Gregg Braden is presenting The Turning Point: A Crisis In Thinking on Sept. 25 at the Cleland Theatre from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m.
Braden will conduct a multimedia seminar using insight collected from two of his most recent books: The Turning Point: Creating Resilience in a Time of Extremes and Deep Truth.
Braden said the information presented changes the ways people think about themselves and their relationship to the world around them.
“We have new insight into the way we solve our problems on a personal level, on a community level and on a global level,” said Braden.
Through easy-to-understand science and the wisdom traditions of the past, Braden explores the extremes that are reshaping our lives, the keys to thrive in our world, and the strategies to get us there.
He believes it’s vital to make this information available to people, “because of the context people find ourselves within the world” and that “the best minds of our times are telling us that we’re living with, they’re calling it, time of extremes.”
These extremes were created by a system based on false assumptions.
Braden added that doesn’t necessarily point to either good or bad times, but rather to the major, fast-moving changes that “we’re simply not used to” and “are here to stay,” such as climate change, economic collapse and social change.
“For the duration of our lifetime, we’re dealing with what is called a new normal,” said Braden. “There’s been a reluctance of mainstream to acknowledge that fact.”
Many in the mainstream are looking at issues such as economic collapse within the confines of a vacuum but Braden challenges this notion.
“They’re symptoms of a greater scenario that many ancient traditions have pointed to and science now acknowledges the convergence of cycles of time and cycles of change and in a single generation, we’ve never seen anything like this happen before.”
In order to adapt effectively to these changes, society needs to think and live differently than ever before.
Braden said science has joined indigenous peoples and spiritualists in trying to answer six fundamental questions: What is the origin of life? What is the origin of human life? What is our relationship to our body? What is our relationship to our world beyond our body? What is our relationship to the past? How do we solve our problems in times of crisis when things get tough?
“The way that we answer these questions are important because they form the limbs through which we see ourselves and our relationship to the world, the way we solve our problems,” he said.
Braden talks about theories that life isn’t random, that there is a deep and intense connection between human beings and their bodies, that technological civilizations are cyclic and most important, that 21st-century science supports the belief that nature is based upon a model of cooperation in the form of mutual aid.
“While we all know that competition is good, I’m not denying that. They exist in response to specific conditions that are not the general rule of nature,” he said. “When we take all these discoveries together, we’ve been steeped in the story of separation. The new discoveries are telling us a story of connection and unity.”
Braden presentation attempts to bridge science, ancient wisdom, and the real world. He is also a member of several organizations, including the Evolutionary Leadership think tank, founded by Deepak Chopra in 2008, and has been recognized for his insights and innovation.
To register for the seminar, visit www.ideasfestival.ca.