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TreeFriends
TreeFriends: Using the Arts to Transform Our Relationship to the Natural World
TreeFriends. What is it? Where did it come from? What's it good for?
For several thousand years most humans have been living out a story that goes something like this: As humans, we are separate from all other life forms, our job is to multiply, use other life forms to promote our needs and destroy any "enemies" who may get in our way. Humans, the story goes, are in charge and superior to all other life forms. The results of following this path have led us to a point today at which we are immersed in chaos and destruction on many fronts. It is increasingly obvious to more and more people that the path we have been following has led to a dead end. But people of all persuasions are wondering, where do we go now?
TreeFriends, whose mission is "using the arts to transform our relationship to the natural world," invites people to start from a very different premise. If we pay attention to cutting-edge scientists and look around us at other life forms, we can accept and embody a very different version of reality: Humans are simply one species here on Earth, inextricably connected to and interdependent on our co-inhabitants. TreeFriends invites people to celebrate this new story and go forth to live fully, gratefully and joyfully from that awareness.
In a way, the TreeFriends story starts on January 31, 1971, when as his website states, "Navy Captain Dr. Edgar Mitchell embarked on a journey into outer space that resulted in becoming the sixth man to walk on the moon. The Apollo 14 mission was NASA's third manned lunar landing. This historic journey ended safely nine days later on February 9, 1971. It was an audacious time in the history of mankind. For Mitchell, however, the most extraordinary journey was yet to come.
"As he hurtled earthward through the abyss between the two worlds, Mitchell became engulfed by a profound sensation 'a sense of universal connectedness.' He intuitively sensed that his presence, that of his fellow astronauts, and that of the planet in the window were all part of a deliberate, universal process and that the glittering cosmos itself was in some way conscious. The experience was so overwhelming Mitchell knew his life would never be the same."
Twenty-five years later, in The Way of the Explorer (with Dwight Williams, Putnam & Sons, New York), Dr. Mitchell expands on this experience. "....there was a startling recognition that the nature of the universe was not as I had been taught....There was an upwelling of fresh insight coupled with a feeling of ubiquitous harmony - a sense of interconnectedness with the celestial bodies surrounding our spacecraft....It was a signpost showing the direction toward new viewpoints and greater understanding. The human being is part of a continuously evolving process, a more grand and intelligent process than classical science and the religious traditions have been able to correctly describe....This new feeling....shook me to the very core" *
This pivotal, life-altering experience, which continued throughout the three-day return trip from the Moon, led Mitchell in 1972 to resign from the Navy and a year later found the Institute of Noetic Sciences. A courageous move at the time, Mitchell was determined "to sponsor research into the nature of consciousness as it relates to cosmology and causality." Thirty-six years later the Institute, popularly known as IONS, describes itself in this manner.
The Institute of Noetic Sciences is a nonprofit research organization located in Northern California that conducts and sponsors leading - edge research into the potentials and powers of consciousness - including perceptions, beliefs, attention, intention, and intuition. The Institute explores phenomena that do not necessarily fit conventional scientific models, while maintaining a commitment to scientific rigor.
Since 1973, in large part thanks to the early IONS-supported research, the "story" of what science has come to accept as worthy of consideration has opened up and evolved in a number of directions. To give one example, the mind-body-spirit connection is now generally accepted by science as well as by medicine.
As the years went by, IONS attracted more and more members, people who were interested in learning about the ways in which direct (noetic) experiences could influence the material world. Then in 1979, three of those members, New Yorkers all, had the inspiration to bring together some of their friends to study the research that IONS was generating and invite cutting - edge scientists to come talk about their findings. They formed Friends of IONS (FIONS) which became the first of what are currently 200 local community groups that sprang up spontaneously and continue to seed themselves around the USA and throughout the world.
Over the years, FIONS members have explored new research in health and healing; quantum physics; neuroscience; extrasensory perception; UFOs; dreams; the interconnectedness of all life and many more topics that tend to lead to an expanded consciousness of reality. IONS and FIONS members often refer to themselves as "noetic explorers, more interested in the questions than the answers."
Meanwhile, most of the rest of the world has been bumping along still caught up in the age - old story of materialism that insists everything is either true or false, right or wrong, good or bad. Coupled with that belief is the unassailable notion that growth - economic, social, political - is an essential part of life. At the same time, more and more people, with little support from mainstream society, have increasingly become aware that humanity may be on the wrong track. An inner knowing tells them that there is something fundamentally wrong with the "story" we are living as a human society. Some of these folk, whom sociologist Paul Ray has labeled "Cultural Creatives," have been drawn to have grave concerns about how human activities are affecting the environment; others to how the traditional medical profession deals with health and healing; still others have focused on education, social justice or human rights issues. There are more than a few Cultural Creatives who are deeply concerned about all these areas.
