As most of you know, for two years, I have been holed away, writing a new book, The Bond. Now that it’s done, I want to tell you a little about this project and why I wrote this book.
All of us now sense that we have reached the end of something. Since the millennium, commentators of every variety have been trying to get a handle on the collective significance of the continuous crises besetting us in modern times: banking crises, terrorist crises, sovereign-debt crises, climate-change crises, energy crises, food crises, ecological crises, manmade and otherwise.
"The world as we know it is going down,” a Wall Street broker told reporters in September 2008, after Lehman Brothers collapsed and Morgan Stanley threatened to follow suit. It is the “end of capitalism as we know it,” declared filmmaker Michael Moore, when American auto giants General Motors filed for bankruptcy.
It is the end of our dependence on fossil fuel, announced President Barack Obama, about the Deepwater Horizon oil-rig explosion. It is the end of nature, wrote Bill McKibbin in his book of the same name. It is the end of oil, wrote journalist Paul Roberts in his book of the same names. It is the end of food because it is the end of oil, declared Roberts in his follow-up book. With various Japanese reactors poised for a meltdown, it is the end of nuclear power.
For those who take stock in the Mayan Long Count calendar and the apocalyptic significance of 2012, it is the beginning of the end of the world.
The beginning in the ending
But the crises we face on many fronts are symptomatic of a deeper problem, with more potential repercussions than those of any single cataclysmic event. They are simply a measure of the vast disparity between our definition of ourselves and our truest essence.
For hundreds of years we have acted against nature by ignoring our essential connectedness and defining ourselves as separate from our world. We’ve reached the point where we can no longer live according to this false view of who we really are.
What’s ending the story we’ve been told up until now about who we are and how we’re supposed to live — and in this ending lies the only path to a better future.
Living a lie
As I began researching and studying the latest discoveries in a vast array of disciplines—general biology, physics, zoology, psychology, botany, anthropology, astronomy, chronobiology, and cultural history—the more it became clear to me that the lives we’ve chosen to lead are not consistent with who we really are.
A new understanding is emerging from the laboratories of the most cutting-edge physicists, biologists, and psychologists that challenges the very way we conceive of ourselves. Frontier scientists in every field have all found evidence that individuals are far less individual than we thought they were.
The space between things
Between the smallest particles of our being, between our body and our environment, between ourselves and all of the people with whom we are in contact, between every member of every societal cluster, there is a Bond — a connection so integral and profound that there is no longer a clear demarcation between the end of one thing and the beginning of another.
The world essentially operates, not through the activity of individual things, but in the connection between them — in a sense, in the space between things.
What’s more, these new discoveries in physics and biology demonstrate that we are in crises because we are living a lie. All living things succeed and prosper not through competition, but only when they see themselves as part of a greater whole.
We succeed only because we share, we care and we’re fair.
Rather than a will to dominate, the essential impulse of all of life is a will to connect.
The competitive paradigm
Nevertheless, our paradigm for living has been built upon the premise that competition is the essential calling card of existence. Every modern recipe in our lives has been drawn from our interpretation of life as individual and solitary struggle, with every-man-for-himself competition an inherent part of the business of living.
Our entire Western economic model is built on the notion that competition in a free-market economy is essential to drive excellence and prosperity.
In our relationships, we extol our inherent right to individual happiness and self-expression above all else. We educate our young by encouraging them to compete and excel over their peers. The currency of most modern two-cars-in-every-garage neighborhoods is comparison and one-ups-manship.
The world, as Woody Allen once put it, “is one big cafeteria.”
Outdated rules
The crises we have faced on every front have occurred precisely because we are operating according to an outdated set of rules.
The competitive impulse that is now a major part of our self-definition and that forms the undercurrent of all our lives is the same mindset that has created every one of the large global crises now threatening to destroy us. If we can recover wholeness in our lives – in our relationships, our neighborhoods, our societies, in my view, we will begin to heal our world.
In writing this book, I had an audacious mission: to rewrite the scientific story you’ve been told about who you are plus offer you detailed blueprint of how to live in harmony with it.
