Whatever the mechanism—greenhouse gases, deforestation, or solar fluctuations—climate change is sending us an important message. We and Earth are one. As above, so below: what we do to each other, even to the smallest animal or plant, we do to all creation. Perhaps all our small, invisible acts imprint themselves upon the world in ways we do not understand." The world as we know it is built on a story. To be a change agent is, first, to disrupt the existing Story of the World, and second, to tell a new Story of the World so that those entering the space between stories have a place to go.”

One can think of many situations in which beliefs do, in fact, create reality … Only when someone believes “I can do it,” will they even try. When our beliefs change, so do our motivations and perceptions. We do new things and see new opportunities.”

The New Story (Interbeing)

A tribeswoman asked, “How do you know this will work? Are you sure our shaman’s powers are great enough to send us on such a journey?” Like the crisis, the transition we face goes all the way to the bottom. Internally, it is nothing less than a transformation in the experience of being alive. Externally, it is nothing less than a transformation of humanity’s role on planet Earth. Most of us cannot stand alone in the new story—to do so would contradict the basic principle of interbeing. If you are part of me, then if you are in separation, so also is a part of me. Lord knows there are a lot of social and economic forces holding us in the old story. A miracle or a breakdown can catapult us temporarily out of the world of separation, but to stay there, most of us need help. This is something we can all offer each other. That is why I say enlightenment is a group effort. My notes from this book total more than 17,000 words. Any attempt to summarise it will fail to do the book justice. And finally, Love Anyway. In a world where I may want to close my heart or others are closing their heart… can I Love Anyway?

If I remember correctly I first heard of Charles Eisenstein when stumbling upon an quite extensive article he wrote about the COVID-19 pandemic. In it I found his perspective very refreshing and somehow different (but not in a conspiracy theory way 😄). So I looked up some of his books and found that this one attracted me most, judging only by the title. Admittedly, it sounds a bit utopic, but hey, that's not necessarily a bad thing, right?Life made sense. If you worked hard you could get good grades, get into a good college, go to grad school or follow some other professional path, and you would be happy. With a few unfortunate exceptions, you would be successful if you obeyed the rules of our society: if you followed the latest medical advice, kept informed by reading the New York Times, got a good education, obeyed the law, made prudent investments, and stayed away from Bad Things like drugs. Sure there were problems, but the scientists and experts were working hard to fix them. Soon a new medical advance, a new law, a new educational technique, would propel the onward improvement of life. My childhood perceptions were part of a narrative I call the Story of the People, in which humanity was destined to create a perfect world through science, reason, and technology: to conquer nature, transcend our animal origins, and engineer a rational society. A tribesman asked, “Is there a danger we will become lost in that world, and never wake up from the shamanic trance? Is there a danger that the despair, the cynicism, the pain of separation will be so great that it will extinguish the spark of hope, the spark of our true selves and origin, and that we will be separated from our beloved ones forever?” This summer, while helping to run a workshop on social entrepreneurship, I met a young Mexican migrant called Roberto. By coincidence Roberto had landed upon three core themes for a good life: A Life of Purpose, Healthy Relationships with Others and Respectful Interaction with Nature. The resonance with what I’d been encountering rang clear as a bell. That all being said it is quite difficult to review this book without reducing it into an over-simplification that completely ruins it. Ultimately the author admirably attempts to challenge the root assumptions that have guided Western Civilization, which he dubs "The story of Separation". He claims that this narrative have driven Western civilization towards a culture of alienation from each other, from the planet, from even oneself. The antidote being the "story of Reunion" which is instead seeks to recognize and appreciate the complex web of inter-relationships that drive life on the planet as well as the mental and emotional well being of society. And what, exactly, is at the bottom? What do I mean by a “transition between worlds”? At the bottom of our civilization lies a story, a mythology. I call it the Story of the World or the Story of the People—a matrix of narratives, agreements, and symbolic systems that comprises the answers our culture offers to life’s most basic questions: