness of the night when the heat of the day’s bombardments have begun to smolder and we are gratefully, blissfully at rest – what neurons trigger their synapses within our brains to release their loads of chemical reality? What energies transform themselves into the dreamscapes of our flickering consciousness? What indigo timelessness do we return to like lovers snuggling under the blankets? What renewals does the body sing out to the rhythmic heartbeat of our being? Are we particles in a stew of biological collectives or waves in the relentless tides of unfathomable gravities?

Some of us paint pictures with pigments, some with numbers, some with music, some with words, some not at all. If we do not give ourselves – even occasionally – the opportunity to explore the uniqueness of our talents and passions, how then can we understand when it is time to show love and compassion?

No doubt about it, we are a blend of the physical, the mental-emotional and the spiritual. As human beings we owe it to ourselves – indeed, we owe it to the universe – to use as much of our individual and collective uniqueness and creativity as possible in the service of life here on planet Earth. When we neglect any part of ourselves and our human culture, we lose the spark of our divine origins and sink back into hopelessness and despair.

What can we do to fulfill our own greatest potential?

As individuals we can grow.
One of the perpetual facets of our individuality is that we never stop growing. We grow through the various stages of life, seeking out relationships, accomplishing our tasks and engaging in things that define who we are as individuals. We never stop learning. The moment we begin to know it all, we begin to die. The body learns new ways of expressing its physicality, the mind conquers new challenges, and the heart forms new bonds with ever greater depth and meaning.

Individual growth is significant and pervasive within each one of us. Sometimes we forget that and it seems like nothing in our lives ever changes, that we are the same today as we were yesterday, that the only difference between our youth and our maturity is a matter of degree not the altering landscapes of our creations.

As individuals we believe in individual uniqueness and often lose sight of how which piece of the puzzle we help fill in.

As a society we can relate to each other.
Like individuals, societies have their own set of challenges as well as their triumphs. Societies come and go over many generations of individuals. When individuals are long forgotten, the accomplishments of a society live on. On the path from individuality to collective identity, social structures are created and destroyed that seek to accommodate both the separate components of and the entire system of the society itself.

Like individuals, societies may be well-meaning but misguided. They may be fair or unfair, generous or selfish. Where societies and individuals really begin to differentiate is in the ways that they relate to each other. The rules and conventions that govern social groups interactions with each other are necessarily more serious and less flexible than most individual interactions.

Societies must learn not only to relate to their individual members but also to other societies as well.

As a world we can coordinate our efforts.
It is said that human beings inhabit the world but perhaps it would be more accurate to say that human being inhabit their own body-minds whereas societies truly inhabit the world. social structures like nations respond to planetary conditions and set massive goals for themselves that go far beyond the individual’s relevance to resources, timelines, evolution and history.

This has become sometimes painfully obvious as we enter into an age of worldwide interconnections. It demands an entirely new way of managing things, including the needs of individuals and societies. At this level, everything requires a high degree of coordinated communication, allocation, development and oversight.

The world must take responsibility for things – everyone and everything.

About the Author
Timothy Thompson is a professional freelance writer/editor whose work with Dream Manifesto helps illuminate life for online and offline audiences around the world. He currently makes his home in southern California and is working on several content writing and editing projects. Visit Thompson InkWorks for information.

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As with any complex structure (the mind being about as complex as it gets), it is best tackled by breaking it down into smaller components. Human mental faculty can be categorized into six major components: imagination, intuition, perception, memory, will, and reason. Defining and exploring these six components will lead to understanding how they improve our chances of achieving success.

Imagination
Of the six components of mental faculty, imagination is the most complicated but also of vital importance. Imagination is defined as the human ability to construct images, sensations, or concepts at a time when not being perceived by physical senses – sight, smell, taste, hearing, and touch. It is literally creating a feeling or thought without a stimulus, using only the mind itself. Elements of past experience with the senses or of preexisting concepts are used and arranged to create the imaginative construct.

Imagination has thought to have been a necessary component in the evolution and survival of the human species as it helps people to solve complex problems simply by thinking about them and envisioning the possible outcomes of specific actions. It is for this same reason that imagination is important for success. Unique and efficient methods for achieving a goal initially arise from imagination and later are verified through experimentation.

Intuition
Intuition is the most highly debated of the six components of mental faculty. Its very existence is questioned by scientists and philosophers alike. The strict definition of intuition is a priori knowledge or a belief generated in immediacy. Most people understand intuition to be a “feeling” about a person, place, thing, or situation that arises to the front of the mind in a moment without consciously thinking about it. It is seen as a judgment that arises out of thin air or a mystical, extra-sensory perception.

Scientists believe intuition is actually an internal process that often relies on past experience but it occurs subconsciously and so quickly that it seems to appear out of “thin air.” Colloquially, intuition is often referred to as a “gut” feeling because it doesn’t seem to come from the mind. These feelings can often be useful because they are instantaneous and can be implemented in situation where time is of utmost importance. Successful people often credit their intuition for helping them along the way.

Perception
Perception is easily defined but has far-reaching implications. As the process by which people gain an understanding of the information we attain through the physical senses, perception affects the entire worldview and how we react socially to others. Differences in societies from around the world come about largely through having different perceptions or the unspoken agreement of which perceptions are correct or “good.” As it deals with success, perception has two uses.

The first is from the basic definition of understanding the stimuli brought to our senses. On this level, perception means to be aware. Always be aware of what you are feeling, tasting, seeing, hearing, and smelling. Only by being completely aware of our surroundings and interactions can we be informed enough to make the best possible decisions. Always be aware of each step, each word someone says, and each nuance of body language.

The second use of perception is in understanding that another may perceive something differently than you. By understanding this, we can learn how to deal with people without the misunderstandings that come from having differing perceptions.

Memory
Memory is a two part process. Most people think of memory as retaining information. However, stored information is not of much use without the additional ability of being able to recall that information. So memory both files it away and pulls it back out when required by the situation. There are three different types of memory in humans. Sensory memory allows us to recall perceptions. We see something and then we can form the image again in our imagination when it is taken away.

Sensory memory is an important part of imagination. Without this memory, imagination would be so abstract as to be impractical. Short-term memory allows us to remember information without practice for a period of a few seconds to one minute. Traditionally, it is held that short-term memory can hold from 5 to 9 items, while others report that it is much lower at 4 or 5 items maximum.

Not much can be done to improve short-term memory. What is of use is being able to move short-term memory to long-term memory. Exercises have been developed to help improve memory and thus information that is always available. Success largely comes about from the availability of information and nothing is better than information available instantly from memory.

Will
Will is a shortened form of willpower, defined by Friedrich Nietzsche as “any internally motivated action.” Nietzsche further expressed will as a creative spark. Will is what makes us do anything. Wanting something is never enough to achieve or obtain it. Action is almost always necessary, and for action to take place, will is required to commit the action.

