At the same time, history honors great soldiers of conscience, who risked their lives to stand for something peacefully: Gandhi, Galileo, King, Jesus, the unknown protestor in Tienanmen Square, Iranian protestor Neda, the list goes on…

Yet every day, soldiers who dare to defy orders from their superiors, when it conflicts with their conscience, are shamed, imprisoned, dishonored and even killed for disobeying orders.

This Saturday, I’m taking a stand to honor soldiers who dare to follow the orders of their conscience first, especially those who are standing for peace, and I invite you to join me and spread the word.

I’ll be speaking at the National Assembly to Honor Freedom of Conscience in Austin, Texas, about an hour outside of Fort Hood in Killeen, TX, the largest US military base in the world. For more information, click here.

Often times we, as visionary activists, can become so enraged by what people are doing to the things, people or causes we care about that we start fighting against the powers that be, rather than standing for the world we envision and inviting others to stand with us. Our iStand Experience is an intensive training in how to think, speak and take action in ways that can inspire even your greatest adversaries to let down their walls and stand with you.

Our next iStand Experience is this June 10-15, 2008 in Austin, TX, where 50 visionaries from around the globe will unite to face everything, avoid nothing and stand for PROSPERITY FOR ALL IN OUR LIFETIME! If you feel called by this and you are a visionary activist, look for applications here next week.

Such is the power of a single person at the dawn of the 21st century!

A few weeks ago I turned 37. And I have a confession to make. I have NEVER voted in my life! I have NEVER been inspired by the political machine here in America, and have believed there are much better uses of my time to make a difference than becoming part of the political game (such as the entrepreneurial endeavor called VisionForce).

Well, now I’m about to register to vote. Say WHAT?

Yup. It’s all Ron Paul‘s fault.

Consider this: Political power is largely the power of force. Here in America, many people have popularized the concept of democracy, and come to hold that as America’s fundamental value that makes us great. A pure democracy is essentially the rule of the majority over the minority. Is that what makes America great? That the majority can force the minority to live by their values? Or that we have a process, whereby everyone can participate and have their voice heard? I think most Americans would agree that what we value in democracy is the later. And the essential value is freedom–the freedom to think, speak and believe as we wish and the freedom to live our lives by our own conscience, values and vision as we please provided we don’t hurt others’ freedom to do the same.

However, notice how elections have become a time when we pit person against person, group against group, fighting for the power to tell others how to live their lives. Notice the ways in which “democracy” is indeed used as a tool for a minority of citizens (who vote and are in the voting majority) to force everyone else in the country (and around the world when the given country has a world-governing foreign policy) to conform to their ideas.

We could have a discussion about whether or not this is what the American founders envisioned, and about whether or not they even considered this a democracy or a constitutional republic.

But let’s look at what it’s going to take now in the 21st century to create a world that really works. Is it going to take some great visionary leader to save us and “make things right?” Or is it going to take us coming together, recognizing that we each have the capacity to be visionary leaders of our own lives who can come together to stand for a political and economic environment where we can truly see, hear and honor the human being on “the other side,” and then sit down with him or her and use the genius of the human mind to create previously impossible-seeming solutions.

Ron Paul. Is he a quack, as so many in the mainstream media and political machine seem to make him out to be? Certainly he’s courageously questioning so many of the long-held assumptions that give the mainstream media and politicians power today. Certainly his ideas would shake the foundations of the political machine as it exists today. If the machine is working well, then I don’t think they have much to fear. Dismiss Ron Paul, if he’s trying to change something that is working incredibly well.

One thing that excites me about Ron Paul is what his policies might do to free the human mind and spirit from an environment of fear and distrust. What would happen to ourselves, each other and the world we live in, if we were free to raise our wings and sour into the wide open skies, where we as visionary beings can breathe fresh air and take it upon ourselves to create a world that works?

When I look at Ron Paul, I see someone who is not trying to force his values on me, but who respects and trusts me as a conscious, creative human being–as an adult–to make my own choices and live my life.

It takes a lot of courage and commitment for anyone to run for president, and I trust that the others who are doing so really care deeply about America.

Still, a big question that faces us now is what kind of political environment is going to free the human mind and spirit to flourish in the 21st century, and create the kind of environment where we can come together to create a world that really works?

What would a top-down positionary leadership style on the part of another American president do what trust is left on the part of the American people and our 6 billion plus neighbors around the world?

Ron Paul or no Ron Paul, my voice and my vote will go for the idea that we as human beings have more power to come together and create than we give ourselves credit for. We can trust each other far more than we do, and we do not need to fear freedom. We do not need some great visionary leader to save us and make the bad guys be good. No, we need to accept the responsibility and the power to create a better world–the responsibility and power that only freedom can bestow upon us.

I say it’s time we stop trying to force our neighbors to be our idea of what’s right, and set them free. Honor them with freedom. Then let’s sit down with them at the table, break bread with them and collaborate as equals.

I say it’s time for YOUR vision to be seen, YOUR voice to be heard, YOUR spirit to be felt, YOUR stand to be taken, YOUR creativity to be unleashed, YOUR life to be lived.

What is YOUR vision? What is YOUR stand? What is YOUR revolution?

How can we help to empower YOUR vision?

The film left me questioning my choice to be so “practical” for the last five years, building VisionForce as a business. Funny, my business advisers would say I’ve been anything but practical, and that I’ve been far too idealistic. It seems that either path might have been much more effective than the middle road. Had I gone for profit, and built the business to be much more financially successful, we might have the muscle to reach many more people now. Had I been in revolutionary action mode at the expense of the finances, we might have already reached so many more people.

So, what, I wonder, does it look like for me to STAND FORWARD and be the change at the next level? And what does it look like for you?

Honor is a distinct human emotion, although it’s not yet been named as one. It’s part of our inner compass that is squashed
in a world of hierarchical institutions. Our leaders play upon our starvation for this emotion when they tell us that the other side is “evil.”

Having direct, ongoing and lasting access and control of this emotion can empower you to stay steadfast in your commitments to create
a better life, a better world.

When you FEEL this inner force, you

- have nothing to prove,
- react to nothing and no one,
- have no doubt about your path or purpose,
- are completely fulfilled, nothing missing,
- feel one with god/universe/life/nature,
- have unlimited access to love as your source
of courage
- naturally become more conscious and awake,
- inspire others to open their hearts,
- and much more.

Today, we talked about how social conditioning has left us without Honor as a powerful emotion, and how we now compromise ourselves and suffer
silently as result. (and what we can do to regain this source of courage, power and love)

Listen to the complete audio to get a good grasp of this natural force within you.

You’ll also hear how we tap into this force at our VisionForce Boot Camps. At this posting, there are still some seats available for
the November BOOT CAMP for world-changing parents, teachers, leaders, entrepreneurs, artists… and YOU!

Register here: http://www.visionforce.com/bootcamp


MP3 File

An excerpt:

Bent over by osteoporosis, 85-year-old Promita Das meticulously and slowly sweeps the floor just outside her door and then carefully cleans her dishes. “I came here when I couldn’t work anymore. I used to clean houses,” she says. “Nobody looked after me, nobody loved me. I survived on my own.” She married at 12 and was widowed at 15. Seventy years later, she finds herself at Amar Bari. “I used to live in front of a temple, but then I came here,” she says. She carries with her not only the pain of a life without love, but also the loss of her only child. She gave birth at 14; her baby lived a year.

Another visionary woman, Deepa Mehta has taken a bold stand to draw attention to this issue with her incredibly inspiring movie, Water. Films such as this one are recommended preparation material for our 5-day VisionForce intensive, the iStand Experience (also, VisionForce Boot Camp). The world is in need of visionaries–people who can stand for a better world in a way that calls even their adversaries to stand with them. That’s why VisionForce exists.

Rather than OV just uniting moderates to stand together, I imagine they are also reaching out to individuals in extremist movements. The VisionForce work is especially applicable in situations that call for strategies beyond compromise, and this is one such situation.

So deeply are we inspired by the OneVoice movement, that VisionForce has committed to make 12 VisionForce Boot Camp Scholarships available to active OneVoice participants from Israel and Palestine over the course of the next year.

The VisionForce trainings are perfect for individuals and groups looking for the expanded levels of courage, compassion and vision needed to create a world that works for everyone. VisionForce’s simple, powerful diagrams and processes provide access to the levels of vision that make deep communication, collaboration and creation possible.

Here at Vision Force, we also salute the soldiers who fought, and in doing so stood for peace. The more we can all see the stand even in our adversaries, the more we can call them to stand with us in a way that works.