Global Mind Change: The Promise of the 21st Century (BK Currents)

Revolutions are generally thought of as large-scale, bloody upheavals involving whole countries and societies. But there are quieter revolutions that begin in the individual mind and create the kind of change that may be even more significant. By deliberately changing their internal image of reality, people are transforming the world. Right now we are living through one of the most fundamental shifts in history -- a change in the actual belief structure of Western industrial society. Global Mind Change , first published in 1988, connects every major field of human endeavor in its exploration of the possibilities for social transformation through internal change. From Galileo to the Wright Brothers, mankind's most significant scientific discoveries have come from thinkers who challenged the assumptions of the day, often earning the scorn - or worse - of their contemporaries. Esteemed futurist Willis Harman reminds us of this fact early and often in the second edition of Global Mind Change, which is enhanced by a foreword by acclaimed author Hazel Henderson, but otherwise maintains the original's insights and flaws. In terms of insight, Harman speaks eloquently about the changes in human perspective that accompanied - and, he says, ultimately caused - such radical shifts as the fall of the Roman Empire and the demise of slavery in the United States. He extends this analysis to modern scientific thought, which he identifies as a societal foundation currently in the first stages of a paradigm shift in which many concepts now viewed as "New Age" will gain acceptance. getAbstract recommends this book to any armchair futurist but urges all readers to bear in mind one caveat: For every free thinker who upended science with brilliant insight, there have been untold thousands of quacks, madmen and charlatans