The Vision Force forums have just been released (shhhh… it’s kinda private, even though it’s the headline on our home page). We’re not doing much advertising yet as we’re still in “stealth mode!”

As smart as you are, you’ve probably guessed we’re up to something really big behind the scenes. Can’t fool you, can we? So, check it out, VisionForce is ramping up to facilitate what we see as the greatest shift in conscious thinking in history. Sounds a bit far out, I know. Still, that’s what we’re up to. The world needs drastic changes, and it starts with our thinking. With the shift in thinking that is already underway, tremors will soon be felt  through the fabric of society. Life as we know it is about to look radically different.

Our new forum area can handle mass quantities of people.  We’re starting fresh with no members and no posts–so there is a clean slate for us all. We’re nowhere near even done building the forum area, but in line with our new thinking here at VisionForce, we want YOU to help up us build it. We want the best and brightest, we want the visionary few (that’s you, right?).

For the time being, the boards are primary to be used as study rooms for our various courses. These are not the kind of forums you’ll find everywhere else on the internet. We’re asking every single person who plays here to have as their foremost focus in the forums to be their own personal evolution.

In other words, we are asking you to make “the shift” as you learn and help us create the shift. So, you should be conscious to make certain sub-shifts in your behavior. Here’s one such shift:

away from positionary posting >> towards visionary posting - from relating to new concepts as a threat to my paradigm >> towards new concepts as opportunities to upgrade my paradigm (or build a new one).

It’s characteristic of the Positionary Mind of the Past to filter new concepts and distinctions through what one already believes and then to show others (on forums) what’s incorrect about or missing from the new ideas. We see the usefulness of this in on-line forums that display little more than positionary arguments which do nothing but entrench people in the positions they already held (insert big sighing, eye rolling emoticon here).

Yes, you and I have a lot to share. Afterall, learning and self-development are a few of our highest values. And of course, we want people to see us in all our brilliance. Perhaps how we can best do that here is by being more willing than most to question our existing thinking and behaviours. The greater mark of wisdom will be how much we’re willing to question even the conclusions at which we’ve already arrived.

from displaying knowledge >> towards exercising wisdom

Socrates was considered wise, not primarily because of his ability to deconstruct others’ beliefs with his questioning, but because he never used that ability to assume or claim that he was right. He continually held his own understandings up for scrutiny and questioning.

In view of such inadequacies, Socrates himself professed his ignorance, but others still claimed to have knowledge. Socrates believed that his awareness of his ignorance made him wiser than those who, though ignorant, still claimed knowledge. Although this belief seems paradoxical at first glance, it in fact allowed Socrates to discover his own errors where others might assume they were correct. This claim was known by the anecdote of the Delphic oracular pronouncement that Socrates was the wisest of all men. Wikipedia

We encourage questioning of the new concepts and distinctions–that is part of the socratic method and a hallmark of any wise person. However, rather than focus being on protecting what we already know, showing others how smart we are our how well we can pick apart new concepts and distinctions–rather than by applying the socratic method outward on others–let’s focus first on what we can learn from the new concepts and distinctions–and apply the socratic method on ourselves!

This shift in thinking is part of our overall shift in consciousness from the Positionary Mind of the Past to the Visionary Mind of the Future.

(If, by slim chance, you happen to be reading this and you’d rather tell everyone how much you already know, well then, there are hundreds of thousands of on-line forum boards that would welcome you! For the rest of us, we’re up to leading the way to a whole new world in thinking and human behavior.)

With that in mind, enter the forums of self-inquiry–a haven for those of us who know that change happens first inside our own mind and heart.

I shared my feelings in an email to several of our lists yesterday. Funny, the only negative responses I got were from men. This one was typical:

“Yes! You are a Sap!! Now don’t send me your crying a** s**t anymore!!!” (asterisks added)

Of course, we only email people who subscribe themselves to our lists. And this fella was subscribed to one of our “Warrior” lists, so he was probably wanting to get emails that made him feel more… well… manly! LOL

Ok, this leads me to a great point. There is, especially in the West, a blind spot for many of us guys… and it’s not just guys as many women share this.