I wanted to help establish a very different set of rules from the ones we currently live by.
In fact, the only truth is the space between us—the Bond — which means that we must share and recover wholeness in our lives if we are to survive and flourish.
A new blueprint
It was clear to me that need to perceive the world differently, relate to others differently, organize ourselves — our friendships and neighborhoods, our towns and cities — differently. We need to change our fundamental purpose on earth as something more than one based on struggle and domination.
We must look at our lives from an entirely different perspective, a larger vantage point, to notice the connections that tie us all together.
With this book, I hope to set a new agenda besides our current one of struggle and domination, in which all of us observe the mounting crises with a sense of impotence. I want to initiate a giant conversation, in which people are no longer waiting for the right president or prime minister to make decisions for them, I aim to give you a fresh way of seeing the world from a wider perspective, a new way of relating to other human beings, a new sense of community, a new and authentic purpose.
I want to empower you by showing you how easy it is to live in wholeness, how tiny changes can revolutionize your life and the life of everyone around you.
I wanted to provide a message of hope, inspiration – and a practical way to change, starting with your home, then your neighborhood, your community, your town. . .
Above all, I want to show you that it doesn’t have to be like this. Not for one more day.
Please join this conversation. The Bond: Connecting Through the Space Between Us, will be released on April 19. We’ll soon be asking you for your suggestions about which small changes can create the next stage in our evolution. To join the dialogue immediately and receive the book on your doorstep on the day of publication, you may pre-order via the www.thebond.info, where you can also see and share a little video about the project.
Make the Bond and pass it on.
Facebook Comments
Fantastic! The upcoming release of "The Bond" has me excited for our future. All this talk about the 'space between' made me remember that Dave Mathews Band has a song by the same name... maybe a theme song for this idea?
Less competitiveness and more compassion seems to be more human nature than people realize. Lipton and Bhaerman call it, "Thrival of the Fittingest."
I'm grateful that you'll be giving your readers a road-map of sorts to take their lives and their bonds, into their own hands.
With Love and Gratitude,
Jeremiah
"For those who take stock in the Mayan Long Count calendar and the apocalyptic significance of 2012, it is the beginning of the end of the world." Ooops. That's only if you believe Hollywood. December 21, 2012, or the final day on the Mayan Calendar, is actually the End of a World ERA, not the end of the world. It is also the beginnng of a New World Era. However, the transition that was actually begun years ago is going to wreak havok around the world, with respect to both the planet and our politics. I recommend "Fractal Time, The Secret of 2012 and a New World Age" by Gregg Braden.
It has not always been an "easy-sale" to get people interested in an "alternative model for living" in my experience, but I wish you the best of luck in the "Bond". And it is also good to have you back focussing on us your disciples. I teach "Business English" to German executives, an open-ended licence to discuss anything under the sun, but everytime I mention "2012" and the "end of the world AS WE KNOW IT" to anyone who hasnt read Dan Brown, people look at me as if I had too much wine at the business lunch. So I try "Quantum Physics and Mechanisms": Young´s Experiments, Einstein and his notorius dictum"God doesnt play Dice", and the fact demonastrated by some unsung hero/heroine that our current model of Atomic Theory suggests that if you magnify the atom to the size of a basketball, then the distance between its positive and negative parts would be in the region of 20 kilometers. Nobody is yet sure of what is in between, but words like "anti-matter", positrons, "boson", "quarks" "PURE ENERGY" and so on are banded about. CERN and the "Haldron Accelarator" are working on it, and I am sure you touch on all these in your book. The question really is this: " How do you convince people that all these "Positive", "Cooperative and Intra-active" buzz words address people´s real FEARS? I propose our love for "JUSTICE" and for the "an eye for an eye" INSTINCT as being equally important in our forth-coming "New World Age" which Peter above rightly recommends. But do nont neglect Frank Schaetzing`s "The Swarm". Our best Oceanologists wil, tell you that we know less than 5% of what is down there.
And finally Peace and Solace to all the victims of the Japanese tragedy that is still unfolding.
One Love.