People with high willpower do not give up easily and succumb to failure. This is a major component of the successful person. It is a rare occasion when someone achieves success on the first try. Success is usually the result of several failures. Many people fail simply because they stop trying and the determining factor comes to having the ability to get back up after being knocked down. Those with low will are also more suggestible by others. It takes will to retain conviction and to not be turned away simply because someone suggests that your success is not possible.

Reason
Reason is the important mental faculty used to draw conclusions from ideas, situations, or premises. Reason is largely alike with rationality or rationalization. Reason is often confused with logic; however, logic is a means of reasoning and not reason itself. Reason can be illogical and based on a set of false assumptions or untested results. It is generally accepted today that the rules of logic are the best-suited means to sound reason. Logic dictates that reason follow a set of empirical rules based on previous experience and our knowledge of scientific truths.

Reason itself is a means to seek truth and comes about through either deduction or induction. Imagination is largely affected by reason and vice versa. Reason is also often in opposition to emotions. Following emotional responses invariably leads away from success unless the specific success trying to be attained is directly connected to compassion. Emotion does play a part in the lives of the successful but very few will say that decisions leading to the success were made based on emotion.

By learning about and working on these six components of mental faculty, the odds of success greatly increase. Imagination, intuition, perception, memory, will, and reason all work off each other strengthening them will ultimately strengthen mental faculty as a whole, which is a hallmark of successful people the world over.

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People used their creative juices to create things that would benefit society and from there, we have grown to a point where new innovations are almost elementary. The abstract definition of innovation has to do with simply taking what we currently have and improving it to better benefit society. There are quite a few examples of this where gifted individuals have taken steps to empowering an entire industry.

What is Innovation?
In its purest form, innovation is what we have seen from many of the developing industries over the last century. It is the molding of current ideas and methods of the development of new ideas based upon what we already know. In order for innovation to be possible, people must continue to think and continue to keep an open mind about various issues. Once businesses and innovators think they have it all figured out, these people cease to improve. From there, the economy becomes stagnant, businesses don’t grow, and capitalism as a whole suffers.

There are many examples of innovation that can be used to illustrate this point. The automobile industry is a perfect place to start, though they have no exactly followed through on that idea over the last decade. In the early 20th century, Americans traveled by foot, by bike, or by train. There obviously were no cars going around from town to town, so people had to find other ways to make it happen.

Some very smart people proposed ideas for powered machines that could fill the void and take people where they needed to go. One of these people was Henry Ford and his original cars set the standard that the industry would live by for some time to come.

The interesting thing about the automobile industry is that it was born out of a spirit of innovation, but things didn’t stop there. All sorts of new ideas were developed, including putting air in tires, developing more complex engines, and a host of other technologies. Over time, as vehicles became more capable, innovations in the safety industry were introduced to the automobile.

Things like airbags, crumble fronts, and anti-lock brakes have been staples that were developed because someone sought to improve what we already had. After that, there were the technological innovations like radios, satellites, and GPS response systems. Over time, things have just gotten better and better, which is one of the reasons why the industry saw its meteoric rise.

Other Examples of Innovation in Society
You don’t have to look very far or very hard to find places where society has evolved and innovations have taken hold. When you walk into your home today, you can flick on a host of lights with only one simple act. Electricity has evolved and the ways that we use it have changed since it was originally found. Even more than that, innovation in how we communicate has taken place over the last century. Gone are the days when the only way to get in touch with someone in another town was the Pony Express or a telegram. We developed phone lines to help with communication and things have grown from there.

Even over the last ten years, innovations in telecommunications have been profound. Just about everyone has a cell phone these days and most people have some form of high-speed internet. These people don’t have to worry about what their options are when they seek to get in touch with someone a world away. They can either fire off an email or make a long distance phone call and within minutes, they can be connected to someone sitting in China or someone doing business in Tokyo. This industry is one where innovation has not slowed down, either. The combination of cell phones and the internet is the new thing, as more people are using Blackberrys and other PDAs in order to stay on the net at all times.

This might seem like a far cry from where we once were, but it’s an example of how a capitalist society can not only benefit from innovation, but also depends upon it. Today, many of the businesses that keep society afloat would not be able to function without the technologies that have been developed and the improvements to those technologies that have been similarly implemented. It is a cycle that has been necessary in nature.

What Happens when Innovation Stops?
One of the biggest fears of any capitalist country is the stopping of innovative thinking. We live in a society that demands the development of these ideas. The earliest inventions seemed like big news at the time, but they are just footnotes in today’s world where things are more complicated and education is more readily available.

Every person in industry has to be looking for new ways to do things and ways to improve upon what we have already developed, or society itself will cease to go any further. When we become stagnant, we run the huge risk of losing out primary means of survival. It is something that’s dire, though on a different level than you might have seen in the old days.

One industry mentioned previously provides a glimpse into what it’s like when innovation ceases to exist anymore. The automotive industry was quite obviously the model for how an industry should operate all throughout the 20th century. It was run by pioneers who started out with a dream and developed that dream into a multi-billion dollar world where everyone was driving a car. Things became affordable, they became safe, and lots of different companies were throwing their hat into the ring. With all of these competing companies, new things popped up often and companies had to keep trying to improve in order to get better and maintain a competitive advantage.

What has happened lately is something that industries in the future must learn from. Instead of continuing to get better and adding new ways for cars to serve consumers, the automotive industry has gotten stagnant. They have just been tweaking little things about vehicles and they’ve been making cosmetic changes to new models instead of developing new ideas. For instance, if you go look at the GMC Yukons made in 2000 and those made in 2009, you will see very little difference, aside from some slight improvements to appearance.

The cars have remained mostly the same and that’s not good for business. Only now, when faced with bankruptcy and the prospect of going out of business have these companies seriously considered new ideas. Consumers would have responded to more fuel-efficient and environmentally friendly cars, but the automotive industry had no reason to pursue those avenues. At the time, they were making plenty of money without pushing the envelope, so there was no motivation to get out and try to improve upon things in a tangible manner. These companies have mostly picked up and started trying to innovate a bit more now, but it might be too late to save them.

Where are the majority of automobile companies now? They are either going out of business or they are begging the government for bailouts to stay in business. Detroit itself is losing jobs by the thousands of and people are being cut that have given their lives to the company. This is the harsh reality of what happens when you cease to improve. When an industry or a sector of a capitalist society sits around and expects improvement to just happen, it rarely happens. Instead, they end up with a result like the one we have today. That is, Saturn shutting down its operations and many big companies buying other car makers in an industry that is struggling mightily.

How Could This Have Been Prevented?
The higher ups at these companies have looked very foolish through all of this, but they should be thanked for providing a blueprint of what not to do in a capitalist society. These executives wonder just what their options were. After all, with fuel prices rising, what were they going to do? The problem, of course, is that they never acted. If they had put the efforts into developing new ideas into these cars that they did in the 1950s, they would have had their solution right in front of them.

