Centre For Change - Mass Media, Visualisation and Critical Mass

MASS MEDIA, VISUALISATION AND CRITICAL MASS

Wondering about the impediments/opportunities they present for effecting a paradigm change

1. Effects of visualization - what we see is what we get, green elephants and all.

2. We see everything (well everything the media considers will help their ratings….the good and the bad.

3. Our greatest fear as individuals: not fulfilling our potential, is now a shared, collective, marginally unconscious fear.

4. Seeing everything revisited: the need and the right to know - the "good" and the "bad" of the good and the bad.

5. Apocalypse, or apocalypse ? Which critical mass will we materialize ?

6. What can we do ? Seeing and seeing.

What we see is what we get --visualization

Many cultures, religions, philosophies, and scientific disciplines tell us that what we see (think about) is what we get. Aboriginals and Christians, athletic coaches, holistic health advocates, healers, psychologists and quantum physicists teach some form of visualization-effect relationship. Visualization has had, and still does have, many catalysts: oral traditions, radio news and radio drama, reading…. all cause us to think about/see something in our mind. The "mental picture" in our "minds eye". Films, television, print advertising, and video games are the predominant catalysts today.

Working one-on-one, medical practitioners who work with visualization often advise their patients to "picture" the diseased modality being "attacked" by healthy cells, white light, et cetera. Unfortunately, the patient may spend most of their time picturing (seeing) the disease. Well meaning informational spots on television, and our doctor's offices, are full of these images. What we see is what we get. What is called for, is seeing the healthy mode.

This is easier said than done. There is an old "trick" used to demonstrate how important it is to avoid the trap of using the negative to teach its opposite. Saying to someone, "don't think of a green elephant", and then asking them what they just saw. It is a rare, rare phenomena (ever ?) if the person does not think of a green elephant. Whether it is a personal infirmity, or something else in our lives that we would like to change, it is difficult to not think of the "negative" that we wish to affect. Difficult to not think of the green elephant.

The Aboriginals of Australia have been warning us that we have long since forgotten how to dream. Dreams are a vivid visual experience that individuals often find difficult to describe. But, when a dream is not just one individual's, when it is shared by others -- often through conscious agreement - the experience is lifted to another level. Now, those who participated can talk about it, perhaps agree to do something about materializing it. Or to join together again and collectively change it.

From Greece, Hermes advised us, "as above, so below", what we think about (see) is what we get. Teilhard de Chardin, the French Jesuit, and Sri Aurobindo, the Indian Hindu, each taught that we are to "materialize the spiritual". To borrow Teilhard's way of saying it, we are asked to make "earth as it is in heaven". The dictionary defines "heaven" as "a place of extreme beauty, delight, and happiness". Humankind has the opportunity and the responsibility to change our way of thinking (seeing) and to fulfill the destiny offered to us.

But to materialize the "above", enough of us (critical mass) must have a shared, collective vision of this "heavenly" place, and the people who make it so. We have to "remember how to dream", together. And we must find a way to stop thinking of green elephants, or at least to not be spending most of our time seeing and thinking about the negative things.

What then, about the effect of today's predominant catalysts ?

We see everything -- the good, and the bad

We see representatives of our species on the moon. See relief efforts in response to natural and manmade disasters, see human beings rescue not only other humans, but risk a human life for a helpless animal. We have a sense of the wonderful things that could be achieved if we used our creative and productive resources to do good things for all of humankind, for the whole of the planet and all of its species.

However, the ultra-light cameras, satellites, cable access, and ubiquitous camcorders which give us the opportunity to see the good things, are also used to bring us "the news", and are at the beck and call of questionable taste. Thus, we mostly get to see a daily diet of war, shootings, stabbings, abuse, mayhem and brutality on humans and animals, along with or via the trash of "reality" TV and dramatic programming that often tries to outdo them in grossness.