Here in Australia the 21st of December 2012 is the 22nd of December 2012 as we are on the West of the International Date Line - and it's my 72nd birthday.
It has given me a reason to be curious at least about the date. Of course, in the grand scheme of things, it means exactly nought that it's my birthday but it's important to me.
As for the Bond I will be interested to see where it fits with the Field - I'm sure that all will be explained in the book.
We see a glimpse of the connection between people: when we weep for the people of Japan; when teams of rescuers travel to help in time of disasters and even when survivors are located by searchers in apparently miraculous circumstances - almost as if the rescuers are guided to the survivors.
Lynne - It is with joy that I have just pre-ordered your book THE BOND and am really looking forward to it. For some time now I have believed that the internet is the great cruncher for world consciousness and that instant access to information is making the global brain smarter. For me the true end of the calendar is the end of life as we know it in another age and the dawning renaisannce of new ideas and structures that emerge because we are so instantly connected. That connection is pushing the buttons for anyone over the age of 45 (possibly younger) as they forage for the old ways of doing buisness. I have noticed younger people, just thrive on the spaces in between and seem to know the unconscious rules governing the best use of it. Witness that brave 22 year old woman blogging from the reactor in Japan. Management shut her down but others spread her words like fire.
I so admire you for the research and ideas that you bring to the light of day as they have moved the ideas of others forward.
All the best for the success of your new book.
Carolyn
Thank you Lynne this brings a shift a great shift to embrace changes and evolutionary coming times thanks a lot
Lynne,
Thank you so much for your work on behalf of our planet. I know it to be true - I believe so strongly in the oneness of everything, but don't have the scientific knowledge to prove it. I am so enthralled with the research being done - I love your work and I have heard Gregg Braden. It is exciting to be living now during this time of transition- scary, but excited. I so want to encourage our youth to learn from the past and not try to imitate it, especially in business and personal relationships, including our relationship with our planet. I am eager to read your book.
I have forwarded your information to people I know, because I love them and I want them to stop living in fear and disturbance. If only everyone could drop the resistance they have and just BE then they may come into alignment with who they really are. Thank you Lynn.
I never went looking to read The Intention Experiment. I just came across it at my library while looking for a book on Native American Studies and Shamanism. Im certainly glad I did though. It had a way of reinforcing things I have suspected all along and it is also very complimentary to the path I seemed to of found myself on. Thank You Lynn McTaggart.Is life chance or is it raondom? I think a bit of both but you kind of have to wonder marvel that at times when we are drawn to something (or is it drawn to us?) and how things unfold and present themselves to us at particular times. It can be an amazing experience when you connect the dots and make the correlations between different things and situations. The Native Americans referred to "The Great Mystery" as all the wonder of the world and all witin the universe. That all is connected and has meaning, I believe this is true. I look forward to reading The Bond and I am certain that it will also make sense to me as The Intention Experiment and The Field have. Wah doh.
Thanks to you and to evolutionary leaders such as Barbara Marx Hubbard, Jean Houston, Deepak Chopra, Bruce Lipton, et al, we are going to make it through to humanity's next chapter. Your readers may be interested to tune in to Barbara Marx Hubbard's free teleseminar next Tuesday, March 22nd––Birth 2012: Co-Creating a Planetary Shift.
The only reason for catastrophic acts of nature is our resistance to the change we have to have. Change of consciousness.
Hey Lynn. Yes.
I can't wait until your new book, The Bond, comes out. I imagine it will confirm a lot of what Bruce Lipton said.
I recently finished reading biologist, Bruce Lipton’s book, The Biology of Belief, Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter, and Miracles, and I’m so excited. Lipton’s research indicates we are completely responsible for our lives. It is not our DNA that determines how we turn out in life, but something outside of the cell.
Here is what is written on the inside of the dust jacket.
“The implications of this research radically change our understanding of life. It shows that genes and DNA do not control our biology; that instead DNA is controlled by signals from outside the cell, including the energetic messages emanating from our positive and negative thoughts.”
