We need your advice.

If you’ve been following VisionForce for long, you know we’re asking some pretty radical questions that are throwing all previous “common sense” out the window. One big question we asked is how can we get the most powerful tools in the hands of those most ready for it–for as close to free as possible–and now!? In other words, we don’t want money to be a barrier to change agents and visionaries around the world having access to everything we can offer them.

That has led us to start creating free on-line courses, removing the fee from our membership area (and a ton of things we’ve not revealed yet. Now, if we’re going to do so much for free, how are we going to continue to exist? Money is the blood of the VisionForce organism. We need it to not just survive, but to grow massively.

So, we’ve been thinking, “Well, we’ll train people for free in as many ways as we can, and those who want to pay for a physical product or attend a high-level live training can pay us.” So, recently we removed the discount from our new physical home study program, Visionary Mind, and listed it at the regular price of $297. And we feel good about this, because it is such an extensive, valuable program. But, we’re left with this question:

Does this create a barrier for many people? Yes. It does. In the future we’ll have other physical products that we can let go for a lot less–books, for example. But right now, we think we need to just get it in the hands of as many people as possible. How can we do that? Well, maybe lowering the price–radically–could be a way. That’s just a hypothesis, though. Lower prices don’t always translate to more sales.

One business approach to pricing would be to tally the costs and add enough for a profit. Another approach would be to charge as much as the market will bear–based on the products’ perceived value and how much we can increase that perception of value. We’re asking a different question. What does the price need to be to have you “own” VisionForce as something you eagerly share with others and something you also invest in financially with your pocket book?

If the price were a lot lower, would you buy (if you haven’t already)? What would that price have to be? Would you buy for your friends or family? For your teenage son or daughter (oh, watch out if you do this though)?

We need cash to spread VisionForce throughout the world. Will lowering the price impact *your* decisions to help us–to spread the word, to buy, etc.? And what should the price be?

Please post your comments below. Thank you.

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 just recently got the following email from an ally I call, Ronin, after the masterless samurai of feudal Japan. The ronin were those who’d been trained in the Samurai warrior life of honor, self-mastery, fearlessness, etc. as loyal protectors and servants to a master, and were then set free. Ronin literally means cast upon the waves.
Ronin authored a book after his Vision Force Boot Camp experience and is frustrated that the world does not yet know the power of the Vision Force technology. After he saw our recent promo page for Visionary Mind he was even more frustrated. Here’s part of his email to me:

I am more convinced than ever that the next level for you must be showing, rather than telling.

People need to see your technology in action. Even testimonials from bootcamp attendees are still telling rather than showing.

I am convinced that you need to test yourself, throw yourself into situations where the conflict, emotions
or stakes are high. Film it all and keep what works, and improve the format each time.

You, trying to describe your technology in terms of what it is not and in metaphors is like the great Musashi trying to describe his sword technique (without a sword in his hand) to people who don’t understand anything about swordmanship.

How far could he really get with words? But film him with a sword, and better yet, show him in action with others, and even if they no nothing about technique, the power and mastery of Musashi will be captured and demonstrated. They will feel it in their gut.

It also ties into your desire for being transparent. Get used to being recorded. Bring the bootcamp into every interaction.

Look for opportunities to film a couple of bootcamp challenges for yourself each week. Expect that it won’t
be perfect. But get the raw footage and figure out how you can edit it together to show something about the process and interaction itself.

All for now.

Jim

Well, Ronin, I feel ya brother! And, we have started with video–today. I’m exhausted after a day in the film studio, where we filmed footage for DVDs that we intend to include with future Visionary Mind packages. After that it’s video blogging, and raw video footage of Vision Force in action as we travel to do work with change agents, visionaries, organizations and people in conflict!

(We’re going to include the DVDs retroactively to all who’ve paid the $197 price, and there are only 13 left at that price as of today.)

Who doesn’t understand the principle that you don’t negotiate with terrorists? By negotiating, you validate and encourage more terrorist action. That’s a pretty sound principle.

So, apparently George Bush is not negotiating with or even talking to the Iranian “regime,” or President Ahmadinejad, as the Iranians “sponsor terrorism” and are part of the “Axis of Evil.”

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/09/19/bush.un/index.html

This is by no means a simple situation. There are many factors to take into consideration. However, the situation is a great example of why Positionary tactics no longer work in today’s world, and why it is time for some new ideas about how we interact with each other as human beings.
If ever there were a time to talk, would it not be *before* we enter into a crisis situation and were at war or on the brink of war? If ever there were a time to rebuild trust, open channels of communication and cooperate, would now not be the time?

Yes, Bush has stated his Position that he will not negotiate with terrorists (or those who sponsor them) and he will not hold talks with Iran until they have verifiably suspended their uranium enrichment program. He has dug himself into quite a corner in an attempt to impose his solution on Iran. Submit, follow and obey–or else.

I’ll come back to that in a minute. First, what is the greatest concern among the most violent opponents of the US in the middle east? Is it that they oppose Western culture? Is it that they fear America? Is it that they want to kill Americans or Christians simply because we are nonbelievers? Is it because they oppose US military presence or policies in the region?

Leaders on either side can explain the actions of the Bush administration’s declared enemies any way they want. But doesn’t it really come down to one thing? The greatest operational value of Positionaries worldwide. More important to all of us than freedom, peace, prosperity, security or anything else is one thing.

Pride. Or more specifically our image in others’ eyes. US policy in the Middle East humiliates its opponents. And they’ll die for their pride or their “honor.”

If this were so, would you expect Iran to halt it’s nuclear program in response to Bush’s threats? Iran backs down and they look like cowards. The fight and they maintain their pride.

Bush backs down and he looks like an indecisive coward…to his enemies and opponents AND to his supporters.
Now, am I suggesting that Bush is only enforcing his position, because he is prideful? No, and here’s the problem. There is a belief (with a lot of supporting evidence) that if Bush backs down, they other side will see it as a sign of weakness and attack more.

Good people use positionary tactics, because they see no other way. In fact, they often believe they’ve “tried” other approaches, and those approaches haven’t worked.

Alas, trying never works. Trying is usually a person’s attempt to prove that their original fears and judgments were right. “See, I tried. They are evil. I told you they’d react that way.” (We can see how well “trying” works in our marriages, once we’re convinced the our spouse just is a certain way.) Trying is what you do when you lack the vision or the moral courage to take a stand. Thus, trying is a Positionary tactic, just as intimidation and ultimatums generally are.

But it’s not as if we can blame the Positionary. From a position, there is no vision. Yet we all too often assume the other person can see what we see and just chooses not to act the way we believe is morally right. This, to us, proves they are just immoral, amoral or… “Evil.”

Really, if you oppose Bush, do you think he sees any other real alternative? Do you suppose he sees a peaceful alternative, but simply wants more power, control and has greedy, evil motives? If so, then you are just as positionary about him as he is about the “Evil” Iranians–or about your party, group or type.

On all sides are human beings. Human beings with children. Human beings with consciousness and conscience. Labelling the other side “Evil,” whether you place that label on Bush, Osama, Ahmadinejad, Nasrallah or someone else is a sorry ass (excuse my French, but I think it’s appropriate) cop out, and an excuse to act without conscience.

What this world needs are people who are willing to risk even the esteem of their supporters and colleagues to stand for values that they hold to be more important than how they look in other’s eyes. People who are willing to stand for something greater, much like the stand that former Egyptian president Anwar al-Sadat took when he broke ranks with all other Arab nations to sign a peace accord with Israel.

It was the belief of Arab Nations that the only way to deal with Israel, viewed as a rogue regime and a symbol of Imerialism, was through force and threat of force. Al-Sadat took a stand in the face of his fears and the judgments of others. There was something worth standing for.

This is the stand that as yet Bush, Ahmadinejad, and other leaders are unwilling to take.

I am quite sure that to the reader who is not very familiar with alternatives to Positionary tactics, the direction proposed here may seem half-baked or naive. A short blog post does not lend itself to presenting a “well-done” new alternative. Yet, such alternatives are being developed by visionaries all over the world. (VisionForce.com is currently building an on-line lab for all of us.)
Really, we cannot go back to the days when one group could rule the world by force. It’s a positionary mind that attempts to find The right or true group or idea (position), then get behind it and try to force the world to conform. Those who will survive, thrive and become mankind’s greatest benefactors will have visionary minds.

This seems like an appropriate time to plug Visionary Mind, a visionary’s trusty rusty compass in the world of the future.

Can you see how both Bush AND Ahmadinejad are standing for something? The problem is how our stands devolve to positions, and our positions then fail to inspire the change and honor the values we originally stood for.

Post your comments below.

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.

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).