So, we also see hundreds of thousands die in Africa for lack of basic shelter, food and medicine, and then see thousands of Iraqis killed to save a nickel a gallon on gas. We see frustrated Palestinians die calling for the world to give them justice, see airplanes fly into the World Trade Towers, and see the already devastated Afghani people bombed some more as Israeli tanks roll. We see Enron executives dictate a US Government energy policy that devastates both the environment and the poor - and then walk away wealthy while their workers lose their life savings.

And, we see self-congratulatory awards shows, other variations on these versions of "the lifestyles of the rich and famous", see a few rich, spoiled people "play" at survival while millions of others really struggle to survive.

It is impossible to see how others live, and die, and not know something isn't right.

( For the sake of brevity, and its universality, it is primarily International News that will be used to make the point of this enquiry into mass media, visualization and critical mass. Of course local news, "reality" TV shows and dramatic programming also have a role.)

We see the good, we see the bad. We know we are not doing the good for each other that we could do.

The fear and frustration of not living-up to our potential

Individuals often say that one of their greatest fears in life is not living-up to their full potential. The collective unconscious of the species as a whole is experiencing that same fear because we all see the effects of our action and inaction on television and we see the disparity, know we are not doing the good that we could do. We know that we are not living-up to our human potential.

We see and we know. Our shared, collective vision of ourselves is, unfortunately, a negative one.

And, not only do we know we are not doing the good that we could do, we often feel there isn't anything we can do about it -- which leads to feeling powerless, and despairing for the human race and the planet. Constantly reminded of our failure to really do the good things we are capable of doing, the positive vision of our potential future created by seeing what we could do, degenerates into a negative one, even one of apocalyptic proportions.

As more and more of us get access to mass media communications, the "we" is becoming a higher and higher percentage of an exponentially growing human species. There are more of us, and more of us able to see more of the disparity between what we do and what we could do. More of us are more conscious of our failure to live up to our potential, and we are ever more likely to feel that we are not going to "make it". The sense of an impending apocalypse increases. The size (mass) of this collective vision grows.

Could we, should we, put an end to our access to the "bad" images ?

Seeing everything…….the good and the bad of the "good" and the "bad"

Perhaps we could agree that most or all of the unsavory trash TV, whether "reality" based or otherwise, is not a "good" thing. But, what about events where a public response is called for ? Where the facts are useful and important ? What about the effect of honest, accurate, reporting of war and its effect on people and the environment? Viet Nam was not the first dirty war, just the first that we all knew was dirty while it was in progress, due to television coverage. It affected the conscience of America, and isn't that a "good" thing?

Right now, despite the censorship thrust upon the media after Viet Nam, is there any doubt that we still know about the 5,000 plus civilian casualties from the Red Cross shelter and other centers supposedly "misidentified" and bombed as Taliban ? The rubble and general devastation of Afghanistan ? No, we have no doubt because the Pentagon is so certain that we have seen it, certain that attempts at censorship and lies wouldn't work, that their own public relations department must publicize those numbers.

Is there any doubt we know what is really going on in Palestine and Israel ? No, we have no doubt because we see it. Israel uses lethal force to deny the news media access and President Bush may say that Israel must withdraw. But, we know, because we see, that Israel gets as many US jets, helicopters, rockets, et cetera as it needs to continue its occupation, while the frustration of Palestine's people - without any support, and still occupied -- has reached the point where its weapons are 12 year olds willing to die to be heard.

Censorship doesn't work anymore.

We still get to see events simultaneously, across borders, time zones, cultures, religious and political affiliations, racial or economic demarcations. We all could see, live, the "smart bombs" strike Iraq, the airplanes hit the World Trade Towers, and in the cycle to which we must put an end, watch that all come back as American bombers in Afghanistan and US/Israeli tanks in Palestine. And. we wonder, "what's next?"

On the one hand, we see so much of the ineffectiveness of war and its devastation of innocent civilian lives that we may be developing a conscience about it. That's "good".

Because of what we see due to mass media access to virtually everything, we are developing a recognition that what our governments are doing won't resolve the conflict nor eradicate the causes of conflict. We are certain, for example, that the violence inflicted upon Afghanistan, and extending that war to the so-called Axis Of Evil will not end the cycle. We are certain it will take authentic action to bring justice to Palestine, and, in general, end the disparities we see in how others live, and die.