The ability to make cars would have been enhanced, prices could have come down, and demand would have increased. Unfortunately this didn’t happen, so we are left to wonder, “What if?”

The argument is that, at some point, innovation becomes more difficult because many of the best ideas have already been explored. That might seem valid except for the fact that almost every generation has struggled with this. New innovations are possible because we currently have the technology to research them and to test them. We have more technology available today to handle these things, so it follows that we should be able to continue pushing the envelope.

At the very least, an industry like the automotive industry should be able to do a good bit more than they have been doing over the last fifteen years.

Innovation and its Place in Capitalist Society
Capitalism is not an economic system that was designed to be easy. It is one where entire industries sometimes get swallowed up and people who don’t continue to improve end up getting cut out. Because of the nature of the beast, it is absolutely essential that everyone involve keeps looking for ways to improve. That doesn’t just include looking for new technologies, either. Many of the best innovators are those people who come up with new ways to analyze performance and new ways to think about business. Efficiency is a key in capitalism and that only comes as a result of long and hard thinking about where you are as a business and where you are headed, as well.

Innovation alone will not make a capitalist society go and it won’t help a capitalist society survive. It does play a very key part of the equation, though. As the folks in the automotive industry can attest, the moment we stop looking forward and developing to the fullest of our ability is the moment that we are doomed to something like bankruptcy. It may not seem fair, but it is a reality that many before us have lived with and it is something that they coped with. Moving forward, it is something that we will have to face, as well.

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For more than twenty minutes, the girl sat with her arms curled around her paper, totally absorbed in what she was doing. The teacher found this fascinating. Eventually, she asked the girl what she was drawing. Without looking up, the girl said, “I’m drawing a picture of God.” Surprised, the teacher said, “But nobody knows what God looks like.”

The girl said, “They will in a minute.”

I love this story because it reminds us that young children are wonderfully confident in their own imaginations. Most of us lose this confidence as we grow up. Ask a class of first graders which of them thinks they’re creative and they’ll all put their hands up. Ask a group of college seniors this same question and most of them won’t.

I believe passionately that we are all born with tremendous natural capacities, and that we lose touch with many of them as we spend more time in the world. Ironically, one of the main reasons this happens is education. The result is that too many people never connect with their true talents and therefore don’t know what they’re really capable of achieving.

In that sense, they don’t know who they really are.

I travel a great deal and work with people all around the world. I work with education systems, with corporations, and with not-for-profit organizations. Everywhere, I meet students who are trying to figure out their futures and don’t know where to start. I meet concerned parents who are trying to help them – though often steering them away from their true talents on the assumption that their kids have to follow conventional routes to success.

I meet employers who are struggling to understand and make better use of the diverse talents of the people in their companies. Along the way, I’ve lost track of the numbers of people I’ve met who have no real sense of what their individual talents and passions are. They don’t enjoy what they are doing now but they have no idea what actually would fulfill them.

On the other hand, I also meet people who’ve been highly successful in all kinds of fields  who are passionate about what they do and couldn’t imagine doing anything else. I believe that their stories have something important to teach all of us about the nature of human capacity and fulfillment.

As I’ve spoken at events around the world, I’ve found it’s real stories like these, at least as much as statistics and the opinions of experts, that persuade people that we all need to think differently about ourselves and about what we’re doing with our lives; about how we’re educating our children and how we’re running our organizations.

This book contains a wide range of stories about the creative journeys of very different people. Many of them were interviewed specifically for this book. These people tell how they first came to recognize their unique talents and how they make a highly successful living from doing what they love. What strikes me is that often their journeys haven’t been conventional.

They’ve been full of twists, turns, and surprises. Often those I interviewed they said that our conversations for the book revealed ideas and experiences they hadn’t discussed this way before. The moment of recognition. The evolution of their talents. The encouragement or discouragement of family, friends, and teachers. What made them forge ahead in the face of numerous obstacles.

Their stories are not fairy tales, though. All of these people are leading complicated and challenging lives. Their personal journeys have not been easy and straightforward. They’ve all had their disasters as well as their triumphs. None of them has “perfect” lives. But all of them regularly experience moments that feel like perfection. Their stories are often fascinating.

But this book isn’t really about them. It’s about you.

My aim in writing it is to offer a richer vision of human ability and creativity and of the benefits to us all of connecting properly with our individual talents and passions. This book is about issues that are of fundamental importance in our lives and in the lives of our children, our students, and the people we work with.

I use the term the Element to describe the place where the things we love to do and the things we are good at come together. I believe it is essential that each of us find his or her Element, not simply because it will make us more fulfilled but because, as the world evolves, the very future of our communities and institutions will depend on it.

The world is changing faster than ever in our history. Our best hope for the future is to develop a new paradigm of human capacity to meet a new era of human existence. We need to evolve a new appreciation of the importance of nurturing human talent along with an understanding of how talent expresses itself differently in every individual. We need to create environments—in our schools, in our workplaces, and in our public offices—where every person is inspired to grow creatively. We need to make sure that all people have the chance to do what they should be doing, to discover the Element in themselves and in their own way.

This book is a hymn to the breathtaking diversity of human talent and passion and to our extraordinary potential for growth and development. It’s also about understanding the conditions under which human talents will flourish or fade. It’s about how we can all engage more fully in the present, and how we can prepare in the only possible for a completely unknowable future.

To make the best of ourselves and of each other, we urgently need to embrace a richer conception of human capacity.

Watch a 20 minute video: Ken Robinson on TED about education

For more information please visit: Sir Ken Robinson – The Element

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I get back home, fully intending to sit down at the computer. But I don’t. And all the while I’m feeling bad and stressed about not writing. What is wrong with me? Maybe I’m just lazy. Or maybe unconsciously I don’t really want to write. Or maybe it just means that I’m not really cut out to be a writer. ‘Writers write’, I tell myself.

Through thousands of hours of psychotherapy with artists, I have found that most are quite familiar with the experience of being artistically blocked, or of procrastinating and avoiding their creative work. “If only I weren’t so distractible” or “I must not really want to succeed” are common complaints I’ve heard. These blocks can lead to non-productivity as well as to more serious problems such as depression and addictions.

Until now, most experts have offered behavioral strategies to help artists initiate and sustain their creative process: “set aside a time and place everyday for the creative endeavor” or “tell yourself you can do it” or “you must exercise a great deal of self-discipline.” Structure can certainly help artists to focus and to discipline their time. But many artists do not find the strength to overcome deeply embedded blocks with this advice. “If it were that easy, I’d do it,” they say.

New research in neuroscience and contemporary psychological approaches show that these strategies are only part of the answer. Revolutionary understandings in clinical psychology now suggest that healthy interpersonal relationships are the fuel for optimal emotional, cognitive, intellectual, behavioral, and creative functioning. Contrary to how we’ve been taught to value independence and autonomy, this new scientific evidence is showing that we are at our best when we are connected with others.