I thought I’d share about the woman who saved my life when I was about 21 years old.  The following is a transcript of the orientation audio CD from the Visionary Mind package I’ve just completed.

<

…What was my vision for my life?  Who was I to be?  Was there something more for me?

I had dropped out of college after my first semester, and begun my own quest for truth, for answers, for direction.  I had found the power of ruthlessly questioning, looking, thinking for myself… and then one evening, I found myself on the top balcony of a dormitory overlooking downtown Austin and the University of Texas.  I’d stepped out onto the balcony, and begun a philosophical conversation with a student.

As we talked, he told me it sounded like I’d been reading the writings of a certain author.  I didn’t recognize the name, so he went and pulled a book off his book shelf.  I opened it to a random page and began reading.  Suddenly I found myself short of breath… almost in shock.

Here was a woman, some woman I’d never met, mounting a passionate, logical defense for my life.  For my happiness.  For my right to be free and happy and my responsibility to myself to do so.  It was as if she was standing up to the world, a world that wanted me to follow and obey their wishes, a world that would have put me on trial for being true to myself. In the face of all the world, she was defending me, my life, my spirit.

She was a visionary, who only by staying true to her own vision, was able to reach out to me that day, nearly a decade after she died… and awaken me to life.

I never met that woman.  She had passed away before I ever read those words.  But she saved my life that night.

Now, I’d like to say something to you, the one listening to this program.

I don’t know you.  And we may never meet.  In the years since that woman’s words changed my life forever I too have been standing, and for all the years that I have left I shall continue to stand… for you.  I stand here today in defense of your spirit, your life, your happiness.  As she stood in defense of mine.

Is there a vision you could see for yourself, for your life?  A vision that calls you to rise and face any challenge?  Is there a vision that is uniquely yours?  A vision, that by following it, you can know you are fulfilling your greatest purpose?

And what will happen if you don’t live your life true to your own vision?  What happens to the person who compromises his or her vision day by day?

You’re fire goes out slowly… and you live, knowing there was something more… Sadly, this is the case with so many adults in today’s world.  We’re compromising our selves and our own vision, to be accepted, to be “responsible,” to be “successful.”

Indeed, we’re conditioned to act as if we’ll really find deep happiness, fulfillment and peace by fitting in, following and obeying the rules and norms of authority and society.

We compromise, compromise and compromise some more… and with every compromise, there is less life within us… the heroic human spirit suffers and slowly dies.

Visionary Mind is a program for you.  A program that gives you a simple pathway to see your own vision—a vision that inspires you above the rules and norms of the world around you—a vision that you cannot help but follow.  A vision that gives you the ultimate sense of peace, power, purpose and fulfillment.

Here’s a short quote from the woman who defended my life.

“Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark…. Do not let the hero in your soul perish, in lonely frustration for the life you deserved, but have never been able to reach.  Check your road and the nature of your battle.  The world you desired can be won.  It exists, it is real, it is possible, it is yours.”        

Exactly, how does your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark? Exactly, how does the hero in your soul perish in lonely frustration for the life you deserved?

And exactly how can you reclaim it?  How can you win it back?  Or, how can you prevent your fire from diminishing in the first place?  How can you be so lit up with your own vision, that nothing can stop you?

This course is about you.  It’s about that fire inside.  The human spirit.

Who I am for you, and how I invite you to listen to me throughout this course, is the one who stands for you, for your life, for your happiness, for that hero in your soul.  Together, we will check your road and the nature of your battle. Journey with me and we shall see together, that the world you desired—can–indeed, be won.  You will see a vision and know that the world you desire does exist, it is real, it is possible, it is yours.

Let’s begin.

>> End of excerpt from Visionary Mind

The woman I quoted changed my life with words. She spoke to me.  She awakened me–to me.  The Visionary Mind package is the product of years of work and sacrifice to be able to do the same for you.  I don’t know you, but if you let me, I’d like to be for you who she was for me.

If me words have spoken to you, I urge you to purchase Visionary Mind, so I can ship it to your doorstep.  Take me with you in the car, as you jog, as you walk your dog.  Make sacred time to honor yourself perhaps as never before.  If you let me, I’ll show you a powerful way to do that.  A way to connect so deeply with your self, your values and your vision, that literally nothing can stop you.  Not because you’re now omniscient or omnipotent… only because nothing now can have you turn back.  Nothiing.
There’s a download version available as well.  Go here and scroll down the page to get your package.
Do you know who said those words that I quoted?  Post your comments below.