Having access to the truth is satisfying - and, we assume, empowering. We don't want to lose our freedom to know to censorship. We feel that knowledge is power. Activists can see what's happening, be alerted, informed, and take action.

On the other hand, even though most of us would agree that seeing and knowing is better than being denied the truth of what we are doing to each other, we are still seeing the truth of what we are doing to each other. This often leads to people feeling that activism isn't working, to feeling more frustrated at not being able to do anything, to denial and giving-up, to feeling powerless in the face of the violence that is born of the frustration of feeling powerless.

What should we advocate? Seeing more, or seeing less?

Apocalypse, or apocalypse ?

Seeing more , which presently means seeing more disparity between what we could do and what we do do, seeing the injustice of how others live, and die, could lead to more frustration, more denial, more giving-up, more fear….. and more violence-even to the worldwide war or ecological disaster we usually think of (envision) when "apocalypse" is mentioned.

But, perhaps, there is good reason that we are sensing the possibility of apocalypse. Apocalypse, from its Greek origins, means, "removing the veil". The possibility of apocalypse needn't foster a negative vision of the end of the world, just the end of the world we presently know. Perhaps apocalyptic threats seem nearer at this time because we are closer to removing the veil and becoming conscious of our consciousness. And, the closer we get to realizing our full human consciousness the more frustrated we become at our not living at our human potential.

Could seeing more of the disparity lead to removing the veil, becoming conscious of our consciousness, conscious of ourselves as capable of living-up to our potential, fulfilling our potential destiny, and beginning to behave accordingly ? We'd have to replace the collective vision we currently have of ourselves. We'd have to at least start to remove the veil. Is there any hope of that happening?

Maybe. Newton's 3rd Law states that "for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction". Quantum physics tells us that for every potential action its equal and opposite co-exists. Maybe the collective vision of a potential "apocalypse" that is a negative one of imminent disaster and total destruction offers us the opportunity to stop thinking of that "green elephant" and re-focus our vision on its opposite, an equal and opposite vision of a potential apocalypse that is "removing the veil".

It may still be only a potential that is hidden from our view, but, as the size (mass) of frustration, helplessness, despair, violence, and a descent into darkness approaches its critical mass, could it be that an "equal and opposite" approach of critical mass for hope, helpfulness, empathy, compassion, right action and an ascent into light is simultaneously occurring?

What can we do ? Seeing and seeing.

Does this mean we should be hoping for even more of the "green elephant" images to hurry along the "equal and opposite" reaction? Hardly. We have seen and will have ample opportunity to continue to see how far removed we are from doing the good we could be doing.

When it comes to news reporting of real events, the only way these images can not, or should not, be available is when we cease to create the events themselves. The open, uncensored coverage of events is changing the way protagonists and antagonists are perceived, and more and more potential activists are moved to action.

Having ample opportunity to see the "green elephant", and to see the reasons for action, its time to give people a chance to see more of what the other could look like, and how we could achieve it. We could see more of how earth as that "heavenly" place would look, and how we could get it to be, both in documentaries of real events and places, and via dramatic programming. That would really "set the table", give people a shot at seeing something other than "green elephants".

We have the technologies - weapons of mass destruction in nuclear, biological and chemical forms -- that make it possible for us to destroy ourselves either by using them or just by continuing to waste our creativity, productivity and resources to continue to make, maintain, and intimidate with them. We also have technologies --the media of mass communications-that help us cross boundaries, lose the illusion of separateness, and bring us together so that a quantum leap of consciousness could take us to wholeness (no more illusion of separateness).

We have a choice. We can continue to despair at our failure to live up to our real potential, and continue to see an apocalyptic future in the pejorative. Or we could see a way to synthesize public, social responsibility with inner personal growth, and raise our consciousness to a holistic dimension…..and action.

We could move our evolution along and bring "heaven" and "earth" a little closer.