Original article from Campfire Convention January 2021

As the most momentous year I can recall unravels and we enter new, uncharted territory, trying to spot threads, trends, predictions and patterns might seem almost futile, such was the rate of change and unexpected nature of everything. Here are a few random thoughts on where we might be headed.

Back in February, as we all started to take on board that something major was afoot, it didn’t take any degree of advanced-level crystal ball-gazing to see that life would be turned upside down by the Covid 19 pandemic in ways that would change all of our lives forever.  

Even the normally conservative BBC were fast to acknowledge “the end of globalisation”.  For me, it was all about assimilating a lot of information in a short period of time, and learning how to instinctively trust sources, very much aware that a planetary awakening of sorts was unfolding.

I wrote this in late February as a precursor to what was to reveal itself.

Though this would be a rough passage for many, It was also a perfect time to re-think the ‘doomsday machine’

I tested the efficacy of Roy’s portal on a couple of friends.

Some might argue (as two friends do who saw this) that the portal might open our fate to (in one case) far-right fascism (“Isn’t the pandemic is a portal through which far right thieves and liars are reaching to plunder and destroy at an accelerated rate?) whilst another was critical of the dreamery element “I get the romance and aspiration of that quote but these sorts of things don’t give any picture of what the hard realities of an alternative would actually be…..and it’s this that concerns me. “The road to hell is paved with good intentions” comes to mind. The closest I’ve seen is Schwabs WEF Great Reset.”)

There is no doubt that governments (or globalist authorities that ride roughshod over governments) have shown that they now hold (as things stand) ‘power’ in a way that it has not been exercised for decades. In that sense, some might choose to argue that sinister forces are conspiring to take away our freedoms and even produce evidence to back that up. 

But the reality for others is to look on and see (especially in the UK case) a government that is hopefully flailing, out of touch with people and science, has no inkling of vision for what is set to unfold and and is spouting empty rhetoric in an attempt to demonstrate some degree of control, as they follow rather than lead on the actions that, if put into place swiftly at the start, might have minimised the trauma the Uk (along with the most westernised nations) find themselves in.

A sense of balance is key now. As is a sense of not choosing polarity, sidestepping any ‘othering’ of people around us. It may not be easy, especially for those looking to apportion blame, but aiming to suspend ‘judgement’ wherever you can often brings surprising results. Have a listen to Betsey Downing’s talk from Campfire’s recent World Harmony Winter Solstice event here.

Part of what we build is values systems. Not least how we interact with the planet, its nature, its people, its animals, its trees, its oceans and its air, but how we move around it, what we grow on it, what we choose to consume from it.  This isn’t just a nice green advisory broadcast, it’s life and death. It’s a wake up call that, pre Extinction Rebellion, pre-Greta, pre Covid, many weren’t aware they had to follow. We are all missionaries for these huge changes. We have to be. We have to believe that every conversation can make a difference and what we choose to talk about sets the agenda.

Campfire’s Credo is an example of what we are evolving as a co-created values system.  Check it here, as part of an extensive and evolving ‘About Campfire’ section.

That’s not to say that there isn’t room for occasional light-hearted banter, for art, for music, for comedy, for theatre. But now, in lockdown, this all has an added poignancy. It also has its best chance, as we cannot be as easily distracted.

We need to build new systems on a practical level while the old, outmoded ones dismantle and fall apart. Bit to do it with care and sensitivity. This is revolution but we’re planting and growing seeds rather than throwing petrol bombs.

The post-collapsed mindset

We are entering the era of the post-collapsed mindset but it’s a place where we can do all the transition. We’re not waiting for so-called leaders to guide us and save us, community is the future and we need to develop self-organising patterns.  Joe Brewer’s recent talk to Campfire’s Eco Circle is well worth a listen on this subject.

Who was the wiser person who said “This is the time we have been waiting for. We are the people we have been waiting for.”

Move beyond fear and we will find most of what we need.

As well as organisations and communities forming their own values systems we can each do our own. It helps give us a sense of orientation and mapping too individually, but it also starts to create a pattern that is useful for self-organising communities. Remember that things need to be fluid and adaptable, create hone, refine, tweak. Very little is set in stone and with Covid 19 in particular,we have to be agile and adaptable. We have to transmute our dreaming into reality.

Systemic Social Change will only happen with frameworks, frameworks, with concepts, with maps and resources for reference, with easily accessible concepts with slogans, with images that provoke and explain. So that other scan easily grasp and run with it. Check out Campfire member Julene Siddique’s Systemic Social Change session from the recent World Harmony winter event. As she says “We can no longer turn a blind eye to structural violence and systemic failure. Inside the dark heart of structural violence are the keys of societal re-architecting that are in fact our only hope out of it.”

Entrenched systems are not conducive to change. A post-collapse world offers all the possibilities for rebuilding in a very different way. Once we fully grasp the mechanisms for acting on this, the possibilities are endless.

Let’s work closely together for the big change of our lifetime. 

