Welcome to front and center, from political battlefields to cooperative playing fields. We're about to begin our fourth month of broadcasting. And we're producing two summary videos to explain how these conversations weave a foundation for writing our new story together. Steve, what would you like to add?
Well, thanks, Mike. At a time when Americans are more politically polarized than any time since the Civil War, we created this podcast to activate what could be called the new spirit of collaboration 65 or 70% of citizens from all sides, who would rather work together and fight one another, our playful way to say it is we're here to bring left and right from the center to face the music and dance together to turn the function to function and leave the junk at the junction.
Yes, we're working to help bring that new majority together. So we can write a new story. And to do that, we needed a guiding beacon to shine the light ahead of us to help us see where we're going. Charles Eisenstein provides that beacon from his book titled, the more beautiful world, our hearts know as possible. That's why we begin to building our foundation with Charles Eisenstein as our first guest.
What I call the more beautiful world, our hearts know as possible is, is a being, I understand that as a being this future that reaches into the present with these tendrils that that awaken record recognition of what's possible, the tendrils being things like experiences of forgiveness, or generosity, you know, kindness, healing, and and you have that experience. And there's a recognition, a feeling of recognition, a feeling of a promise of home, and therefore hope, authentic hope, which is a premonition of a possibility. Those are precious treasures. Our Ascension into a new story is a collective effort and a collective experience. So part of the surroundings or the circumstances that we are in, we meeting most human beings on this planet, at least to the extent that they have received a modern education, that they use money to participate in a market economy, etc, etc. It's a pretty broad we, we are immersed in what I call the story of separation, that tells us, it's a mythology. Basically, it tells us who we are, what's real, how to be a man how to be a woman, what's important how to live life, what the purpose of a human being is. It tells us the nature of change how change happens, it, it narrates our political reality, our social reality, and even maybe our material reality. And my basic premise of all of my work, is that this story that has carried civilization for hundreds, if not 1000s, of years, and intensified in our time, is breaking down, leaving us with a crisis of meaning, a crisis of identity, a uncertainty, a panic, even, but also a sense of a possibility, a possibility of transcending the age old circumstances that we've called human, the human condition. And that's why I call it the more beautiful world our hearts know as possible. Because that feeling often goes against what the rational mind which is steeped in the old story believes to be possible. But the heart knows that yeah, the world is supposed to be and can be so much more beautiful, authentic, joyful, harmonious and alive than what we're accustomed to. So that's that's the basic premise of it.
So here we have the contrast that defines our our new work situation. We have this more beautiful world that reflects the greatest aspirations of humankind. And there's a blocking force being the story that dominates our culture, the story of separation, we can see how the culture of separation has us using our differences against one another. But what if there are a way to turn these dueling dualities into dynamic duo dance partners, so that we use our differences to face our challenges together?
That brings us to our second guest, Charles Randall Paul, whose process of religious diplomacy brings Opposing Viewpoints into conversations as quote, trustworthy rivals, like the Team of Rivals that comprise Abraham Lincoln's cabinet, where he had individuals who held very strong opposing views, and yet work collaboratively to preserve the Union.
That's what diplomacy is. It owns the fact that we want to create change in all our relationships, please, can we still have a conversation? Can we still desire to make each other part of each other's lives as a trustworthy rival, someone who is both critical and appreciative sustain peaceful tension between rivals who will remain rivals, because in their integrity, they can do no other. We'd like to call it a collaborative contestation where they engage their differences and try honestly to persuade each other to see things differently, right. We like to say the goal of diplomacy is not tranquil peace, it's peaceful tension, it will actually enhance your truth by giving you deeper perspectives, seeking the whole truth together,
seeking the whole truth together, that's a helpful first step in writing our new story together. Charles Randall Paul also explains why his own religious tradition invites all voices to create what he would term, an achievable heaven on earth.
The Latter Day Saing idea, using biblical texts was that God actually wants this world here and now before Heaven, to be a Zion, where people can thrive together, who have differences, right. And Joseph Smith was the original Latter Day Saint Prophet made, he said that the idea of Zion should be our central goal in all we do. And so, in answering your question, my Latter Day Saint point of view of, of an ideal world is one where the best of all ideologies and now I'll put out there, the best of doubters, the best of the atheists, the best of everybody, whatever the the goods are, that come out of your worldview, the best of that would be brought into Zion, and would be digested, not vomited, but somehow digested usefully by all the tribes, not not homogenized into a single reality. But, but everyone would feed off of everyone else's highest and best stuff.
Two words come to mind to describe what it takes for community where diverse population can thrive together, reunion, and kinship.
Our third guest, longtime activist, Bobby Austin, whose work involves public kinship, tells us we can have unity without uniformity.
