Finding Hope in the Holomovement

As the beautiful bounty of spring breaks out around us, there is also a silent spring that lurks under the surface, threatening to destroy the magic of the moment.  From where I sit on the sacred lands of numerous Native American tribes in Sedona, AZ, it all looks vibrant right now, but last year there was no significant rainfall here from March through the end of the year, creating extreme drought conditions that are killing even some of the hardiest endemic species and cacti.  

Another year like the last one, and this will turn into a tinder box in short order, endangering the plants, animals, humans and their homes on this land.  And the story is similar around the world, whether the threats are from drought, wind, floods, fires or landslides, nature is out of balance and crying for our help.  The flowering trees, chirping birds and frolicking newborn animals are all a wonder to watch as they come out for their spring rituals, but their mere presence also attests to the fragile and ephemeral state of the systems that make life possible.  

I experienced a similar foreboding this week while participating on an Evolutionary Leader’s call focusing on our relationship with the planet.  Whereas there was an abundance of good will and creative solutions, much of the talk reminded us that our great intentions were like the silent spring around us—so promising on the surface, yet a sense of frustration in its undertones, knowing how reluctant our society is to take significant action to ward off climate disaster.  

Duane Elgin, one of the thought-leaders I admire most, spoke of his latest book and project called “Choosing Earth.”  Mr. Elgin has contributed more solutions and more optimism into our culture than anyone I know.  From “Voluntary Simplicity” to “Awakening Earth” to “The Living Universe,” he has explained the facts and showed us the solutions to our most serious societal threats.  Yet decades continue to drift by with little or no significant action taken to combat climate change and preserve our ecosystems and their species.  It is no wonder that there was a note of frustration and despair in Duane’s words as he led the discussion.  In response, the group on the call asked for the breakout sessions to focus on a message of hope.  

In looking for hope, this all too frequent sentiment was expressed: “It is far too late to lose hope now.”  Or, “Things are far too serious to lose our sense of humor.”  Strangely enough, one of the greatest hopes we might have is that the state of our environment is so bad that it is generating alarm and a response.  When our systems are pushed so far beyond equilibrium that their survival is in danger, that is when the most creative solutions arise.  Barbara Marx Hubbard summed it up by saying that “Our crisis is our birth.”  

The worse things become, the more we search for answers.  One thing is for certain.  For a global, transformative shift to happen, we have to move beyond our silos of interest groups and join together in a collaborative network of social action.

Fortunately, this grand movement is already beginning to gain momentum around the world, based on the emerging principles of what has been called the new paradigm. It encompasses hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, of individuals, nonprofits, small community groups and organizations all in motion working to change the fundamental nature of society. Now, poised at the bifurcation point of our species’ breakdown or breakthrough, it is critical our global family finds consensus in shifting our cultural values from “me,” to “we,” to “all.” 

To achieve this will require a movement with a unifying worldview and outlined by defining principles that give us hope, meaning and evolutionary direction. We need a strategic plan. A transformative movement of this magnitude also needs a name to rally around, one I propose calling the Holomovement.

This isn’t the first time I have written about the potential of this “movement of movements.” In fact, I was a little over-optimistic a few years ago writing in my 2019 New Year’s message that it would be “The Year of the Holomovement.” But timing is everything, and there’s no denying that humanity has been issued a jarring wake-up since then to shake us into collaborative motion.

Finding Inspiration in David Bohm’s Vision of Our Universe

I first came across the term “holomovement” 40 years ago, coined by American physicist David Bohm in his book Wholeness and the Implicate Order. Published in 1980, Bohm described the universe as an unbroken wholeness of the totality of existence: an undivided, flowing movement without borders. The holomovement, as explained by Bohm, was “a holistic understanding of our universe as a manifestation of the consciousness of our universe.” At the core of our universe is the implicate order, the field of consciousness and multidimensional reality of oneness that creates our world. The physical manifestation of how we perceive the universe is the explicate order. The holomovement is what weaves the two together. 

While this description was first used to describe the physical explanation of our universe, Bohm went on to apply it to cosmology and even the source of consciousness. He was also intrigued with how the collective consciousness of humankind was developing into its own movement of unbroken wholeness and increasing self-awareness. 

In recognition of Bohm’s vision and the subsequent realization of the synergistic energy arising, the term “holomovement” perfectly describes the sociological phenomenon underlying the worldwide movement towards unity. The Holomovement, as applied to our current times, represents radical collaboration in action, founded in love, with a collective mission that continues to honor the autonomy of each of our diverse purpose-driven efforts. 

Guided by both science and spirituality and propelled by a sense of purpose, I, alongside a group of thought leaders, envision the Holomovement as a rallying cry for this grand movement to take root, grow and bloom into the transformative new structure of our collective consciousness. To bridge the ever-growing divisiveness that plagues our communities, we’ve outlined eight core principles within the Holomovement to guide us in this transformative shift. 

It is our collective mission to embody these principles as we explore the nature of this Holomovement through the threads of cosmology, psychology and sociology. We will also call upon the wisdom traditions to guide us in their long held understanding of wholeness in our interconnected web of life. Our earliest ancestors with their close connection to nature were able to understand the essence of the whole world view of the holomovement as we are now exploring it, based upon a purposeful and conscious universe. Now is the time to merge the understandings of our forebearers with our knowledge of quantum reality such as proposed by David Bohm, and fuse it all into a grand, worldwide movement for social renewal.  

Each one of us has the potential to make positive change when we embody a feeling of hope for a positive future. The Holomovement nurtures this belief and understanding that each one of us has a purpose in co-creating this new chapter of our shared humanity. 

Audrey E. Kitagawa, JD, the Founder of the International Academy for Multicultural Cooperation and former Chair of the Parliament of the World's Religions, says it more eloquently. “Civil society is the sleeping giant that has awakened to its power to create global movements for the transformation of humanity.”

Hope Springs Eternal

Humanity as a whole will not, and cannot, sit idly back and watch our destiny turn away from its evolutionary path. It is us -- hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of organizations, not-for-profits, activist groups and inspired individuals working towards the same end—who will accelerate worldwide transformation in the way we live and engage with each other and the planet.

This is the message of hope I share with my friend Duane Elgin and so many others like him, who have dedicated their lives to improving our relationship with Earth, only to see us ignore the call for decades and fall ever deeper into our climate and social crises.  Help is on the way.  We have seen the enemy and they are us.  Now it is simply up to us to change things from the inside out, infusing the holomovement with energy and action.  

What an exciting time to live and be a part of this monumental moment in human history. In this critical year ahead, let the Holomovement serve as an attractor in creating the coherence needed to unify our transformative efforts for the good of the whole and evolution of humankind.  

And if you would like to delve more deeply into the matter, please join me in the online course I will be presenting in conjunction with Integral Transformative Practice International and the guidelines of the Ki of Cooperation. The course begins this Saturday, April 10th at 9am Pacific Time. 

This is the only course I will be offering this year and for the foreseeable future. Why not join us and learn how to build and activate your own community to contribute to the hope we all long for—a new spring that sings out with a call for planetary renewal and sustainability?