dprogram • Peter Russell - Global Brain Waves


Home > 1 > 2 > 3 > 4 View Video Clip Extract from dprogram Volume 1 "For me its, yes, take insights, they're valuable and test them in the light of day, some of the insights I think are in fact coming from our own garbage, just internal crap that's coming up in meditation or whatever. Look at it, does this make sense? If it does, put it into practise. Don't worry about where its coming from. One of my favourite sayings is 'Just because its the voice of God doesn't mean its right.' Discrimination is very important these days." Peter Russell British writer Peter Russell studied mathematics, theoretical physics and experimental psychology and was an honorary scholar at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. He also spent time studying meditation with the Maharishi in the Himalayas and his work since then has synthesised these two diverse educational strands. His book, 'The Global Brain' proposed a highly unorthodox theory of humanity's role in the evolution of the planet. It took James Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis (that the Earth behaves like a single, giant organism) to a controversial new conclusion, that human beings may be likened to single cells in a gigantic neural network, the planet's own awakening brain. It was an idea that was too radical for orthodox scientific acceptance, but which has proved to be highly resonant for thousands of people world wide. Ted Turner called it "A fascinating vision of how the information revolution is shifting consciousness. A much-needed, optimistic perspective on humanity's future." The Consciousness Curve Peter Russell I predicted about fifteen years ago that after the growth in information technology, there would be an even faster growth in personal development, I called it ' The Consciousness Curve' and that seems to be happening. Every four years its doubling. You can see this just in the number of bookstores there are in this area, or the number of videos or even programmess, clubs, magazines. Twenty years ago you had to search to find books on these subjects, now you find them everywhere you go. You see this in simple things as well like diet, people are much more concerned about what they eat. About exercise, about the quality of their relationships, how they communicate with each other. I think all this is very important. How we bring up children, that's a crucial thing. There's a vicious circle in society, if you bring up children in the sort of 'smack 'em till they change' mode, they're going to grow up into wounded adults, who then bring up their own children the same way. If we can break that vicious circle, we're going to change the way society functions. There is a lot that's happening. It's happening slowly, but we are moving towards this direction so fast (in terms of the numbers of people) I think that in another five to ten years time, personal development will be as important a social phenomenon as the whole information revolution is now. I think that's the next step. You've said that the Internet is accelerating this process, can this make enough of a difference, since half the world don't even use a telephone? Peter Russell A lot of people say "It's only western," and it is, but it's what, 10% of the global population which is affluent which means that they have something left over to spend on things other than food and housing, but that 10% are causing a lot of problems for the rest of the world. That 10% are using up something like 70% of the world's resources, so I think that's the 10% that needs to change. I don't think that we should apologise for the fact that the West, or even California in particular, is where people take an interest in personal development. The affluent parts of the West is where we've tried this material way of living, where we have two or three bathrooms and videos and cars and yachts. It's great but you get to a point of diminishing returns, where it doesn't work any more. In fact a lot of people are less happy for it because they're worrying about who's going to take what they've got. Home > 1 > 2 > 3 > 4 email • mail order credits © dprogram 1996>2008
	Originally broadcast on UK television's Channel 4, dprogram is an award winning, mind expanding trip featuring rare and exclusive interviews with leading edge personalities from areas like cyber culture, consciousness research, parapsychology, music and art. Volume 1 includes: • Dan Mapes CEO of San Francisco's leading edge virtual reality design company SynergyLabs on the metaphysics of VR. • Jah Wobble Musician and founder member of Public Image Limited on Cockney mystics, creativity and the inspiration of William Blake. • Dr Sara Parker UC Berkeley scholar on the New Age 'colonisation' of Native American spirituality. • Bishop Joey Head of the First Church of the Last Laugh - the worlds fastest growing snack relgion! • Burning Man A unique four day experience exploring creativity and consciousness in Nevada's Black Rock Desert. • Willis Harman Former president of The Institute of Noetic Sciences on their 'conventional research into unconventional areas'. • Dr Edgar Mitchell Founder of The Institute of Noetic Sciences and Apollo 14 astronaut on parapsychology experiments in space. • Nick Pope of the British Ministry of Defence on why he had to change his mind about the UFO phenomenom. • Peter Russell Author, on the global brain, spirituality on the net and our part in the evolution of the planet. • Ann & Alexander Shulgin Pioneer researchers into psychedelics and the mind, on the politics of ecstacy. And more... Running time: 70 mins. £19.99 plus Post & Packing. Post & Packing rates: For the UK add £3.00 For Europe add £4.00 For the United States and the Rest of the World add £6.00 ORDER ONLINE Snail Mail Orders: Make a Cheque, Postal Order or International Money Order payable to Digital Media Labs and send to: Digital Media Labs 8 Manson House 16-17 Manson Place London SW7 5LT United Kingdom Customer Service Helpline: +44 (0) 20 7225 0861 Please Note dprogram is only available on VHS PAL. To play this tape in the US you must use a multi-region video machine capable of playing PAL format tapes. We are currently working to provide dprogram on DVD. If you would like to be notified when this becomes available enter your email address below.