Also,
Darwin’s theory of evolution is based on survival of the fittest. That means there are winners and losers. Lipton’s research, and the new science of Epigenetics, has discovered evolution is a result of cooperation among the species, not competition. When we, as a society, reject the idea of rivalry and begin working with each other then we will experience a new world. While we are all responsible for our personal direction in life, we are also responsible to each other. We are in this together. The world will only advance when we begin to cooperate and look out for each other.
Precisely , Jerry. Couldnt agree more.
Let's please not leave the animals out of the bond. When millions of animals are slaughtered without mercy every day, when sentient beings experience absolute terror , don't we have a right to defend ourselves? But, you say, it's happening to the animals, not us I don't think you can believe in the bond and believe that.
Becasuse of the Bond there is Second Hand Cruelty
We are all connected. The unspeakable slaughter is an attack on the animals and also upon us. But you
might say, I'm not even aware of that, how can it affect me? If you drink from a poisoned lake, ignorance of the poison does not save you from the consequences. An attack puts us in the "fight or flight" syndrome;
a natural mechanism to protect us from a known attacker. In the case of animal slaughter we don't see
it as a direct physical attack upon ourselves but because of the bond we experience the cruelty second hand and our bodies go into the fight or flight mode. Worse because we don't know what we're fighting, "fight or flight" becomes chronic What happens to our bodies in fight or flight? Breathing changes, heart races, we tense up, we experience fear. The result of chronic state of fight or flight does both emotional and physical damage to us. Symptoms may range from "feeling blue" for no good reason, depression, anxiety, rage, aches and pains,heart disease, cancers, and worse suicide and murder.
This argument holds true of all acts of cruelty. The despot practising genocide is attacking you. I focus on how we treat animals in the US because we can go to court and ban such cruelty on the grounds of SELF Defense
Where is the empirical evidence for such a claim?
I haven't read it yet but I think THE BOND will add to the growing evidence as well as:
"A new understanding is emerging from the laboratories of the most cutting-edge physicists, biologists, and psychologists that challenges the very way we conceive of ourselves. Frontier scientists in every field have all found evidence that individuals are far less individual than we thought they were."
Do unto others as you would have others do unto you ..because there are no "others"
Lynn,
You write, "All of us now sense that we have reached the end of something. Since the millennium, commentators of every variety have been trying to get a handle on the collective significance of the continuous crises besetting us in modern times: banking crises, terrorist crises, sovereign-debt crises, climate-change crises, energy crises, food crises, ecological crises, manmade and otherwise."
I've written here before about the analogy of the world being a dog and the human race are like fleas.
The fleas cannot destroy the dog, but they can certainly make it's life an irritable experience. When the dog feels the irritation, it scratches away, trying to drive the fleas to flee. All of these scenarios you've mentioned above could be examples of the dog scratching away, trying to get us to stop our annoying little bites.
Eventually, when the dog has had enough, it will immerse itself in water, and most of the fleas will be forced to leave their host or be drowned. The world is groaning at our ability to irritate it...
Regarding the Mayan Long Count - according to Jim Papp, the astrological definition of what is occurring is "“Is there something significant we should know about the Winter Solstice date of December 21, 2012?
Yes.
On this day a rare astronomical and Mayan mythical event occurs. In astronomic terms, the Sun conjuncts the intersection of the Milky Way and the plane of the ecliptic.
The Milky Way, as most of us know, extends in a general north-south direction in the night sky. The plane of the ecliptic is the track the Sun, Moon, planets and stars appear to travel in the sky, from east to west. It intersects the Milky Way at a 60 degree angle near the constellation Sagittarius.
The cosmic cross formed by the intersecting Milky Way and plane of the ecliptic was called the Sacred Tree by the Maya. The trunk of the tree, the Axis Mundi, is the Milky Way, and the main branch intersecting the tree is the plane of the ecliptic.
Mythically, at sunrise on December 21, 2012, the Sun – our Father – rises to conjoin the center of the Sacred Tree, the World Tree, the Tree of Life.."
Could this conjunction highlight the bond between us such as we've never experienced in this current 25,820 year cycle?