Applying these findings to the secret, internal world of the artist, the capacity to be creative is actually generated by the experience of connectedness with others. When we are feeling frightened or are lacking self-confidence and vitality, we need to look at the state of our relationships, rather than to blame ourselves for being weak and inadequate, or to think that we must somehow find strength and courage from deep within ourselves. We cannot create in a vacuum of isolation: we are helped along in the creative process by certain kinds of emotional support from others that help us to be at our best and to realize our full potentials.

When we shift our focus from searching within ourselves to reaching for healthy connections, we will be propelled through the creative process to complete a work of art.  To immerse into creativity, we need to feel strong, inspired, and comforted. Rather than existing as static “traits” in our selves, strength, inspiration, and comfort are generated in our relationships with mirrors, heroes, and twins:

Find Strength in Mirrors
An artist finds the strength to create through feeling special, recognized, and appreciated by others. Share your ideas and your work with others who are likely to appreciate your talents and your efforts. Allow yourself to “take in” this kind of psychological nourishment.  If you don’t have this kind of support, imagine it.

Find Inspiration in Heroes
An artist finds motivation and inspiration to create through admiring, respecting, and hoping to please a parent, teacher, mentor, or idol. Reach for connection with your “real life” hero or immerse in your idol’s work, ideas, or art.

Find Comfort in Twins
An artist finds comfort through the creative process by feeling understood and understandable by others who are in the same boat. Reach for connections with “like-kind” (for example, join a writer’s group, or take a painting class, or go to conferences, artist retreats, or galleries).  Share your hopes and dreads, triumphs and defeats, with these empathic others – they’ve been there – they understand.

Throughout a creative project, you are likely to grapple with core feelings of safety, trust, and hope. When you become aware of how your relationships with others (or lack of relationships) impact your ongoing sense of self, you can then try to elicit more of what you need to carry you through the myriad of emotions involved in the creative process.

It is not weak to need others.  In fact, being able to create and sustain mutual relationships is the key to our continued growth as artists and as individuals. In the end, it is not really how much willpower or discipline we have that determines our capacity to enter into a creative state. Standing at water’s edge, looking at the vast unknown and uncertainty involved in the creative process, it is our relationships with others that will empower or inhibit our dive.

About the author:
Dr. Anne Paris is a clinical psychologist who has helped artists along in their creative processes for over 20 years. Her approach, which is based on cutting-edge psychological understandings and research, appreciates the inner world of the artist in a new way and points to the importance of connections with others throughout the creative process.

Through this revolutionary approach, she has helped famous, professional, and hobby artists start and sustain their creative process so they could complete a work of art.  She is the author of Standing at Water’s Edge: Moving Past Fears, Blocks, and Pitfalls to Discover the Power of Creative Immersion. You can visit her online at: anneparis.com.

Based on the book Standing at Water’s Edge: Moving Past Fears, Blocks, and Pitfalls to Discover the Power of Creative Immersion © 2008 by Anne Paris. Printed with permission of New World Library, Novato, CA.

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The answer: have a personal goal to take responsibility for your internal experience and love yourself for who you are. This one step, if taken by all, will build more trust, love and compassion than any other. This one step is powerful enough to shift everything toward paradise quickly yet with grace.

2. Follow your Internal Guidance and express your personal brilliance
Each of us has a living Internal Guidance System (IGS) that is consistently attempting to align us with more love, joy and compassion. Our IGS delivers a series of personal desires that can be felt as an opening of energy in our body.

Your unique individual brilliance is being asked to be contributed through out your day, whenever you feel this openness it is a request from the Universe. It is in you having the courage to be brilliant and fulfill such requests that the answer to our future lies.

To seed, nourish and birth the dream of paradise reborn. Without your internal wisdom and expression of you, we will never reach this goal. Every human is apart of the symbiotic expression of earth. We are apart of nature not separate from it, so why would we not be a necessary part of the whole. Nothing in nature can be eliminated without the whole being affected. Such as it is with your beautiful consciousness, when aligned with Divine Guidance.

3. Manifest your world consciously and with intent
You are already manifesting every moment. It is not whether you want to participate in manifesting the world around you, it is only a matter of whether you do it consciously or unconsciously. Do you desire to be a contributor to our reality in an empowered way or a disempowered way?

What every you chose, for not choosing is a choice, you must taking credit for manifesting the world. Focus your thoughts on what you intend and enjoy the energy that is generated by supporting all the achievements being made toward a more beautiful world.

4. Create your personal vision of paradise and spread it among those you love
You have a source of divine energy flowing through you. This energy is desire that opens your entire body when it is focused upon. Each and every desire you have for the future is divine energy guiding your toward that future being achieved. You have inside you the part of paradise that you are responsible for believing in and creating.

Find your personal vision of what paradise will be and share it with all those you love and who love you. Spark them in their vision of what Paradise would be. It is the next global conversation worth having and it is up to you to start it!

5. Create community and hold it as a necessary foundation of our future
We are all on the verge of one great experiment coming to its fruition and the next one is about to begin. What is the next beautiful experiment you might ask? Divine collaboration. We have all been held separate by our egoic mind long enough. We all now know how to be an individual and many of us are beginning to wake up to our Oneness as well.

It is this unique combination that makes rebuilding of our human community both locally and globally so exciting and necessary. Our next human experiment will build itself on the foundation of community. Hold community close to your heart. Connect with others of like mind, of like region and share your gifts. It is in our relating that we will find the answers to all the worlds suffering so that it can be transmuted in to our greatest shining successes.

6. Be grateful for all your experiences and all that is
Every element of life holds a sacred gift. Some gifts take longer to unwrap than others. The most empowered way to receive anything is to give thanks to the giver before the gift is unwrapped. Gratitude thus occurs before you have decided if what you are being given is what you desired to receive. It is no different with life. Hold a body of gratitude then once the experience has completely unfolded you can see what the gift means to you.

7. Release attachment including being attached to non-attachment
Most everyone has attachment. Even those who strive for non-attachment can find themselves attached to the principle itself. This is what the ego does with all rules, guidelines or decrees. For this reason it can be more effective to simply release attachment when it is found than to be non-attached. Releasing attachment to outcomes promotes miracles occurring.

It allows for you as a being to shift from a human having a spiritual experience into Spirit having a human experience. This allows divine source energy to move and create through you unhindered by the ego’s understanding of what should be. There is no greater gift to the world than to allow divine energy to have it’s way through you.

8. See simplicity as the core of sacred living
Every moment is sacred, every molecule is sacred. There is simplistic geometry to all of life. It is in the simple moments that the sacred in life is found, felt, embodied and expressed. There is such great richness and depth in a small blooming flower, enough joy to last a lifetime if felt fully. Look for this simplicity throughout the complexity of your day and the complexity will wash away leaving behind the world of sacred living.