The move from the prevailing mindset of scarcity and fear, from ‘what’s in it for me, Jack’ to one ‘for the good of all and planet’. Let’s redefine what work is, what a media agenda is, what has value, what is in-sync with nature and what we can learn from that.

Let’s move from a culture of plunder to one of nurture.

Working to nature’s rhythms might help. Cultural healing through nature connection. We can learn a lot from the land, the soil, the seas, the wind, from animals, from the seasons, from the tides and the moon phases,. Let’s honour those days of transition and light Beacons for change at solstice and equinox. let’s reclaim Beacons, from monarchy and aristocracy. Let’s make them days of celebrating life on earth and connection, move from parasitic, extractive economies to one’s based on care for the planet as the underlying principle (listen to Kate Raworth’s ‘Doughnut Economics talk)

Let’s Make Technology our Servant, not Our Master

Much of my ideas around Campfire’s vision to empower our own community have already been expressed. We need a technology that is fit for purpose and I believe that we are now on the right track to get this happening in 2021 with an upgraded Campfire community site. Watch this space….

Let’s gather the lights… let’s slow down and disengage so we can better re-connect.

We each have part to play. Let’s be the best versions of ourselves, let’s go out and bring into being our dreams, let’s create a commons through gathering, let’s self-organise and reclaim our sovereignty in all respects.

We have a duty to young people. To be the ones who enable and empower their future.  I said this in July as we welcomed our first digital intern Victoria Wheeler into the community.

“We’ve been keen for a while now to get moving with Campfire’s ‘kindling’ initiative, welcoming young people into our circle. They are our future and often have more of a finger on the pulse than most of the so-called more mature members amongst us. 

Reading Mac MacCartney’s ‘Children’s Fire’ book and its quoting in parliament last year has helped shape an alignment towards a more interconnected, caring, empathic society that promotes inter-generational wellbeing and celebrates beauty in all its forms. We are earth’s protectors, custodians and stewards of the human and non-human kingdoms and we owe it to honour a commitment to leaving a more life-affirming legacy for our children and their future generations. We are gradually discovering how to be better ancestors. We need to be the shoulders that young people are able to stand on. Today has been an important step for Campfire and we had a very productive and inspiring first meeting with Victoria about some potential opportunities. I am impressed by her enthusiasm and outlook but equally by her intuitive grasp of what Campfire’s vision and more importantly, its potential”

As we enter another lockdown year, we can bless, kiss off and put to bed the year that will be seen in history as one that kick-started fundamental societal change at the deepest levels.

Where are we now? I only have to look at my Zuckerbook feed this morning to see the stress, the anger, the illness (at least eight mentions of friends or friends of friends who have just picked up Covid) And there is likely to be wildly fluctuating moods, anger, sorrow, grief, inconsistency, retreat, isolation, hope, frustration, malaise.

Where this mindset is at is brilliantly summed up by my friend and major influencer for me this year Julie Horsley (HUman-BEing) in some of her best writing, even if it was on Facebook!  She is saying it’s ok to feel terrible and we mustn’t forget this, as part of the process we are all working through:

“We’re in the midst of a storm. When the wild storm comes to our lives it cannot be denied. Now is the time to step into the rain and howl, dance, cry, rage, scream, run, stomp, vent and laugh. Whirl, swirl and flow with the wind. Sad is perfect. Hopeless is perfect. Angry is perfect. Grouchy is perfect. Frustrated is perfect. Whatever is arising is perfect. We are elemental beings and can become the storm. Chaotic, tempestuous, disruptive. We are not, ever, in the wrong place though our minds might tell us a different story. When the storm passes everything looks more vivid, lush, verdant and sanctified somehow. Sometimes we too need to be torn apart so that we might heal; that we might find our own sacredness. which, at the centre is calm, balance and stillness.”

So, more important than ever…

Let’s look after ourselves and each other

Self care has never been more important in chaotic times, when nothing can really be planned and everything is likely to sudden change and disruption. Where do we find stillness and comfort, especially those of us living alone. For me, without the familiarity of my usual surroundings, living in a different country, without loving friends to depend on, I am re-orientating myself here on Paros in a new way. It can be disconcerting but it really opens me up to new experiences.

Therapy can be the simplest things that often bring the comforts. A warm shower a day but also massaging my own neck and shoulders as much as is possible, a brush to massage the body and back in particular, yoga or daily practise, meditation, cooking fresh food at least once a day with local fresh ingredients, walking out and feeling the sun, the wind, the change of direction of the wind, looking at the night skies. Immersion, in others words, in deep listening during Zoom calls, in musical compositions and whole albums,, in getting as close to nature as possible, in really being present for the contrasts of the day, in watching a sunset. In September the sun and moon rose in different places to where they do in mind-winter. We realise that nothing ever stays the same nor is it to be found in the place where we imagine it should be.

In being non-judgemental and displaying kindness to others.  To check myself when I default into old patterns. There is much unravelling and re-calibrating to do at all levels. Self-observance never stops.