Write On!
Thanks for another great post Lynn. I look forward to reading your new book and seeing you on April 29, 30 in Vancouver, BC, Canada.
As Dickens said: "It is the best of times. It is the worst of times." However, instead of a tale of two cities, it is now a tale of two worlds. The old will fall away and the new will emerge.
Let's bond together to make this world a fairer place.
John Wong
Thank you Lynn for the new way of understanding our place and connectivity , in your new book , so happy to see your comment on competition, yes it is time to have a new beginning and end the old patterns, embracing who we really are and our roll in this physical state, love to meet you some day, I live in Orlando Florida USA ,
I'm a watercolorist artist, and I teach trough my workshops, haw to connect and be part of the whole using mandalas and watercolors techniques, to go deeper into higher state of Consciousness so thankful to you for all the guidance , and teaching, The Bond will bring to all of us a new way of seeing this picture
with Love and Gratitude
Sina
This is exactly what the world needs.
Lynne: Your concept is sound, to choose oneness over separateness, to recognize the inescapable fact that we share energy and thought continuously every moment, by the very nature of reality. You speak of space between us as a bond. Do you rather mean energy between us as a bond? Another comment: Does the killing order on the African veldt support your thesis that all living creatures see themselves as part of a greater whole, in which they share, care, and are fair? This "lion lying down with the lamb" concept does not match the reality of relationships on the veldt. Still, I agree that for human beings, your thesis is sound, and there is hope for us in a new commitment to oneness, to love among us in the sense of agape.
I have just read Neale Walsche's Conversations With God trilogy which give the same message even though maybe from a slightly different perspective and would reccommend these to all. Thank you Lyn for this message. I agree until we realise who we really are and that we are infact one and begin to treat each other and our world as part of ourselves we can't turn things round . The internet is a great way to raise collective conscienceness and hopefully begin the process.Looking forward to the new book
More synchronicity. This blog mirrors the process I have gone through personally this week.
Will it be available in ebook format? My new policy is to buy e versions where ever possible to reduce carbon footprint. Thanks.
Can't wait to read your new book. Michael Scallion is pretty interesting reading too.
When will The Bond be available in audio?? I have much more time to listen than read....
If all that you teach in this book is genuine, why not distribute the book to as many people as possible rather than sell it for profit? Sorry to be so straight forward, but 'selling' a book like this contradicts its Thesis.
I'm sure Lynne has included non-human beings. Connection with animals and plants can be profound, healing and transformative. And with mountains, seas..........well, we'll learn more about this when the book comes out.
And a comment to the person who suggested that Lynne should not be charging for the book. That would be ideal, but would you also suggest the same applies to the editor, the printer, the paper manufacturer? (Maybe in the coming era!)
Until then, out gratitude to Lynne all who are shining a light in a currently dark age.
She can upload it on Google books like others 9including myself)!
No excuses,... Let's be frank when we prescribe.
The Truths you expressed in you post, Lynne, call to mind the following quote:
O CHILDREN OF MEN!
Know ye not why We created you all from the same dust? That no one should exalt himself over the other. Ponder at all times in your hearts how ye were created. Since We have created you all from one same substance it is incumbent on you to be even as one soul, to walk with the same feet, eat with the same mouth and dwell in the same land, that from your inmost being, by your deeds and actions, the signs of oneness and the essence of detachment may be made manifest. Such is My counsel to you, O concourse of light! Heed ye this counsel that ye may obtain the fruit of holiness from the tree of wondrous glory.
-- Bahá’u’lláh
The use of some form of money was one of the first steps in unifying people. It meant things could be exchanged with those in other families, tribes, cities and countries. Without it as a medium to facilitate exchange we would probably still be hunter/gatherers.
The fact that we have screwed it up does not mean there is something wrong with the system. It means there is something wrong with US, as in our greed, our deceit, our arrogance, our pettiness, our envy, etc It is always easy to find the fault out there, in the system, in others. First lets clean up our own act then we may see clearly what needs to be done
This is already being practice in the Buddhist communities and for hundreds of years.