9. Express unconditional love
Unconditional love is in you always. It never needs to be found, it never needs to be generated, it never needs anything accept a noticing that it is there. Love is at the core of every atom of your being. EVERY ATOM. There are approximately 7*10 to the 27th atoms in your body, that is 7 followed by 27 zero’s. Imagine how much love that is inside of you available for you to express. Therefore you already are unconditional love so now it is about remembering and holding the intent to allow it to be expressed through you.

Be a commitment to you being love expressed. One last thing love is not necessarily the mushy gushy love of romance. Love is the practical, warm, compassionate, vibrant, life force energy that is coursing through the entire universe. So now you know you can express it at work too.

10. Look for the universal Oneness in your life
There is a universal Oneness that is under the surface of everything. It can be a big concept to tap into, so start small. Look for the synchronistic moments, the perfection of the way your life unfolds and most powerfully the commonality that those around you have with you. Even in moments of strife the Oneness is there. You can find it if you ask to see it.

Nature and the Universe are always secretly giving you clues of this as you roam about living the life you have chosen. By asking to see Oneness in your life it will leave more obvious clues for you to find. The inquiry brings with it a deeper understanding of Trust and Surrender to the adventure we have created for Our Self.

About the author:
Zen DeBrucke, teaches the Principles of The Internal Guidance System and founder of the Ahuma Institute. More information can be found at: ahumainstitute.com and internalguidancesystem.com.

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No less an authority than Joseph Schumpeter put it this way: “to carry any improvement into effect is a task entirely different from the inventing of it, and a task, moreover, requiring entirely different kinds of aptitudes.” In other words, it takes work to turn good ideas into something helpful and profitable.

Get Ideas from Everywhere
Human beings naturally have good ideas. They’ll share them with you if you let them. But if you shoot down or ridicule every new idea you hear, people will stop sharing ideas with you.

Companies that produce lots of innovation start with ideas. They encourage idea sharing. As Jack Welch recommends, they get every brain in the game.

They also know that most great ideas don’t sound so great at first. Great ideas become great as people work at molding them and shaping them and stretching them into useful form.

To get as many ideas as possible, create a climate where people can share ideas. They won’t all be great ones. But some will and that’s all you need. The other advantage of getting ideas from everyone is that you’ll benefit from ideas you didn’t have to develop yourself.

Learning from Others
Not only do other people get lots and lots of ideas. Some of them take the time to work out the details that you wouldn’t spend time on. My experience with yogurt is an example.

I love yogurt and my favorite is fruit-on-the-bottom. For years I figured I had two options. I could eat through the yogurt down to the fruit. Or I could stand there in the kitchen and mix the fruit and yogurt together by stirring with my spoon.

Then, one day, I was at a friend’s house and I watched his daughter take a container of yogurt out of the refrigerator and shake it vigorously. “What are you doing?” I asked her.

The girl gave me a look that only a teenager can give to a slightly-subnormal adult. “Mixing up my yogurt.” She was polite enough not to add the word, “stupid.”

What a neat trick! Now I shake my yogurt to mix it. Why didn’t I think of that? I probably could have analyzed the problem and come up with the shaking solution, but what I did was working OK, so I didn’t look for anything better.

Look around for innovations that others have created. Ideas that are almost sure to work are the best practices of other companies in your industry. But the breakthrough ideas often come from outside, from an industry that routinely solves a problem that’s new to you. But, sometimes, innovations grow out of accidents or things that some curious soul happens to notice.

Hmmm, that’s Interesting

Interesting things happen all the time. And they can become the source of innovation. But someone has to notice and take the next step.

At the National Institutes of Health, just like in laboratories around the world, researchers used frogs for experiments and often that involves surgery on the frogs. Researchers put the frogs away for the night in water that was filled with organisms that should have made the frogs sick.

But the frogs didn’t get sick. Thousands of researchers for dozens of years thought nothing about that.

Then, in 1987, Dr. Michael Zasloff noticed and wondered why the frogs, with open wounds and in a septic environment weren’t getting sick. I don’t know what he said then, but I bet it was some variant of “Hmmm, that’s interesting.” That curiosity led Dr. Zasloff to the discovery of a new class of antibiotics, which he, being Jewish, named with the Hebrew word “Magainins.”

The fact is that while everybody gets good ideas, not everyone is good at spotting a fortuitous coincidence and then doing the work necessary to turn it into something worthwhile. Japanese researchers Teruyasu Murakami and Takashi Nishiwaki found that only 5 percent of the people in most organizations are “idea creators.” They suggest that a further 10 percent are idea supporters and promoters, but that 85 percent are “idea killers.”

It’s easy to spot the idea creators in your shop. They’re the people who always want to find out why something works the way it does or try out an idea about improving a process. Put them together with supervisors who are idea supporters and promoters and they’ll be an unending source of innovation. But they probably won’t get it right the first time.

Inventors Don’t Know Everything
You would think that the person who came up with a product idea or invention would be the best person to predict the uses for it. You’d be wrong. Thomas Edison is a good example.

When Thomas Edison introduced his phonograph in 1877 he could think of several uses for it. Why, you could record the last words of people who were about to die. You could teach spelling. You could make a talking clock. You could have a dictating machine for your office.

What wasn’t important to Edison was using the phonograph to play music. Maybe it was because he had hearing problems, but Edison thought that the reproduction of music was a frivolous use of his wonderful invention and cheapened its image.

Other people didn’t think the same way. They liked the idea of using the phonograph to play music. When they wanted to create an early jukebox that would play music at the drop of a coin, Edison objected. It took him almost twenty years to accept the fact that playing music was the use that mattered most to people, that mattered most to the market.

Don’t fall in love with your technology. Don’t think people will love what you love. Remember Edison and the phonograph. Remember Sony.

Sony was sure that their Beta format videocassette recorder would conquer the market and the world. It didn’t, in part because the higher quality video that Beta offered was less important to customers and video rental stores than longer running time per cassette. In the end, the customer knows.

Get the Customers Involved
Customers may not be able to tell you what spiffy new products and services they will like, but that’s OK. They can tell you what their problems are. They can react knowledgably and helpfully to an idea you’ve got for a product or service. And they’ll find ways to use your product that you never thought of.

This afternoon I was in the supermarket. A man near me was using his camera phone to beam a picture of a can back to his wife at home. After he sent the picture, he put the handset to his ear, “Is that the right one?” he asked. He listened, then picked the can off the shelf and put it in his basket.

The people who invented the camera feature for cell phones never imagined all the uses people put them to. My contractor uses his to check on a job across town without driving to see if an installation is done correctly. People take surreptitious photos in locker rooms. They take pictures of auto accidents to use later in court. And, my favorite, my daughter sends me a picture of my grandson, at his birthday party two time zones away, while the party is in progress.

Customers know best what works for them. That makes one of the best innovation strategies the simple one of getting the customers involved early.