I believe that that much good will come out of this. To reiterate Joe Brewer’s words, we need to search for and live in our rightful place in a climactically appropriate way.  We need to be earth regenerators, whether actually living on land and working it to repair it or in a mre etheric sense, in the arts, in technology, in ideas dissemination, in teaching, in mentoring, in counselling, in therapy, in community building.

The catalysts, the conceptualists, the weavers, the makers, the storytellers, the magicians, the educators, community builders, the ecosystem managers… These are the callings of the future.

We invite you to join us and others around the world in lighting a Beacon for World Harmony on Winter Solstice 22.12.23 It could be a fire with friends or simply a candle. It’s all about intention and together we should not underestimate our power to steer a shift in the collective consciousness. 

This idea has evolved from Paros in November when Beacons for world harmony were lit in over 20 countries.

Would you like to join us others around the world on Friday December 22nd 18:00 GMT lighting a Beacon for world harmony?  If you’d like to join in, we invite you to add your name and location on our website www.lightabeacon.org.

Like a murmuration of starlings or a shoal of fish, often our movements are intensified by the presence of a predator which unites us into a single movement, held in a “knowing field”.

The Beacon is a light through the darkness, leading us to safe havens that exist all over the globe. When we light our Beacons around the world we offer a guiding light to one another to unite us as trailblazers in our desire for peace and harmony throughout the planet.

We already have the seeds for a global initiative for connection, liberation and world harmony 🔥❤️🙏

https://lightabeacon.org 

Coming up in Paros in November at Milos House. Get in touch if you'd like to come...

Contact

As posted recently to the Trailblazers website

We are collectively working towards a framework for real and radical evolutionary change. A framework is not easily formulated or agreed but we are actively seeking your involvement for discussion to realise co-created pragmatic ways of making these changes immediate and meaningful. 

Here is our starter for thirty, based on early Trailblazing input and feedback.

This is very much a work-in-progress so please let us know if you'd like to become a Trailblazer and help create a much-needed shift.

The Path:

 I  (Personal changes we can make)

Health Staying healthy, fit and trying to be happy and sane by looking after ourselves and keeping perspective. Looking after our kids and being mindful of the legacy that we are leaving, the world that they are inheriting. Being as conscious as possible as to what we consume as food / drink, how often and how we exercise, meditate, limiting screen time and exposure to toxic media and advertising sources.

Nature Connection Connecting with nature in its widest sense, learning from its cycles and rhythms, connecting with our own true nature.

Awareness and Empathy A shift from materialism to empathy, from greed and self-service to being in service for ‘the good of all’, done with an increased awareness of others, a slowing down, a imperative to keep 'the bigger picture' in our sights.

Sharpening Our Tools Overcoming learned helplessness, realising that we are the change, which we can all do via deep listening, use of language, being aware of where the power lies, pulling the wool from our own eyes and others, gently teaching others.

Finding Ourselves Creating space to find ourselves, to become the best versions of ourselves, to realise our true calling. Doing inner work and shadow work where necessary. If we are each to do the work and teach others, we need to be constantly learning and reappraising ourselves, to be resilient, open and present, to value our time.

Ethical & Resourceful Supporting and use co-operatives and local businesses rather than corporations.  To not invest in stocks and shares, pensions or savings...unless it's directly to a business with ethics that we know and trust. Use less, spend less, earn less: instead to recycle, upskill, to become independent and resourceful. Learning new things that are fun and rewarding. Deprogramming from consumerist trappings. 

Self Sufficiency Ensuring our set up for food and energy is as resilient as possible. Buying local farm products and vegetable boxes. Stocking up on staples in case of shortages. Getting a bike working, stocking up on warm clothes, thermals and socks.

Heart-Centred Learning how to rest in the heart and what true courage is, increasing our awareness of the many processes that block us from staying heart connected. We will endeavour to create a map that identifies the blocks so we can recognise what causes us suffering and let go of these processes.

WE (What we can change in our local community)

Listening To Each Other Accepting the validity of challenging views, learning, practicing and teaching deep listening skills, the art of conversation, being fully present for others. Discussing and reflecting but not focusing on division and arguments. Not letting the 'divide and conquer' work, not allowing the polarities to drain our intent to actually get things done for ourselves and improve our own or our collective situation.

Imagining Re-imagining a future with more compassion and equality, a place where all can flourish, create and experience a productive and fruitful environment. Let's fully utilise our unique human gifts of imagination and let's do it with the gift of co-creation too.

The Commons A move away from trademarking, copyrights, intellectual property, enclosure and exploitation to creative commons, open source and community collaboration. Promote Right to Roam, land reclamation, community spaces for use by all.

Local Communities Build localised networked communities, pooling resources, skills exchanges, working within sight of a global interconnected framework.

Media Develop good practice with news formulation and dissemination.

Rights Keep an eye on legislation and stand up for future rights, organise our own information reference as an online resource.

Kindness Acts of kindness, putting love centre stage.