These myriad and often courageous efforts to bring about change, until very recently, have continued to see themselves as separate, disconnected from one another. Yet scientific research on many fronts has been pointing out that all life is interconnected and interdependent.
As the self-described "Historian, Author, Geologian Thomas Berry has been saying and writing for three decades, what we need is a "new story." Cultural Creatives and others wondered, what could that story be?
Then in the Spring of 2006, a FIONS board member, feeling the need to take her noetic explorations into a new realm, reached out to a few colleagues "for the purpose of creating a coalition with one strong voice, which can work towards shifting the level of consciousness in ourselves, our communities and our planet." This call evolved into the Coalition for OneVoice which, in October of that year, drew 600 people to its first public gathering - Passion to Connect - featuring Deepak Chopra and Andrew Cohen in dialogue, the cutting edge spiritual art of Alex Grey, several riveting performances and a stimulating World Cafe dialogue session.
Since then, OneVoice folk have continued to meet in small focus circles and for larger public events. An underlying question has accompanied these varied activities like a faithful friend: What is needed to help manifest a systemic change, the Shift that IONS has been pointing to for some time?
As anyone knows who has studied the power of intention, eventually a sustained non-manipulative question will manifest into a response. In early 2008, the first glimmer of such a response began to take shape and by spring, TreeFriends was conceived and, as with any new life form, gradually over many months developed into an initiative whose purpose was nothing less than an attempt to rewrite the human story at is most basic level.
Edgar's experience coming back from the Moon on Apollo 14 - "the nature of the Universe is not as I have been taught" - continues to live on, taking any number of forms along the way and now manifests right here in NYC as a bold new initiative called TreeFriends.
Others may tell the story differently, that's the nature of storytelling.
* Used with permission
For TreeFriends
Jane Hughes Gignoux
TreeFriends, an Initiative of the Coalition for OneVoice, fiscally sponsored by Friends of the Institute of Noetic Sciences
Summary
The core purpose of TreeFriends is to catalyse urban behavioural change in response to the environmental crisis. TreeFriends engages people in revisiting the fundamental human story and radically changing that story so that it is in alignment with current scientific findings that confirm the interrelated and interdependent nature of all life on planet Earth.
Short history, current programs and services of TreeFriends' Sponsor, FIONS
Friends of the Institute of Noetic Sciences (FIONS) was founded in 1989 "to affect quality of life issues so that we may live in our environment and achieve our greatest individual and collective potential." In 1998, FIONS launched Teens for Planet Earth, inviting NYC high schools students to work in small teams to address the questions "What kind of planet do you want to live on??" and "How can we make our lives better?" The teams created bus posters, the winning posters were displayed in all NYC busses for several months.
In 2006, some FIONS members joined with others to found the Coalition for OneVoice (COV), "to bring together individuals and organizations who are dedicated to spiritual, social and environmental transformation for the betterment of all beings." COV has produced several large events featuring Deepak Chopra, Andrew Cohen, Carolyn Myss, Andrew Harvey, and Matthew Fox. People also meet regularly in small focus circles.
TreeFriends was born from the COV s Environment Focus Circle. Its mission, "Using the arts to transform our relationship to the natural world," is based on the realization that humans need to embrace a new story of who we are and our place in the web of life on Earth. Instead of continuing to behave as though humans are separate from and superior to all other life forms, we need to recognize and live by the reality that science demonstrates: all life is interconnected and interdependent. Using art, music, poetry, movement, TreeFriends works with students of all ages who dialogue respectfully, create new and strong commitments to alternative ways to relate to and use energy, water, and other resources. Students create projects, connect to existing community programs - thereby living a new story.
TreeFriends Goal & Action Plan
TreeFriends' goal is to radically change the motivation and behaviour of New Yorkers in relation to their environment, fellow human beings and all other life forms. TreeFriends aims to change the story of who we are and our role on planet Earth. For millennia most people have been behaving as though humans are separate from and superior to other life forms. In addition, the assumption has been that certain humans are superior to and more deserving than others. As this story continued to be played out over the centuries, people considered all life (including "inferior" humans) as their "resource" to be controlled, used, removed, discarded and/or eliminated. The dire consequences of this behaviour are becoming increasingly obvious to more and more people. Recently some thinkers have been calling for humans to adopt a new story. But how? Urban dwellers have an especially difficult task of reconnecting to nature in all its magnificent complexity because it is not part of their every day experience.
The TreeFriends action plan is to work in collaboration with resident faculty offering multi-media experiences and activities to certain NYC high schools and graduate students that will directly and indirectly address questions such as: Who am I really? How am I connected to the natural world? How do my actions affect others? What can I do to acknowledge the reality that all life is interconnected and interdependent? As students become more conscious of the consequences of their actions and motivated to change their behaviour, TreeFriends will connect them to existing environmental and community programs designed to improve urban conditions. This process is intended to both educate and inspire, resulting in life-changing and deeply motivated commitments to honour and respect all life.