It’s a relationship to emotions, specifically tearful emotions as weakness. To make this association (even if just subconsciously) is to deny yourself access to one of mankind’s greatest powers.

There are, to be certain, many displays of emotion that are evidence of weakness. The child throwing a tempertantrum, because he can’t get his way, for example, is a prime example. The child, exaggerating his situation, as if he is a helpless victim who deserves our pity is… well, pitiful.

When adults display tears and emotions in this way, it is by our cultural standards, quite pitiful even shameful.

We usually learn that such displays of tears are seen as weak, so we learn to convert our feelings of inferiority, victimization and weakness to anger and agression–without the tears.

You can see this in non-tearful tempertantrums of the teenager… as well as in the adult teenagers, as often displayed by the angry macho male type.

Now, of course, anger can be a useful emotion. But it’s interesting how displays of such non-tearful tempertantrums are often viewed as acceptable responses to circumstance, while tearful, poor-me responses are not.

In many cultures, rallying in the streets in fits of rage, is not only acceptable but something to be proud of. I can’t help but wonder, what our world would be like, if such displays of anger were viewed by the majority of “alpha males” as pathetic, weak reactions. Yet, many of our most visible “alpha male” types in sports, politics, Hollywood, religion, etc. commonly display such pitiful, weak responses in life… which elicit the respect (or fear) from many of their peers and those who emulate them.

(I believe there will come a day when we come to see any such “positionary” reactions to circumstance as weak and shameful… and we’ll see humanity elevate ourselves to
much higher standards of behavior and interaction. To what I’d call visionary standards.)

Personally, I’d be very embarrassed if I reacted to life’s situations the way many macho male types do. For most of them, there simply is no visible third alternative. It’s either be a wuss or take control and force your view, your will, your position on others.

I’d feel like a reactionary wuss if I wrote someone the kind of tempertantrum-type email I got from the fella who sent the email quoted above.

From the world of the positionary, there just don’t seem to be many real ways to access power other than forcing your position on others.

Let’s look specifically at how the macho male type can access more genuine power.

At intense levels, feelings such as sadness, love, joy and honor all produce tears in humans. What these three emotions share is a deep connection to values–to what things mean to you. Your son is born and you feel such immense joy that tears come to your eyes. Your son dies and you feel such immense sadness that tears come to your eyes. Any time you get present enough to how much your son means to you–how much you love him–there will be tears.

The more we cut off access to our feelings (for example, to avoid a display of tears), the more we cut off access to our power.

Think for example of the person at the funeral who is weeping at the loss of his son , who has never really gotten present to how much his son means to him,… until he was gone forever. What a tragedy. Had he gotten present to his intense love for his son, while his son was alive, he would have done and said many things differently. This power to make different choices and take different actions was unavailable though, because the man did not want to feel his feelings.

A man may love his wife, yet the less present he gets to the feeling of love, the less he will act and speak in a way that honors the value of that relationship.

Here’s where honor, the feeling, comes in.

Love and honor are almost indistinguishable, and often felt at the same time. Love arises from being present to what someone (or something) means to you–feeling deeply connected to and valuing someone (or something).
Honor is a deeper cut at love. It has to do with not just getting very present to a value and it’s worth to you; but getting present with your choice to honor that value in the face of challenge. Honor can also be felt as you see others in this light.

Honor is an incredibly powerful emotion. It’s a uniquely human phenomena, because it requires a level of self-consciousness not possible to animals. It’s what’s at the root of the range of heroic actions we see in the world that we refer to as the “human spirit.” What inspires a person to face incredible criticism and even risk to his/her own life? Most often, it’s a feeling that is born from getting present to what is worth standing for. It’s a uniquely human emotion called honor. And it’s far different than pride or happiness.

The feeling of honor is literally a “force” of consciousness that can be accessed at will. In our new product called, Visionary Mind, honor is one of the two natural forces of consciousness that are practically cut off from us as we grow up. The other is vision.

Visionary Mind explains both of these forces in some detail and shows how these natural forces of self-guidance are short-circuited through our relationships with authority growing up. It also shows how that conditioning still guides us today in our moment to moment choices through VisionForce’s proprietary Inner Conflict Diagrams and models. Then, Visionary Mind gives you simple exercises that give you the powerful experience of both honor and vision. You come to experience these as guiding forces in your day to day life, and watch the new actions you take. You simply show up in a heroic way in relation to what is most important to you in life. (If you haven’t gotten that program, get it shipped to your door today.)