Our Legacy A call for humanity to make the continuation of life and the education of our future generations the primary consideration – before profit, power or personal ambition. To ask oneself, “will this action, this purchase or this statement, truly support a healthy, life-affirming future for our children and their children’s children?”  Overhauling outmoded education systems with a move towards towards experiential learning away from targets and grades. 

REGION (Our country or regional reach)

Time to Stand Up Standing for election as a local representative of the ‘Trailblazer’ movement into post-politics (or supporting another who is standing) as we create a movement for the real systemic change that is so needed at so many levels

Systemic Change Working towards an overhaul of the political and social systems, away from party politics and polarity to a common-sense, grass roots democracy which looks to build consensus by maximising engagement (including digitally).

Mutual Support Exploring how we can reclaim the ideas around Universal Basic Income as our own, not some agenda from globalisation. In the right hands, this wouldn't be tool of technocratic control, it would liberate us from the drudgery of worthless jobs for corporations whilst promoting meaningful work, giving greater value to more mundane and often essential jobs. Looking to work collaboratively and share the workload, time bank or skills exchange. Many great wise elders have advocated the importance of work as part of the whole. UBI is a good way for creative people to blossom, whilst offering security to those at the bottom of the pile, who may spend most of their lives in a state of anxiety about money and survival. 

Joining The Dots Seeking out and supporting anarchistic grass-roots politics and organisations that want to grow a healthy political alternative. Communicating with and encouraging others doing the good work in parallel. Building a network of Trailblazers, lighting Beacons to honour and make visible each group's contributions.

Freedom To Roam Campaigning to extend the Countryside & Rights of Way (CRoW) Act in England so that millions more people can have easy access to open space, and the physical, mental and spiritual health benefits that it brings. Researching and understanding ancient Land Law v current Maritime Law and how we can revert to the older, more egalitarian system which underpins our present day legal system by opting out and resisting.

WORLD (Joining the dots globally)

Universal Commonality Look to transcend restrictive notions of geographical borders and boundaries, restricted territories and passports wherever possible. Work towards a ‘No Nation’ world, not in the sense of a globalist agenda but in terms of finding commonality and agreed values worldwide. This is a controversial clause and needs full discussion and development.

The Big Shift Support the move from a ‘what’s in it for me?’ culture to one that puts the good of all and the planet at the centre.  

Online Communities Build and promote non-corporate online platforms for ideas exchange and development globally, mutual support mechanisms and initiatives which reward their own members through measured input. 

Money Strategically becoming as free as possible from Fiat currency and other biosecurity state controls.

Energy Explore a shift in energy use to renewables.

Finding the Common Ground Peace-building through techniques of conflict resolution, frameworks for mediation and reconciliation. Being fully aware of the Military Industrial Complex and its machinations. 

Learning from Trailblazers Globally To learn from those local Trailblazing communities that are most fruitful and spread the word and methods of positive systemic social change around the world. Finding ways to bring those people and organisations doing the good work in 'parallel polis' to come together and unite to build a new movement, to move our values and actions centre stage to become the prevailing values.

Love Love Is The Answer.

Fun  never forget to have fun in the process!

We're delighted to reveal the full programme for Campout 2023, a family-friendly grassroots gathering focused on personal awakening and systems change!

You are warmly invited to  join us at a new site in the Oxfordshire countryside for this year's Campout in August. We are offering a rare opportunity to put our phones away, immerse ourselves in nature and share our ideas, skills, music, stories, food and outdoor activities. 

Every conversation can make a difference and this is a great chance to connect. More than ever, we need new models for living in a radically changing world. We have a unique opportunity to build resilient community from the grass roots with potential to transform humanity and evolve our world. 

This is a gathering where we bring our own creativity and unique gifts to co-create a courageous and open community space where magic can occur.  We invite you to join us in the English countryside for four days of co-creation, inspiration and celebration.  

Ticket link / info: https://www.campout.live/

Campfire's World Harmony initiative launched in 2020 during lockdown around community connection and universal wisdom with a beautiful visual representation of Beacons, both traditional and futuristic, using drone programming and XF. 

We may not all be able to light a Beacon but we can appreciate the symbolism. This is technology for good. 

Solstices and Equinoxes as key parts of nature's cycles are great opportunities for personal and social change. 

The track features a remix of 'Love Is The Anwer' by the Campfire Circle Singers including Mozez, Neil Cowley, Matt Coldrick and three choirs plus a reading from 'Desiderata' by Pip The Poet. 

The remix and original versions of the track were produced by myself for Campfire Convention 

The video was produced by John Hopkins @ Celestial 

#worldharmony #loveistheanswer

It's been a week or two of of 'lightbulb moments'. Amongst other things, Charles Eisenstein's take on whether or not it's time for an Amnesty in relation to what happened around Covid, parliament finally getting nudged into debating Covid effects relating to vaccines (even if it takes a 'scoundrel' like Sir Christopher Chope to be a somewhat unlikely cheerleader ringing the alarm bells) and for me, the outstanding moment, listening to Simon Elmer reframing what's going on in the world, in relation to the new 'battles' we have on our hands in a fascinating interview on James Deligpole's podcast, as posted on this network by Ebi Diete-Spiff this week. 

