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| We have just nine days left to raise $26,000 to reach our goal of $50,000. Join our Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign here (and when you participate you receive great perks, such as Los Angeles Birth 2012 tickets or dinner with Neale Donald Walsch): http://www.indiegogo.com/birth2012 |
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Hubs Foster the "Breakthrough Scenario"
By Byron Belitsos, Managing Editor
 The Birth 2012 movement is cocreating a tipping point for a breakthrough scenario for planet Earth. Birth 2012 hubs are now forming everywhere because, as Barbara puts it in this week's video, we are yearning to initiate the birth of what is creative and what's working, and to actually feel that birth from within us. That's why the next few issues of Catalyst will especially focus on supporting hub formation. For further logistical support for your hub, please see below our special message below from Nadirah, our hub facilitator.
This week's news is diverse and exciting. We're thrilled to announce the formation of Unity Birth 2012, which will enable many of Unity's 1,000+ locations to form Birth 2012 hubs. Meanwhile, Summer of Peace continues its daily journey of catalyzing inner and outer peace through our planet. We also profile an intrepid couple that is creating Birth 2012 hubs and spreading inspiration as they pursue an amazing tour through all 48 states. Finally, we visualize this coming week as our own tipping point to a breakthrough for our crowdsourcing campaign on Indiegogo, which is nearing its goal with your help.
Unity Birth 2012 Goes "Live"
By Reverend Deborah Olive, Unity Birth 2012 Project Manager
    
This guest article narrates the inspiring process that led to Unity's deep engagement
with the Birth 2012 movement, for which we are grateful. The author, Rev. Deb Olive,
is pictured on the far left. To her right in order of appearance are Jim Lee, Mary Omwake, James Trapp, and Charlotte Shelton.
Unity's new Birth-related website, UnityBirth.org, has just gone live. – Ed.
Unity has been a leader in the New Thought movement for over a century, with over 1,000 locations. Embedded in Unity's DNA is a radical faith in the divinity present in all humankind to heal, prosper, guide, and love. Called by many names, such as "Christ," "Atman," "Buddha"—we believe that this Universal Intelligence pulls us forward on an evolutionary path. An evolutionary leader for decades, Barbara Marx Hubbard has a long history with Unity and is a cofounder of the Association for Global New Thought (AGNT), an organization that gives New Thought a clear voice and commanding presence on the global stage.
Little wonder, then, that Barbara's newest book, Emergence: The Shift from Ego to Essence (Hampton Roads, 2012), is aligned with our own deeply held beliefs, and her Birth 2012 campaign offers an outer expression of this shared concept of inner emergence. Last month we became even more deeply involved with Barbara when Reverend Jim Lee, immediate past Chair of our Unity Worldwide Ministries Board, selected the theme "Pulled by a Vision" for our 2012 Unity People's Convention in Detroit and then requested that Barbara, a world class visionary, deliver the keynote address.
Read more...
Evolutionaries Celebrates Emergent Worldview
For decades, visionary scientists, philosophers, and spiritual thinkers like our own Barbara Marx Hubbard and Ervin Laszlo have been forging a far broader understanding of evolution than what we associate with Darwin—one that honors the latest findings in science and cosmology while providing philosophic support for the emergence of today's evolutionary spirituality and global integral culture. Carter Phipps calls out and celebrates the leading pioneers in this movement in his acclaimed new book Evolutionaries: Unlocking the Spiritual and Cultural Potential of Science's Greatest Idea (Harper Perennial, June 2012). Among the many merits of Carter's long awaited and well-researched work is that he provides us with the first popular guide to these new thinkers; and he is in a position to do so as the former executive editor of EnlightenNext magazine, the leading magazine covering the evolutionary worldview for the last decade. Publishers Weekly called Carter's book "a masterful survey of the diverse ideas that make up the emerging field of integral thought." The Catalyst endorses this important work by our colleague Carter Phipps, now available everywhere.
Cultivating Peace Hits Highest Amazon Rankings
The Shift Network's own new book Cultivating Peace: Becoming a 21st-Century Peace Ambassador (Shift Books, June 2012) rode high this week in our Amazon blitz for this title. This masterwork by Welcoming Committee member James O'Dea reached #17 overall and achieved #1 in "Politics & Social Sciences" and in "Parenting & Relationships." We congratulate James, who is also lead faculty for our popular Peace Ambassador Training, and urge you to get your copy—just now available also as an eBook. But wait a few days to get the paperback version; just as happened with our blitz for Barbara's Birth 2012 and Beyond, James's book (with the exception of the eBook) will not be easily available until the next printing ships. But plenty of copies are now available from us directly here.
