I’m thrilled to announce that the American version of my very latest book The Bond is now available on Amazon and other online stores: www.thebond.info.
Last week I promised to tell you more about my vision for a new way forward and the thinking behind The Bond.
I explained that, like you, while observing the crises around us – in the economy, in the unemployment figures, with all the devastation in our environment, with gas and oil and food prices skyrocketing and the US government in unprecedented stalemate — I spent three years saying to myself there has got to be a better way. 
 
There must be a better way to live, to work — even to learn.
The result of all this research is The Bond, which I mean to be a blueprint for a better life – even for a turning point in our social and cultural evolution.
It is my own Declaration of Cooperation.
 
United we stand
Based on the latest discoveries from the new sciences, The Bond has a simple message: the universe was designed as an intricate, cooperative whole.  Consequently:
• we succeed when we unite and cooperate.
• we are weak when we compete.
All living things succeed and prosper only when they see themselves as part of a greater whole.
In addition to answering the ultimate question — what’s our new story to live by — I have offered detailed recommendations to help foster more holistic thinking, more cooperative relationships and more unified social groups.
Every conflict that occurs – whether between husband and wife, social or racial groups, or even nations – occurs because we put ourselves – or our own group — at the center of every drama.
The key to a successful relationship is to conceive of the relationship itself as a “thing in itself” and to focus on the “space in between” — the glue that holds it together.
In other words, it’s not me, it’s us.
The draw to wholeness
Once we view ourselves as a part of a bigger whole, we begin to act differently toward each other.  By removing a self-serving aim from the relationship, we stop fighting nature and surrender to our natural impulse toward wholeness. We can easily embrace difference within that larger definition of connection.
I meant my book to offer a message of hope and inspiration – but also a first roadmap of how to live according to this new scientific story, in harmony with our true nature and each other.
In The Bond, I show how
• We can learn to relate to each other from the experience of two rival gangs in Watts, Los Angeles.
• Survivors of the 2004 Tsunami can teach us to see our relationships in wholeness.
• A new way of speaking and listening, inspired by quantum physics, can overcome polarization, helping the staunchest of enemies to become close friends — as it did among pro-life and pro-choice activists.
• A simple daily practice conditions the mechanism of the brain to enable its owner to become more empathetic toward others.
• A former member of the Hitler youth movement and the daughter of a Holocaust survivor can demonstrate important ways to forgive and connect again.
• Your neighbors and your best friends can become your savings bank.
• One tiny act of kindness — a bit of change left in a Coke machine — can cause a wave of generosity throughout a vast corporation and an entire community.
• People who fire together wire together; whenever a group works together for a common goal, the brains of all parties begin to get on the same wavelength — strengthening the bond within the group.
• Fairness is more powerful than unfairness; all it requires is a small group of individuals committed to strong reciprocity to “invade” a population of self-interested individuals and create a fairer society.
• We can gain tips from the Oxford rowing team, the Chilean Miners, a community water pipeline and a Syrian translator about creating new and vibrant neighborhoods.
My aim in The Bond is to offer nothing less than a vision of a new way to live, in harmony with our true nature, and a new way to heal our relationships our neighborhoods, our world.
Already, I’m getting feedback that The Bond is making a difference.  Dr. Don Beck, the famous international mediator behind the story of Invictus and designer of Spiral Dynamics, wrote me to say that he is buying eight copies of The Bond to bring along to Oslo Peace Center, which is hosting Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Fredrik W. de Klerk and former President Thabo Mbeki. Here’s what Deepak Chopra, Marianne Williamson, Marci Shimoff, Lynne Twist and a host of other notables have said: http://www.thebond.info/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=92&Itemid=168
To get your copy shipped today from Amazon, Barnes and Noble or on-line independents, please click on: www.thebond.info and select your preferred option.