"Our politics is so compromised now. Nobody believes in it as a forum or a medium for change. But our resistance to digital ID and everything that is going to come from that comes from a different source of resistance.

If we can resist in that dimension, that is our greatest chance for change. Parliamentary politics has been too compromised. We need a complete change.  We can still fight at this level of culture, education, propaganda, ideology, of ideas."

What he's confirming for me is that party politics is rendered obsolete (which is the starting point for our Trailblazers movement)  We are now moving into vital ideological fights against corporatism, globalism, the march of technocracies to control us, WHO, CBDC, WEF, law makers who are rapidly amassing the power to override governmental policy etc etc. All the dark stuff Elmer brings into focus.

It feels like a waste of time to play party politics as currently we've moved into what feels like a one party state anyway (Labour are just a different shade of conservatism). A definition as black and white as 'good vs evil' would certainly come down to individual value judgement but it's clear that those who are wise to what is going on at a higher level would argue that a different 'battle' has come into sharp focus.

This 'battle' is outlined by Elmer and can defined as follows (taken from one commentator's review of Elmer's new book 'The Road To Fascism'):

"The book takes us to the shift in crisis from Covid-19 to Ukraine, and now a new prime minister has been selected by the globalists. As boasted by its leader Klaus Schwab, the World Economic Forum is infiltrating governments to ensure the Great Reset. Our parliament has become WEFminster, inflicting the global biosecurity state on citizens who naively believed – and many continue to believe – it is serving the nation.  

We are in a battle of biblical poignancy against a dystopian technocracy that will dehumanise us and determine whether we live or die. If you think that far-fetched, you should read Elmer to understand the predicament for humanity. Awareness is the precursor to resistance.”

I've just ordered Elmer's book and I'd recommend it based on what I hear on the podcast.

Simon's introduction to the book:

Keeping and nurturing self-love for our visions

The Campfire story is very relevant to what I have been talking about in the previous blog (here, I have edited a single blog down to two separately). 

I have felt a strong sense of personal calling for the last decade or more towards a combination of building an independent social network online and in parallel putting on events (part from the lockdown months). This calling presented itself out of a vision for possibilities that my previous project The Big Chill opened up, described by some as ‘a glimpse into a utopian world’. How people acted towards each other was revelatory, like they’d been offered a long weekend get-out from what some described to me as their commercial, often humdrum, consumerist, advertising, media-led, living-for-the weekend merry go round and plonked into a totally different environment, in rural idyll for sure, but also one where people behaved differently to others. There was awareness rather than blindness / fear, there was openness, there was a sense that the world could different and much better. The fact that we know of at least 40 marriages that came out of Big Chill connections (we also had a thriving social network engagement) still makes my spine tingle. Changing lives (for the better) is a powerful incentive towards enable people to meet in a sacred space.

Against that backdrop, I felt very inspired to build on that sense of community, but to bring a sense of purpose centre stage which to me ten years ago, seemed more resonant now as many people started to look beyond hedonism into something a little deeper. This first required a leap of faith for me as it was a major commitment of my time and limited financial resources - and then great fortitude and resilience as and when I encountered obstacles. Building the architecture to underpin a social network isn’t easy and despite attempts to find funding in the early stages, it didn’t happen so, having already embarked on a commitment in my own heart, I resolved to put in my limited life savings, amounting to many thousands of pounds. 

So has it been worth it? Time will tell, but I have no doubt that without taking the sort of leap of faith Paula Moss talks about (above), I’d probably be doing something much more unsatisfying and I would feel unfulfilled. Just seeing the way people respond and bonded at our most recent events has given me inspiration way beyond any financial considerations. That investment has paid back in dividends in terms of human emotion and human connection.

That’s not to say that we don’t need a funding solution immediately. Campfire is still a tiny business as it has virtually no income. Nearly everyone on our new Mighty Network site has opted for free membership and only yesterday, as I was giving a new member a private Zoom walk-through I heard those words again “I will not pay for social media”. I could get into a long rant about this and have done in the past. It’s all part of changing the ‘what’s in it for me?’ mindset to ‘Imagine what we might build together that’s fantastic”.  

To make that leap people just need to realise this isn’t about the old model of profit and exploitation. I have never taken a penny out of Campfire personally (and I know i’m lucky and privileged to have what is left of the savings I acquired when I had to exit The Big Chill). I know how many thousands I have put in, and I also know that I’ve learned a lot - and furthered my understanding of the vital importance of community and the role it plays at the central hub of this life. 

The idea mooted by many is to return to the micro payments of our Mk1 site. We didn’t have many thousands joining but there was a steady flow at £1.66 a month (£20 a year). Those who had chosen to join felt more commitment as it was more than another free service. I had a strong feeling now that if those who had joined Campfire in the first six months of our Mighty Network era had put in a couple of pounds a month, they’d have been much more inclined to be active and to be part of building community discussions and interaction. 