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New Initiatives Expand Birth 2012 Scope
By Stephen Dinan, founder and CEO of The Shift Network
Our Indiegogo campaign has $26,000 to go in 9 days (participate here)
 It's been an exciting week for the Birth 2012 campaign, as more major events and hub locations keep coming online and our grassroots team grows larger. I'm particularly grateful for how whole movements are responding, such as Unity and other New Thought churches, each one coming up with their own unique contribution to the Birth. Chief among these is the Unity Birth 2012 initiative that is covered in this Cataylst and is now online as UnityBirth.org. To hear an exciting dialogue of Barbara and myself with key Unity leaders involved in this effort, please go here: http://theacetraining.com/UnityBirth2012
Many have asked us just how the Birth events on December 22 will take place. With the help of filmmaker Barnet Bain, producer of What Dreams May Come, we're now looking at how the arc of the "story of the Birth"—as it moves over the 24 hours of the global webcast—could become a literal rite of passage for humanity. For example, "moments of unity" that happen each hour could symbolize "contractions" propelling the Birth forward. We've also envisioned that people around the world could submit Birth Day wishes in advance that can be woven into the 24 hours.
Read more...
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 Calling all hubs! Here's an important message from our
coordinator and queen of hub formation, Nadirah. – Ed.
If you are creating an event on December 22, we welcome you to our hub community! To be a hub simply means you are inspired to host a Planetary Birth Day celebration on that day. Your event can be large or small, in person or virtual. And if you already have existing circles or other groups of any kind large or small, they only need to declare their intention to celebrate with the rest of us.
Are you hosting or starting a new hub that we don't know about? Please email me at nadirah@theshiftnetwork.com to be added to our official hubs list. Don't hesitate to contact me if you have any further questions.
And get ready, hub facilitators, we will soon unveil a toolkit and many other ways to support your work, including a global hub map and ways to grow your hub. Also, mark your calendar for our regular hub calls on the 4th Saturday of each month at 10am (Pacific) / 1pm (Eastern). The next call on Saturday, July 28 will be with Barbara, Victoria and Ron Friedman of the Vistar Foundation, and Angel of Birth 2012 Tucson. These calls are an opportunity for you to connect with other hubs and learn more about our resources for you. To take part, visit the Vistar Foundation home page at www.vistarfoundation.org
for the registration link.
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Peace Pledges Top 200,000!
When we exceeded 200,000 committed acts of peace this week, we knew we were well on our way to our next goal of 500,000. To monitor our progress, our Peace Pledge button (see below) has a counter that shows, up to the minute, how many acts of peace have been pledged globally. Plus, it knows where you are located; its display alternates every few seconds to show how many are pledged in your town! (For example, our town of Petaluma shows 865 pledges right now.) So, making a Pledge is a great way to spread your intention for peace in your community as well as across the whole planet.
Read more...
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Featured free SOP teleseminar this week:
The Moral Molecule: A First-hand Account of the Discovery of a Molecule that Makes Us Moral
Thursday, July 26th, 12:00pm to 1:00pm
Paul J. Zak, Director of the Center for Neuroeconomics Studies at Claremont Graduate University |
Summer of Peace schedule for the week of July 23rd: (All sessions are at 12:00 noon US Pacific except where noted.)
- This Sunday at 9:00am:
Spirituality and Peace: Global Attunement for Peace with David Nicol of the Gaiafield Project
- Monday: How We Can End War with John Horgan
- Tuesday: The Compassionate Life with Marc Ian Barasch
- Wednesday: The Science of Interpersonal Peace with Emiliana Simon-Thomas
- Thursday: The Moral Molecule with Paul J. Zak
- Friday: The Biology Underlying Positive and Negative Emotions: Implications for Cultivating Peace with Sarina Rodrigues Saturn
Sign up here to participate for free in the Summer of Peace.
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Touring Couple Creates Hubs and Inspiration As They Go
 "Some people call us crazy—and that's okay! This is our unique gift to the Shift," say ACE mentors Bob Warner and his wife Noel Marshall. "But we prefer Barbara's description of us as a cocreative couple committed to spreading evolutionary seeds for the Birth 2012 movement across North America."
And indeed they are, as Bob and Noel's nationwide RV tour has already created 35 events in 22 states. Now over 40 days and 5,000 miles into their odyssey, the Bob and Noel see their main purpose as "building the field of evolutionary energy nationwide . . . and to do that, we will visit all 48 states!"
Read more...
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