Give it a Try, and Quick!
The company with perhaps the most amazing record of innovation over the last century is the 3M Company. William McKnight was hired as an assistant bookkeeper at 3M in 1907 for the princely sum of $11.55 per week. He rose to become president in 1929 and was chairman of the board from 1949 to 1966. In that time he created the innovation culture that made 3M famous.

As I was working on a way to close this piece, I discovered a collection of his sayings that seemed better than anything I could say. Here they are.

• Listen to anyone with an original idea, no matter how absurd it might seem at first.
• Encourage, don’t nitpick. Let people run with an idea.
• If you put fences around people you get sheep. Give people the room they need.
• Give it a try, and quick!”

About the author:
Wally Bock helps organizations improve productivity and morale, as well as deal with the challenges of massive Boomer retirements. Wally coaches individual managers, and is a popular speaker at meetings and conferences in the US and elsewhere. You can find out more about Wally and his work at his Three Star Leadership web site. This article first appeared in the Three Star Leadership Blog.

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Through thousands of hours of psychotherapy with artists, I have found that most are quite familiar with the experience of being artistically blocked, or of procrastinating and avoiding their creative work. “If only I weren’t so distractible” or “I must not really want to succeed” are common complaints I’ve heard. These blocks can lead to non-productivity as well as to more serious problems such as depression and addictions.

Until now, most experts have offered behavioral strategies to help artists initiate and sustain their creative process: “set aside a time and place everyday for the creative endeavor” or “tell yourself you can do it” or “you must exercise a great deal of self-discipline.” Structure can certainly help artists to focus and to discipline their time. But many artists do not find the strength to overcome deeply embedded blocks with this advice. “If it were that easy, I’d do it,” they say.

New research in neuroscience and contemporary psychological approaches show that these strategies are only part of the answer. Revolutionary understandings in clinical psychology now suggest that healthy interpersonal relationships are the fuel for optimal emotional, cognitive, intellectual, behavioral, and creative functioning. Contrary to how we’ve been taught to value independence and autonomy, this new scientific evidence is showing that we are at our best when we are connected with others.

Applying these findings to the secret, internal world of the artist, the capacity to be creative is actually generated by the experience of connectedness with others. When we are feeling frightened or are lacking self-confidence and vitality, we need to look at the state of our relationships, rather than to blame ourselves for being weak and inadequate, or to think that we must somehow find strength and courage from deep within ourselves. We cannot create in a vacuum of isolation: we are helped along in the creative process by certain kinds of emotional support from others that help us to be at our best and to realize our full potentials.

When we shift our focus from searching within ourselves to reaching for healthy connections, we will be propelled through the creative process to complete a work of art. To immerse into creativity, we need to feel strong, inspired, and comforted. Rather than existing as static “traits” in our selves, strength, inspiration, and comfort are generated in our relationships with mirrors, heroes, and twins:

Find Strength in Mirrors
An artist finds the strength to create through feeling special, recognized, and appreciated by others. Share your ideas and your work with others who are likely to appreciate your talents and your efforts. Allow yourself to “take in” this kind of psychological nourishment. If you don’t have this kind of support, imagine it.

Find Inspiration in Heroes
An artist finds motivation and inspiration to create through admiring, respecting, and hoping to please a parent, teacher, mentor, or idol. Reach for connection with your “real life” hero or immerse in your idol’s work, ideas, or art.

Find Comfort in Twins
An artist finds comfort through the creative process by feeling understood and understandable by others who are in the same boat. Reach for connections with “like-kind” (for example, join a writer’s group, or take a painting class, or go to conferences, artist retreats, or galleries). Share your hopes and dreads, triumphs and defeats, with these empathic others – they’ve been there – they understand.

Throughout a creative project, you are likely to grapple with core feelings of safety, trust, and hope. When you become aware of how your relationships with others (or lack of relationships) impact your ongoing sense of self, you can then try to elicit more of what you need to carry you through the myriad of emotions involved in the creative process. It is not weak to need others. In fact, being able to create and sustain mutual relationships is the key to our continued growth as artists and as individuals. In the end, it is not really how much willpower or discipline we have that determines our capacity to enter into a creative state. Standing at water’s edge, looking at the vast unknown and uncertainty involved in the creative process, it is our relationships with others that will empower or inhibit our dive.

About the author:
Dr. Anne Paris is a clinical psychologist who has helped artists along in their creative processes for over 20 years. Her approach, which is based on cutting-edge psychological understandings and research, appreciates the inner world of the artist in a new way and points to the importance of connections with others throughout the creative process. Through this revolutionary approach, she has helped famous, professional, and hobby artists start and sustain their creative process so they could complete a work of art. She is the author of Standing at Water’s Edge: Moving Past Fears, Blocks, and Pitfalls to Discover the Power of Creative Immersion. You can visit her online at www.anneparis.com.

Based on the book Standing at Water’s Edge: Moving Past Fears, Blocks, and Pitfalls to Discover the Power of Creative Immersion © 2008 by Anne Paris. Printed with permission of New World Library, Novato, CA. www.newworldlibrary.com or 800-972-6657 ext. 52.

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Some years ago an English couple living in India wanted to have a window installed in their home. They located an Indian craftsman and explained what they wanted. They left the house on the appointed day as the carpenter installed the new window. When they returned, they found, to their dismay that the man had botched the job horribly. “Why didn’t you use your common sense?” The wife asked of the carpenter. The man drew himself up with all of his carpenterial dignity and solemnly replied, “Common sense, madam, is a gift from God. I have technical knowledge only.”

In their book Extinction, Paul and Ann Erlich tell a story of parachuting cats. Some years ago, the World Health Organization used DDT to control malarial mosquitoes and houseflies in Borneo. The DDT also killed the parasitic wasps that kept down the local caterpillar population. The caterpillars multiplied and began eating holes in the thatched roofs of houses. Meanwhile, the poisoned houseflies became a sudden bounty for gecko lizards who became sick from eating the flies. The sickened lizards became easy prey to cats who eventually died of their own accumulated burden of DDT. As a result, rats flourished, bubonic plague began to spread and the government was forced to parachute cats, like commandos, into the area. Presumably the cats had easy access through the tattered roofs.

The rational mind needs complexity to feed its inherent ungroundedness. A person knows when he has done something dishonest or hurtful; detailed laws simply obscure the process and give would-be wrongdoers something to hide behind and attorneys a reason to exist. God gave man Ten Commandments written simply on tablets of stone. Although we have not done too well with the Ten, we did the only rational thing and passed millions of additional laws that would consume a large forest of trees just to print. Perhaps we should have tried to master the Ten first. On an even larger scale, questions about life and creation have always been great mysteries to man.