Where is Campfire now? 

In the interests of transparency, I am happy to share Campfire’s latest accounts for 2021, a year in which we were building and trialing our own site (pre Mighty Networks) so had little revenue from either membership gifts or events (Covid meant cancellations of all events the previous year too).  In short, our turnover was £3,317, costs came in at £12, 067, showing a loss of £8, 873, which was underwritten by myself. Total assets less current liabilities (my directors loan) comes in at a negative figure of £79, 736. 

If anyone reading this feels moved towards donating via our ’Support Us’ red button on the Campfire site or this Donorbox link,  (Mighty Networks make it mighty difficult to transfer a membership from ‘free’ to ‘paid’) we’d love to hear from you. 

Since our launch earlier this year, our appeals have led to five people contributing £275 so far. If we could get just 100 people donating £50 a year, we’d get pretty close to covering our server, network and radio expenses. Events are something totally separate. This year’s Campout made a small surplus, FYI (not quite as much as the first step donation target would make. 

Let’s see what we can build together. If anyone would like to volunteer, please get in touch. We need an accountant, an events manager and at least a couple of people to help as ‘guiding lights’ would be wonderful, so decisions can be made by finding consensus in a small group. And, without putting too fine a point pin it, we need around 1000 people either taking a paid membership level or donating. 

At the moment there is strong sense of reckoning. Something is building and many can feel it. Campfire feels like it needs to be part of this shift as a community. It’s partly awakening, born of more self development, meditation, partly a visceral reaction to the way we’ve been ‘governed’ in the last few years, though the seeds were sown long ago. Initiatives such as Julene Siddique’s ’Systemic Social Change’ (due to launch Campfire’s Courses & Learning early next year) are vital to this as her diligence and guidance is offering a platform for us to all come together not only to recognise and call out the ‘pressure points’ in the existing systems, but to work together to find hands-on practical solutions, new ways, new frameworks, entities and language that we use as markers as we start to work towards a new system of distributed leadership. 

Utopian dreaming is a delicate balancing act. How can we hang on to a dream and how do we lead by example while staying balanced ? 

I’ve often been called a dreamer. Campfire has a history of dreaming. In 2017, Convention 002 (Union Chapel, London) was entitled ‘Reimagining the Future’ We all have visions. it’s one of humankind’s greatest gifts is to imagine how the world might be and then act upon it to change something for the better. But never before has the balance seemed so fragile. 

Now, more than ever, new ethos, new values, new patterns, new language, new entities, new ways of governance are needed - and given the vacuum in the outmoded top-down society, those ideas have to come from us. That involves letting the imagination flow freely, inviting in a new way of looking at the world. The shifts have to be about *radical* change not just tinkering around the edges. The more a system turns rotten and starts to crumble, the more likely we are be able to usher in wholesale systemic change. 

So now feels like the time. Simple?

Not entirely. One of the key paradoxes for evolving humanity is how we live in a new earth-based modality whilst still operating in an old, outmoded system.

This throws up any number of questions so I’m going to put a few of the obvious ones out there to consider…

How do we navigate the bridge, which often feels narrow and unsteady, without an end in sight?  How do we maintain positivity, hope, resilience, balance, mental health and energy when people are falling around us in different ways (Dr John Campbell’s recent video looked at huge rise (16%) in non Covid-related deaths in Europe in summer months)

What processes are involved in getting to our true calling? Any amount of meditation and nature connection can help us separate from the hurly-burly of our day-to-day lives but how do we best do the work to discover what can make a difference?  How we can transcend fear-based living traps, how we can make that switch from a ‘what’s in it for me?’ society to one where we recognise that we’re all inter-linked and that working for the good of all is the missing formula at the heart of world leadership?

How do we do the dance of the personal and professional? How much can the two be intertwined? Can we make a living doing something we love? How can we cut back on our debts and costs? How can we live more lightly, more frugally and with less possessions and clutter? 

How much energy do we give theories that a new world order is being planned by world leaders using governments and their citizens as conduits? 

What do we put our own love and energy into? New frameworks? More than ever, I sense that we need new concepts and ideas that are easy to grasp, new ways of doing democracy, new spaces where our individual voices can be heard and validated. 

What do we do when we hit a wall? What support mechanisms are around us? When there is an obvious disconnect between our utopian dreaming and the harsh reality of what is unfolding under the death-throws of capitalism, how do we find a space of balance that doesn’t exhaust us, drain and diminish us?  

How do we step up and make a difference? How do we invite people into their own power when often that power is seen as being limited by circumstance, by family commitments, by health considerations? How do we break free of lives ruled by fear, by debt, by a plethora of regulation? 

How do we find the space to give others the process, create the space where they can fulfill their potential, master new skills, challenge them to push themselves beyond their comfort zone?  

