Start Here—a bit of background for my fellow love artists

As I’m just off and starting, I suppose I should give folks a little framework about what I’m talking about. Not because I think anyone needs it but it might be fun just to be a bit specific about my groundwork.

For one—I am not an expert, guru, or your momma (or your daddy for that matter). I am an amateur—and an amateur amateur at that. I believe that this makes my viewpoint more valuable (I believe everything I do makes me more valuable—otherwise why would I do it?) but am more than open to competing notions about knowledge. I will also go to the mat for my ideas—they all have serious evidence, experience and intention behind them.

What I believe is that we are in the midst of a worldwide shift between two essentially different ways of seeing the world. The first is the material—the what and when, the tangible, the quantifiable, the concrete, the rational—and the other is what I call the spiritual—the creative, the how and why, the intangible, the qualitative, the abstract, the intuitive. The first paradigm isn’t going anywhere but it sure is receding—it’s methods are becoming outdated (and in many instances toxic).

The emerging world, I believe, emphasizes our spiritual side. We will always be rooted in the material world but it will increasingly be a foundation upon which an elaborate and beautiful spiritual mansion is built. In this sense it may be more accurate to say not that we are going from one world to another but that we are coming from a material emphasis into a spiritual emphasis.

The culture that will get us through, as I see it, is what I call a quantum culture—that is one which can act using primarily material or spiritual values as it sees fit. As we will operate within two worlds for the foreseeable future, the values from which we act and that we employ to make decisions upon will need to contain attributes of both the material world and the spiritual. (Note: this is similar, I think, to the second attention that many spiritual traditions speak of).

Discernment between the two sets of values is a key attribute of the quantum culture.

A example of this would be walking down the street and seeing a homeless person asking for spare change. (I am constantly amazed at the beauty and specificity of our world—a person who wants nothing more than to be changed asking if passersby have any they could spare. They reply with both the means to change—money—and the method—by ignoring him and letting him know that he can survive without handouts).

In the material world if you wanted to help this person you would give them money. If you wanted to help yourself (in a very strict material world sense), you would ignore them—keeping your money for yourself.

In a strictly spiritual world you might always give them money—both to help them and help yourself.

But in a quantum world you do whatever you feel like. You give them money if so moved and ignore them if so moved. You base your decisions on material values if necessary (if you’re broke) and on spiritual values whenever possible (if you’ve got money, time, desire—are un-broke).

You do what you feel.

If they appear drunk or like they can’t be so easily helped you walk by without a second thought. If you decide that it’ll be fun to see their response (even if they’re drunk) you may give them money anyway. The quantum viewpoint acknowledges that both ways are love and that the only path to truth is the existence of both and the freedom to choose in the moment.

I know at first glance this may seem a bit touchy-feely to some, and as such, a bit dangerous to base business decisions upon, but I assure you that I’ve experimented broadly—and conducted both material and spiritual tests. Our emotions are indeed the bridge between the material and the spiritual world—and they are as predictable as popcorn.

As such, they’re really the only thing we can completely rely upon.