Ethnic groups have their own ways of doing things, and their own causes, but a food society like our society, which is multifaceted, multiracial and multicultural, has to have an overall common culture that we all can aspire to, can assert as ours, and that is not doesn't belong to this person or that person, but that I helped to build that culture without a common culture. We will destroy the country. I think there is in this younger Americans generation, a more open idea of who they are as they explore themselves in ways that we could never have imagined. It may be that old people like us become the mitigators the midwives. This difficult and unkind world dies, and a new one is born. Because that is the struggle, the struggle of a new world, and an old world and a new one coming into, into play. I do believe that.
So when looking for that common culture, where do we turn, we need to turn back so that we can go forward. And that means we turn to indigenous wisdom, and how its deep rooted paths points us toward a healthier future.
Speaking of the next generation, we invited Shanna Bluestar Newcomb to share with us the Reverence Code, which brings the wisdom from her native American traditions, and helps direct us to a future, a future where we are connected to the web of life to one another, and our own unique soul. But first, she has to address the work her father, legal and Latin scholar Steve Newcomb, did on the Doctrine of Discovery, how the culture of separation and domination caused the nearly complete decimation of Native American peoples and created a wound that still must be healed.
And speaking of that domination, code and this doctrine of discovery, I feel like there is really a different origin story that many people have not understood. And this deeper history to this roots that go way, way back centuries old. That, you know, it began with Well, I understand and appreciate, you know, I honor all spiritual paths. The historical context is that it began with the Vatican church. And these Papal Bulls that you mentioned, were issued by these Pope's in the Vatican, and my dad has it been able to translate those directly from Latin to English, and they say, to conquer, vanquish and subdue all Saracens, pagans and enemies of Christ to take all of their lands, possessions and gold and put them into perpetual slavery for God, Glory and gold. My dad has a film the Doctrine of Discovery, Unmasking the Domination Code. In that one hour film, it's been opening hearts and minds throughout the world. And I feel it's very enlightening for people to really see that and say, Wow, I had no idea. I've been through graduate school, I've had all these degrees, and I've had all this education, how could I not know this history, and it's because I feel, you know, is history that hasn't been really told or focused upon until now. And my dad has been doing that work for 40 years now. So really paving the way for many other people that are also speaking about these things. But I feel like this is also painting, a very clear picture on that domination, dehumanization, patterns that are very prevalent in all aspects of our lives today. So I feel like it you know, it's affecting our bodies and our minds, in our hearts, in our spirit, our sense of purpose, our connection with our families, and relationships, or abundance, and our impact in our communities in certainly on the planet. But the other side of it I feel like as well is that we're working through what I see is very much a spiritual evolution that we're able to have the pendulum swinging from, I feel like at one time we began, all people throughout the planet, there was an original spirituality that was based on reverence and a deep understanding with sacred laws that we have still to this day within our indigenous cultures and understanding of this connection with the land and really honoring it as our Mother Earth. And we don't harm our mother, of course. And so there's a different kind of mentality that is really based on respect and reverence, and a deep understanding of what it means to really see a way of life that's going to perpetuate life and reverence for future generations going seven generations and beyond. The more that we can connect on this deeper root, that is our wounding for all peoples throughout the planet. It's not just one person or another person. Yes, we've all been traumatized. And really, the root of that is that domination code, that dehumanization, which is really you know about abuse, it's about abuse of the planet, and really thinking of nature as commodity. And when you look at the word civilization, it is another word for it would be domination. So that domination culture began where civilization began. So history is only told through the lens of domination. It isn't just one group of people, it's going all the way back to those Roman times to the Greek times that those narratives and understandings of what it meant to really have civilization and establish this pattern. was something that was being played out all over across Europe, the root of things here with that domination dehumanization route. I think that's really a point where we can come together because that is the source of our collective trauma. That's the opposite of domination code is the reference code. And, you know, it's, it's this ah, this wonder for life, and really this deep spiritual connection that there are no words to even describe. I see that. It's by design in a way that all of these things are coming to the forefront. The shadows coming to light in order to be witnessed and healed. And so I is painful it is it is to have all of this coming up at us right now, in a way. It's like, okay, look, all the alarm bells are ringing around the planet, it's time for us to make changes, dramatic changes. And, start to look at things in a new way from a different perspective. And and how can we start to create a new story, a new visioning and really see our possibilities? Because I feel like the spiritual path that is so beautiful and so profound, is that we have innate superpowers, we have intuition and incredible guidance with us on a spiritual level that was cut off from us. It's like cutting off our roots. And that's the reverence code.
You know, it's so important to remember we all carry the trauma of our own history with us. As Shawna suggests, to make this very necessary spiritual evolution. We have to acknowledge, address and transform the collective trauma into forgiveness, so that we can collaborate together and heal.
Please check out part two of our review show where we learn how being a lost people has contributed to our repeating patterns of trauma. how the reunion of native and European tribes of all cultures, who now share the soil of America will help us heal. We'll learn about the significant influence our indigenous tribes had and our founding fathers and the framers of our nation. And then finally, how a project that brings all sides together in respectful conversation is already helping to build the scaffolding for kinship, reunion, and the more beautiful world our hearts know as possible.