Love can have you do great things. Add honor to the equation and you’ll do much greater things–naturally.

Mr. macho is cut off from these heroic dynamics and is guided much more by positionary dynamics such as fear and pseudo-pride. He can, for example, feel good about himself by making himself look somehow superior to another. Pseudo-pride is a poor substitute for genuine honor.

It’s an honor-yielding vision that drives a Gandhi or MLK to make the impossible happen. It’s an honor-yielding vision that drives many great inventors, entrepreneurs, and social innovators. It’s the feeling of honor that often has parents make incredible sacrifices for their children–without experiencing it as a compromise.

The shift from a positionary mind to a visionary mind is what I see is next (and Now!) for human beings. It’s a fundamental shift in the way we relate to ourselves, our values, our responsibility and each other. And it’s what we’re all about here at VisionForce.com.
The “alpha male” of the future will be an inspired visionary, not a macho positionary.

Women, are more likely, as I see it, to be making this shift first, as they tend to have more access to feeling their emotions and thus feeling the powerful emotion of honor.

Here’s a video from one woman’s experience of vision and honor.

Who will lead the way? Women? Men? Does it matter? What about you? Who will lead your family, your community? Post comments below.

To get the complete Visionary Mind home study program shipped to your door, go here.

Yes, we’re building a robust on-line member area for visionaries… and, yes, it’s free.  However, our home away from home is a place in cyberspace called… shhhhh…. Zaadz.  It’s a social networking site for people like you who are up to changing the world.  Brian, the man behind the curtain at zaadz (actually, there is no curtain at zaadz), is pioneering some amazing things over there.  Go see for yourself and play with us.

You can blog, network, learn, evolve, play and live inside of a world of conscious people there.  And if you don’t immediately find “your kind of people there,” create them!  Invite your conscious friends, family, coworkers and playmates.  After you check it out, leave a comment about your experience below.

I just found a very cool tool for visionaries and revolutionaries taking a stand for something.  It’s called PledgeBank and it’s a way of generating commitments by having others see that they won’t be acting alone, but rather they will only be obligated to act if the agreed upon total number of people have also agreed to act with you.

Of course, it can be even more inspiring to take a stand regardless of what others choose to do.  I could see the use for a variation of the pledge, where an individual can say “I am doing this regardless,” or something similar.  It sounds a bit weak to have the pledges be “I commit do X, but only if ____# other people commit to do it too.”

Still, a very cool concept, and yet another way the internet is empowering those of us who are williing to take a stand for what matters, live from our own vision and inspire others to stand with us.

(I was invited to sign a new initiative by the Free State Project, as I am seriously interested in the idea of what kind of world could be created with human beings placing their trust in vision force, rather than political force.  It’s a bit radical, but hey, I think there’s something worth standing for, and I’m already committed to the original Free State Project pledge.)

Comments? Other resources for mobilizing grass roots efforts?  Post below.

Watch this… Oprah’s doing what something incredible… something VisionForce will be doing at some point, no matter how long it takes.  To all my Africa friends… we’re coming back!  And we’re going to BUILD!  Who wants in?  Leave your comments and ideas below.

Watch this presentation by William McDonough, a man who refers to human beings as “designers,” and looks at everything we see in our world as our intentional creation, so as to take full responsibility for creating the kind of world we really want.  If you’re in the Power To Stand course (register free), this man is exemplifying the distinction between Positionary and Visionary.  He speaks of the positionaries on each side, Capitalists and Environmentalists, and unites people in a stand for shared values and a vision that inspires all sides to step forward from behind the walls of their position.  It’s the new revolutionaries who will change the world.  They are visionaries, not positionaries (the distinction is here).  The next revolution is our evolution from a positionary consciousness to a visionary consciousness.

Please comment on the video here.

His name’s Jim.  He’s been on our email list for nearly 4 years (since the beginning!).  Watch what he has to say (and take note of what he says about taking action).