The more scientists learn about nature the more they realize how little they understand. Physicist Gary Zukhov points out that, “Physicists have ‘proved,’ rationally, that our rational ideas about the world in which we live are profoundly deficient.” We have amassed millions of books researching life with no real understanding of it. To quote Carl Jung, “Knowledge does not enrich us, it moves us further from the mythic world in which we were once at home by right of birth.” We substitute a conceptual order for the perceptual order in which our life experience originally comes and then wonder why we cannot answer the essential questions. Rationality does very well with “how?” questions, but very badly with the “whys?” of life. Vaclav Havel, the now former President of the Czech Republic said in a speech:

Classical modern science described only the surface of things, a single dimension of reality. And the more dogmatically science treated it as the only dimension, as the very essence of reality, the more misleading it became. We may know immeasurably more about the universe than our ancestors did, and yet they knew something more essential about it than we do, something that escapes us . . .

Thus, we enjoy all the achievements of modern civilization that have made our physical existence easier in so many important ways. Yet we do not know what to do with ourselves, where to turn.

The world of our experiences seems chaotic, confusing. Experts can explain anything in the objective world to us, yet we understand our own lives less and less. We live in the post-modern world, where everything is possible and almost nothing is certain.

The struggle between rationality and universal knowledge is illustrated by the fable of Adam and Eve. We must remember that the parable taught us was heavily revised to fit the needs of the Church. In the Garden of Eden there is no Adam and there is no Eve, there is just “isness.” “Spiritual interiority” as Jung called it, is not a quality of Reason. Neither Adam or Eve wears a fig leaf because it doesn’t matter. There was nothing to be ashamed of. Adam and Eve eat of the apple of (rational) knowledge (urged on by a serpent) and move into the dualism of subjects and objects. Suddenly they become conscious of their separateness. We see the inauguration of morality and its stepchild, shame. God calls to them and finds them hiding. He says, “Who told you were naked?” He then sends them out of the garden so that they can learn about duality and ego and move beyond both of them. Our job is to find a way out of rational dualism and get back to our essential beingness. That is why we are here.

A large and significant part of our existence lies beyond the realm of rational understanding. Natural states of being such as joy, fear, love, anger, etc., can only be known experientially and communicated empithetically. They defy the limited bounds of rationality. The Hindu saint Mother Meera says, “You cannot know in the beginning. Knowledge comes only from experience. Words and ideas are only useful when you have had the experience.” No matter how intelligent you are, your linear, rational mind will never figure it out. It cannot. When we cut ourselves off from the universal wisdom of the Creator and live in the man-created world of dualities we place ourselves in inherent conflict with life, nature and each other.

The things outside rational understanding cannot be “explained.” Berthold Brecht once asked, “What is the value of a musical instrument to a buyer of brass?” Although we can describe the perspectives and behaviors that accompany a particular state we cannot describe (de-scribe: to place a boundary around) the thing itself. Gregory Bateson once pointed out, “No one can taste an apple for you.” Carl Jung shared this perspective when he wrote, “Knowledge does not enrich us, it moves us further from the mythic world in which we were once at home by right of birth.” “Hundreds of years ago Paracelsus wrote, “Magic has power to experience and fathom things which are inaccessible to human reason. For magic is a great secret wisdom, just as reason is a great public folly.”

Each of us has access to universal wisdom. We call it by many names: intuition, insight, wisdom, inspiration, knowingness, genius, that still small voice, etc., but it is the same in every case. “Intuition” literally means learning from within. It is a state of undifferentiation. Emmanuel Kant coined the term “noumena” to refer to the unknowable realities behind the phenomena of our existence. Lao Tsu called it ãthe trackless path.” “Jehovah” translated means “I am.” In Genesis, God says to Moses, “I am that I am.” Contrast that with Descartes”, “I think, therefore I am.” This is why the Taoists maintain that, “True mind is no mind.” Hui Neng a Zen Patriarch of the 7th century said, ãWisdom is immanent in our minds, it is part of man’s spiritual equipment.” Note that he said “spiritual” not “rational.”

Although the inner voice is fragile and easily overpowered by the noisy ego, all we need do is quiet the mind and listen. There is a place in each of us that is beyond thought, beyond the senses and the mind that gives us a direct experience of life. This inner knowingness is profound beyond description. Lao Tsu wrote, “The Tao which can be known is not the eternal Tao.” We sometimes refer to this inner place as God. It is through prayer (the direct contact with the Creator) that we feel the sacredness of our being. When we experience the natural web of connectedness between all things, we know the divine compassion of the Creator. Without that direct experience, there is fear, uncertainty and disorientation. Because we believe in science we treat inner perceptions as the byproducts of some yet unfathomed and complex rational process. In doing so, as Jung maintained, the divine “degenerates into an external object of worship” and “is robbed of its mysterious relation to the inner man.”

We need the mystical experience, it gives life meaning. It grounds us. Again, to quote Jung, “When God is not acknowledged, egomania develops, and out of this mania comes sickness.” And, Kat Duff continues:

. . . As we forgot the sacred dimension of life, we also lost much of our sense of awe, respect, and humility before all things, which normally place restraints upon our so-human tendency to explore, manipulate and control. So, as Jung explained, egomania develops, a false sense of pride, supremacy, and omnipotence that has lead to all manner of excesses . . .

The great mysteries of life must be experienced; they must be lived. Without them we are forced to survive by cleverness and guile. Duff writes of the Nahuatl Indians:

The Nahuatl peoples believed that we are born with a physical heart, but have to create a deified heart by finding a firm and enduring center within ourselves from which to lead our lives, so that our hearts will shine through our faces, and our features will become reliable reflections of ourselves. Otherwise, they explained, we wander aimlessly through life, giving our hearts to everything and nothing, and so destroy them; . . .

It might be useful to contrast this with Ram Dass’ perspective on Western society:

We come out of a philosophical materialistic framework in which we are totally identified with our bodies and the material plane of existence, and when you’re dead you’re dead so get it while it’s hot. And more is better and now is best because you don’t know when the curtain will come down and it will all be over. And better not to think about that curtain because it’s too frightening.

For more information visit: Ross Bishop

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Imagine a gathering where the worlds top entrepreneurs, designers, scientist and artists present astonishing new ideas. Remarkable ideas from every area of knowledge. Great ideas brought about by passion, ideas that have the power to change the world. What could be called a Cirque Du Soleil of the mind and heart.

People from 26 different countries come together to explore. Something magical happens; there’s nothing more exciting than a bold new idea.

Where they explore ideas to make our future world a much better place. You can say hello to the guy next to you and it could be Al Gore, the finders of Google and Amazon and Aero Space Engineers.

The curator Chris Anderson has infused TED with a strong sense of social purpose, where people want to make a difference in the world. Envision what happens when you bring together people who are brilliant and have all kinds of connections in different areas and resources.

People connect and help each other get ideas into action with offering their expertise, companies, money, and connection. Then with their diversity of ideas, take it out into the world.

History:
TED was born in 1984 out of the observation by Richard Saul Wurman of a powerful convergence between Technology, Entertainment and Design. The first TED included demos of the newly released Macintosh computer and Sony compact disc, while mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot demonstrated how to map coastlines with his newly discovered fractals and AI guru Marvin Minsky outlined his powerful new model of the mind. Several influential members of the burgeoning digerati community were also there, including Nicholas Negroponte and Stewart Brand.