What is the existing situation?
TreeFriends launched in April 2009 with an Invitational Reception and subsequent Multi-Media event in New York City. The program attracted over 40 leaders and influencers in education, environment, the arts, the private sector, government and public policy. TreeFriends now has partnership agreements with two New York City Public High Schools, Fordham University and is represented on the Education Sub-Committee of the Mayor's MillionTree Campaign. We are currently planning youth and community engagement programs for the academic year 2009-2010 at the intersection of environmental and climate literacy, behaviour change and consciousness awakening for society regarding not merely responsible environmental citizenship but more crucially the underlying shift required to motivate and sustain these activities.
What is the envisioned effect on the long term compared to the situation right now?
We envision TreeFriends growing and spreading to more schools and community groups, not just in the New York City metro area but beyond. We anticipate a critical mass of people forming who are committed to finding ways to live out the new story of our interconnectedness and interdependence. Centuries ago humans had to radically change from the widely accepted story that Earth was the centre of the universe to the one that all school children learn today. That major shift in consciousness took place slowly and painfully with strenuous resistance from the reigning power institutions. Today we face a critical urgency, not merely from the evidence of climate change but also the globally escalating imbalances between rich and poor, the breakdown of social systems both local and worldwide that produce widespread violence, isolation and despair. We are also witnessing the same kind of strenuous resistance from today's power structures.
As more people let go of the old story, however, and embrace a new story that takes its narrative from close observation of and appreciation for the beauty, richness and creativity of the diverse forms of life on Earth, they can celebrate this reality and truly become fully human beings. Anyone who has been part of a human community in which the members all respect one another, knows that the experience creates strong bonds of cooperation, trust and deep appreciation. TreeFriends' long term aim is to build such communities that include, not just other humans but all other life forms. A quantum world of both/and
Praise for TreeFriends
"Congratulations on a very successful preview Tree Friends event. The dialogue process and the specific series of questions asked were very provocative and I think the combination of art, poetry and movement really primed the pump well."
- J. Chevalier, Artist
"I never realized how wasteful my personal use of water was. From now on I'm going to change my behavior."
- R. Sheley, Actor
"I want my graduate students to experience TreeFriends."
- J. Stoner, Chair Global Sustainability Dept, Fordham University Business School
TreeFriends
Many New Yorkers have little opportunity to connect deeply to the natural world on a regular basis. We live in a manmade world of computers, electronic devices, using artificial light sources, and underground transport. Concern about climate change may seem remote and unimportant compared to the pressures of our immediate day-to-day lives. Whether we hang out in a third grade classroom, a Wall Street board room, a CVS stockroom, or a corporate cubicle, the world of nature has precious little chance to intrude.
We are socialized, however, to visit museums and enjoy art.
TreeFriends is an initiative intended to invite our urban neighbors to get to know and build long lasting relationships with some of our most powerful, influential, and magnificent fellow beings, our Trees.
Anders Knutsson is a Swedish-born painter and long time NYC resident. For the last eighteen years he has been painting tree portraits. A fine portrait, one that actually moves the viewer, is not merely a good physical likeness. Rather it captures the inner, spiritual core of the subject. When we gaze at a great portrait, something in our own inner knowing connects with the essence emanating from the artist's rendition. Knutsson's Trees are such portraits.
TreeFriends intends to display these portraits in a public space in Manhattan (subsequently in the other boroughs), collaborate with performing artists - musicians, dancers, poets - to create a multi-sensory experience for New Yorkers, as well as visitors. These programs would vary depending on the group attending. There would be programs to suit the interests of primary, middle and high school students. Some programs would be interactive and energetic, while others might be more contemplative evoking quiet and stillness.
TreeFriends will collaborate with organizations working to protect/plant/nurture trees and forests both locally and worldwide. Some TreeFriends activities may be held in City parks and wildlands, joining with urban park rangers, biologists and others to explore and celebrate the City's little known world of living trees.
TreeFriends is currently reaching out to creative people in many fields who have a passion for the natural world to introduce them to Knutsson's Trees. On these occasions, invariably they are drawn to the power, majesty and intimacy of these portraits. In addition to engaging people in the arts, we are seeking New Yorkers with the history of making things happen to improve our way of life here, imaginative folk of all kinds who are willing to be the change we want to see in the world.
Join us!
www.coalitionforonevoice.org
FoulkeTale Publishing
201 West 89th Street, Suite 7H
New York, NY 10024-1848
janehg@lifedeathbeyond.com