How do we move out of busyness, distractions, addictions, sops, the old models and clichés (‘retail therapy’ anyone?)

How do we keep a check on what we soak up, what stories, vested-interest reporting and media bias we expose ourselves to?  News, propaganda, advertising, social media algorithmic feeds that use our creativity as data and the raw material for vast profits, peer group pressure, even community-think can all have an effect of brainwashing. One only need to look at many of our friends’ posts around the Queen’s death to realise how people can be swept away.

If you’re not familiar with the works of Mattias Desmet and ‘The Psychology of Totalitarianism, check him out. (https://mattiasdesmet.substack.com/p/the-psychology-of-totalitarianism)

There are many questions and I’m sure we each have our own suggestions as to what the answer might be.

That’s why connection and discussion is so important. Doing the dance and being open. Open to change, open to a completely different take to our own, not automatically jumping to fence and taking sides, agreeing to disagree, looking beyond the bubble, remaining conscious of the polarity and where it might occur, looking for common denominators, joining the dots. 

Some further food for thought:

It is worth remembering that every conversation has the potential to make a difference, to change lives. 

It is also worth keeping our eyes and ears open to where the seeds of change might come from. Awareness through other peoples’ ideas will stimulate our own imaginations and help us to hone our own visions, to inspire us. 

This new system essentially offers a model for a post-Capitalist world but it goes much further, tapping into new experiences around shared leadership, horizontally organised rather than top-down government / organisation, and as Frederic Lalou put forward in his landmark book ‘Reinventing Organizations’’ - a guide to creating organisations Inspired by the next stage of Human Consciousness "The shift to Evolutionary-Teal happens when we learn to disidentify from our own ego. By looking at our ego from a distance, we can suddenly see how its fears, ambitions, and desires often run our life.”

Could a team of people with different skillsets come together and work collaboratively, each one taking on the leadership role when their expertise comes into play and then uncoupling and becoming a follower when the next leader takes centre stage?  No single person would be in charge of running the show. In this situation – there are many leaders – each one an expert in a different field. Each task is portion of a task is a signed to someone who is best equipped.

Can we hope for an aligned but autonomous team, all working towards a common goal and stepping up as leader as and when each person’s unique gifts skills and expertise is required?  Or is this still too vague a concept? Are we far enough down the road of emergence as to know when to take on the leaders roll and when to relinquish it? Will we be driven by our desire to achieve the greater good or will we be controlled by our egos to hold onto the throne for as long as possible, like many of our so-called leaders?

So I’d like to propose a few suggestions for those who may have been inspired enough in their recent reflections to want to make changes. These are spontaneous, random and meant as a kind of ‘starter-for-ten’ as the saying goes. I often find that writing things down and making lists is a good way to get inspired and motivated. 

1 Meditate, find quiet space and time, adopt your own rituals

2 Build castles in the air - didn’t neglect time to dream, envision 

3 Notebook, sketch pad - don’t miss the chance to note down that brainwave or heart flutter

4 Work on how best to articulate your vision - how does it land with friends when you explain it? Ask them for feedback.

5 Join a community where you can talk about it, hear others ideas, realise that you’re not alone. Catharsis 

6 Tap into that community as a safe space for transformational therapy. Some of us were lucky enough at Campout to witness the effect that Yael’s breathwork sessions had on us.

7 Look at your ‘World A’ situation - what can be changed, housing, air quality, friends, food, possessions, carbon footprint 

8 Who are your ‘Trailblazers’?  Who influences and inspires you? Make a list.  With many influencers, you might resonate with some if not all of what they say not all. Trust your gut instinct. It’s a good exercise to do.

9 How we do conversation is so important.  Deep listening, making our points land succinctly, space and rhythm, and art of conversation and the joy in can hold when everyone is aware not to dominate the space.

10 Be present. Find enchantment in the everyday. Reject fear about the future, create your own reality. Words are spells and it all emanates from you. 

And one more for luck!

11 Think of community leadership as a murmuration, moving away from straight lines, whether vertical (top-down) or horizontal (networked) 

I’d love to hear from others how we can collectively make that move through the liminal towards the next stage of human consciousness. And how you might come with us on the journey….

Thanks for being on the journey so far... 

Radical change is as likely to come from within as it is from Mick Lynch's strikes, XR's actions or votes of no confidence. Those things can still spark change but the 'parallel polis' is unfolding underneath, starting with each of us.

Today I have been reading about physician Gabor Maté’s new book which examines the profound physical and psychological harms of “normal” capitalist society, which makes a small minority very well-off while sowing illness and despair on a vast scale. As a backdrop, I remarked that it doesn’t help that a fair few of the people running the UK are people who were abused at boarding school. It's ingrained our our outmoded systems, in the patriarchy. It’s no wonder we’ve perpetuated this trauma played in out in competition, bullying, lies, wars, cover ups and exploitation. All these things are inevitably hallmarks of what feels like the dying embers of capitalism. 