But despite the stellar lineup, the event lost money, and it was six years before Wurman and his partner Harry Marks tried again. This time, the world was ready and the numbers worked. TED has been held regularly in Monterey, California, ever since, attracting a growing and influential audience from many different disciplines united by their curiosity, open-mindedness, a desire to think outside the box … and also by their shared discovery of an exciting secret. (TED was always an invitation only event; it never had an advertising budget or a PR campaign.)

Meanwhile the roster of presenters broadened to include scientists, philosophers, musicians, religious leaders, philanthropists and many others. Over the years, TED speakers have included Bill Gates, Frank Gehry, Jane Goodall, Al Gore, Billy Graham, Peter Gabriel, Quincy Jones, Bono. Yet often the real stars have been the unexpected: Li Lu, a key organizer of the Tiananmen Square student protest; Aimee Mullins, a Paralympics competitor who tried out a new pair of artificial legs onstage; or Jennifer Lin, a 14-year-old pianist whose 6-minute improvisation moved the audience to tears.

For many of the attendees, TED became one of the intellectual and emotional highlights of the year. That was certainly true for media entrepreneur Chris Anderson, who met with Wurman in 2000 to discuss the conference’s future. Wurman, at age 65, was ready to pass on the reins. A deal was struck, and in 2001, Chris’s foundation (The Sapling Foundation) acquired TED, and Chris became TED’s curator.

Chris pledged to stand by the principles that made TED great: the same inspired format, the same breadth of content, the same commitment to seek out the most interesting people on earth and let them communicate what they are passionate about, untainted by corporate influence.

But there were also significant changes under the new ownership. First, the content continued to broaden. TED explicitly sought out the world’s most interesting speakers, no matter what their field of expertise, and there was a growing attempt to reach outside the US. Second, there was a growing realization that the ideas and inspiration generated at TED could and should have an impact well beyond the conference itself.

Accordingly the years 2001–2006 saw three major additions to the TED family:

• A sister conference, TEDGlobal, held in a different country every other year
• The TED Prize, which grants its winners “one wish to change the world”
• A ground-breaking audio and video podcast series, TEDTalks, in which the best TED content is released free online.

TEDTalks proved so popular that in 2007 TED’s website was relaunched around them, allowing a global audience to enjoy free eyeball-to-eyeball access to some of the world’s greatest thinkers, leaders and teachers.

The story continues…
The TED Prize was created as a way of taking the inspiration, ideas and resources that are generated at TED and use them to make a difference in the world.

The prize was introduced in 2005, and it is unlike any other award. Here’s why. Although the winners receive a prize of $100,000 each, that’s the least of what they get. The real prize is that they are granted a WISH. A wish to change the world. There are no formal restrictions on the wish. We ask our winners to think big and to be creative. They are permitted several months of dreaming, brainstorming and planning.

Then they come to TED, and during a special session at the conference, they unveil their wish. The goal is that it creates an incredible sense of excitement and common purpose. It inspires the TED community, and all those who hear about the wish, to offer their help in making the wish come true.

Three winners are chosen each year. They could be anyone with worldchanging potential: inventors or entrepreneurs, designers or artists, visionaries or mavericks, story-tellers or persuaders. But they must be people who the judges believe have the ability to inspire others to do something great for the world. Usually, they themselves and/or the organizations that they lead, will head the effort to make the wish come true.

Through commitments of technology, design, PR, outreach, time, money, expertise and knowledge, individuals and companies work collaboratively to put the pieces of the project together and fulfill the wish. With the support of those inspired by their wish, the TED Prize winners may be able to achieve things that can’t readily be done any other way.

Here’s one example of a wish and how it was brought to fruition:

Cameron Sinclair’s wish:
I wish to create a community that actively embraces open-source design to generate innovative and sustainable living standards for all.

As revealed at TED2007:
The Open Architecture Network launched March 8, 2007 – and on its first day, it was visited by some 25,000 people, who uploaded dozens of new building plans. Its instant success shows how vital a resource this website is.

The OAN is a clearinghouse for designs, but it’s also a living network, where communities can connect with designers and donors, and where builders can manage a project from start to finish, with timelines, commenting tools and forums. Clean design and a powerful backend make the network accessible to anyone worldwide, while Creative Commons licensing allows projects to be sampled, remixed and customized.

“One of the first users,” Cameron says, “is an indigenous building group from the Hopi nation. They’re looking to share their ideas … so that other reservations can do low-income housing.”

Also at TED, one of the OAN’s project partners, AMD, announced the establishment of the Open Architecture Prize, given by AMD’s 50×15 Initiative and Architecture for Humanity — a $250,000 prize for the best open-source design of an “e-community” technology center. The prize money goes to the budget of the new center, and the winning plan will become part of the Open Architecture Network database.

How it came together:

• Sun brought the strength of its technology and the brain power of its engineering team to design and build the Open Architecture Network. It was a global effort, with engineers in the US, Canada and India spending more than 1,000 hours of development time to design and build the back end of the network, using open-source software. The site is powered by Sun Fire servers and Sun StorageTek drives to manage the incredible amount of architectural designs, product specs and databases offered on the Open Architecture Network.
• Hot Studio provided research, strategic concept modeling, user experience and visual design expertise to design a sustainable and scalable interactive system consistent with Architecture for Humanity’s vision. Hot Studio started the process by providing a human-centered design methodology. It created a framework to enable full collaboration across the team that fostered innovative and strategic thinking throughout the project.
• AMD agreed to provide Opteron server processor technologies, as well as dedicated hosting services for the OAN server solution for a period of no less two years.
• TEDsters Dean and Anne Ornish provided free office space for the Architecture for Humanity team in Sausalito for a full year, enabling them to move from Bozeman, MT, to the San Francisco area, where their tech resources are.
• Creative Commons helped to integrate AFH’s licensing system into the network, allowing architects to share their designs, including renderings, sketches and even CAD files, on terms of their choosing while protecting their intellectual property rights.
• TEDster Laura Galloway of Galloway Media Group has provided pro-bono PR
• TEDster Taylor Milsal has given her time as a development director for Architecture for Humanity
• The Sapling Foundation gave a $125K matching grant to the building of the network, which
• TEDsters James and Zem Joaquin and Jay Platt have begun to match, along with a number of AFH community members
• TEDster Peter Skillman, of Palm, provided Treos for the Architecture for Humanity team
• TEDsters Saul Griffith (Squid Labs), Amy Smith (MIT) and Martin Fisher (KickStart) have worked as an informal advisory group
• The firms Reno and Cavanaugh PLLC and Jenner & Block LLP provided legal guidance to help protect designers who share their work on the network against unwarranted professional liability.

Into the future:
Now that the Open Architecture Network has launched, TED is looking for designers to populate it. Looking for more building plans every day as the OAN community hits critical mass.

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