After doing two Campfire events over the summer, at a time when confidence in governments is hugely diminished and those dying embers are surely being revealed for what they are, against a backdrop where policies around ‘growth’ and ‘progress’ are being pinpointed as leading to existential threats, it’s always interesting to bring things back to the source, back to love. And this is probably where the true alternatives to capitalism start to take root. I’ve often said that the change we need to make at the most fundamental level is based on the question ‘how do we move from a ‘what’s in it for me?’ culture to one where we place collective and planetary wellbeing firmly centrestage.

People are questioning. This is good. They are asking many questions about how we adapt to climate breakdown, about how we can make the change we wish to see, about the bias of media, about how we react to the globalists who are conspiring to enact their vision of UN Agenda 2030 or asking what we can do about the ongoing transferring the ownership of the global commons to the stakeholder capitalists.

My answer tends to be along these lines. In essence it’s about matters of the heart. 

What would love say? I see an earth which is calling for our stewardship, our attention and our resonance with and embracing of nature. That’s a starting point.

People wonder whether we’re on a spiral or whether there are grounds for optimism?  Many sense that there is a plan behind the manipulation and that a ‘Great Reset’ is facilitating the economic transition demanded by the unelected holders of private capital. 

So if the foundations of Capitalism 2.0 are being being constructed, what can we do about what some see as the encroaching AI-dominated world where Digital IDs, Central Bank Digital Currencies on permissioned blockchain built and managed in-house by central bankers and governments, carbon footprint trackers, a new food ecosystem, smart cities and conditional UBI keep us all tracked in some kind of dystopian nightmare scenario?

My reply might take as a starting point the words of Thomas Schorr-Kon’s Campout session as he framed it earlier this summer. It’s in stark contrast.  

“We will explore how to rest in the heart and what true courage is, looking at the many processes that block us from staying heart connected. We will endeavour to create a map that identifies the blocks so we can recognise what causes us suffering and let go of these processes.”

The letting go is fundamental to the unchaining process. We all have what it takes to step out of the tumble dryer into our own power.

I sense that the world is crying our for a tenderness, an embrace, a different credo to underpin everything. 

People might say ‘you softy’, you’re too tender. But losing that tenderness or blocking it out is what threatens to numb us to the horrors of war, the inhumanity that is inherent in much of the posthuman condition.

If it really is time for action, why don't we make a pledge to open ourselves up? To identify and call out the blocks that are causing us suffering and let go by casting them out. ‘Being open’ was the fundamental theme to this year’s Campout. Taking a chance on vulnerability, bringing that vulnerability into the heart and resting there, staying in our heart-centred love that we’ve been conditioned over the years to resist through fear, through shame. Let’s look after our own hearts and cherish our own soft centre. 

This shift at our core might just become so disarming, so empowering as we tap into our wisdom. We could all become Life Coaches. We could all plant seeds. We could each find that liminal space to come up with and construct an everyday utopia which each one of us could take forward as our unique gifts into the world as we learn to articulate our vision through the blessings of words. A framework and new language for the real changes starts at home, starts with us and how we each feel into the more beautiful world of our dreams. 

We are the change, in these ways, teaching others... deep listening, use of language, being aware of where the power lies, pulling the wool from our own eyes and others, working co-operatively, working with nature's rhythms. The more we use those new tools in our dealings with each other, the more it becomes the norm in our circles, the more it spreads beyond those circles, the more it renders the existing system and its morals, habits and language obsolete. 

Some of today’s radicals may be lying on motorway tarmac or climbing trees, fastening themselves to objects of love. Other radicals may be going off grid, or simply sitting and being rather than constantly doing. What we can learn from being silent and still is immense. Observing, watching, not getting too involved, keeping the bird’s eye view. Radical change is as likely to come from within as it is from Mick Lynch's strikes, XR's actions or votes of no confidence. Those things can still spark change but the 'parallel polis' is unfolding underneath, starting with each of us.

Let’s be conduits of connection, ambassadors for community, stewards for collaboration and for sharing. Let’s get out in nature (it’s part of us all, not separate) and lavish it with abundant care, with attention to detail, with an awareness of its cycles and rhythms. And bring that awareness into other aspects of our everyday lives. 

Let’s be playful and brave, let’s keep dreaming, let’s delight in the rhythm of an open conversation, in our uniqueness and our differences. Let’s really notice what a difference loving ourselves and others can make. And from there, new ways, alternatives to capitalism start to take root. Systemic change starts with us. That’s you and me being human, alive and present in the moment.

Kindness really is the only way forward, love is the answer.  An answer, at least, but a very important one. One to keep uppermost in our hearts. We reap what we sow. Let’s find the true courage that’s resting in our hearts and feel just how much can be changed through this transition. 

Nurudeen Ushawu once said, “Be soft, don’t let the world make you hard. Be gentle, don’t let the people make you difficult. Be kind, don’t let the realities of life steal your sweetness and make you heartless.”

Blog originally posted on 19.10.22 on Campfire's Network https://campfireconvention.network/posts/open-heart-therapy