"BEYOND SCIENCE FICTION: TOUCHING THE REAL WORLD"

JEFF PHILLIPS
We live in the real worldwe travel together on Spaceship Earth, a beautiful
planet of blue and green, blessed with wondrous gifts of land and sky, of mountain
and cloud, of river and stone; graced with the presence of myriad life-forms whose
sheer improbability is astounding, ourselves among them. We are truly lucky to be
here; the fact of our existence is real and undeniable; in the words of Lewis Thomas,
the probability of any one of us being here is so small that youd think the mere fact
of existing would keep us all in a contented dazzlement of surprise.
Astronomers tell us that the Earth is the third planet from a typical G-type star
in a spiral arm of a typical galaxy among trillions in a universe of unknown expanse.
Are we special and unique? Are we microscopic and insignificant? Are we the center
of the universe? Do we matter at all in the grand scheme, and if so, to whom, and
why?
Despite our media environment, a complex configuration consisting of the
summation of (mc)2 [amplified mass-communication], which both educates, informs
and entertains us as well as creating a wall of infotoxin so pervasive that it threatens
to replace our experience of the natural world, each other, and ourselvesregardless
of our obsession with unreality, the Earth herself and her cosmic context are our
TRUE home, and always have been.
Good science-fiction has always been my favorite genre of both film and
literature; good science-fiction has often been the precursor of future science-truth.
In many ways the world today is looking increasingly like a b-grade science-fiction
movie. Although we as a whole are living in immense denial of much that is going on
around us, and have become psychically numbed from refusal to cope with the vast
complexities of the big picture, each of us, as living, breathing beings feels within
the depths of our being the conflict between the underlying harmony of nature and the
life-out-of-balance of the current global scenario, what the Hopi Indians of Arizona
call koyaanisqatsi. We try to hide behind the facades of utterly irrelevant massmedia, wasting our time in endless pursuit of the mindless goals of a consumer worldview, drowning ourselves in a sea of drug and alcohol addiction. But in moments of
lucidity, we become fully aware of the immense depradations being committed
against sacred lands and indigenous peoples on every continent; of the the dire social,
economic, and ecological catastrophes created and exacerbated by highly centralized
and utterly corrupt minions of the corporate/bureaucratic military/industrial
juggernaut raging out of control; we know of the threat to all life in the oceans by the
US Navys low frequency sonar system; we know of the unsustainability of the fossil
fuel scenario, the danger of genetically engineered life-forms, and the spectre of
nuclear annihilation, intended or accidental, not to mention our toxic wastes and byproducts which contaminate the biosphere. Whether we want to be aware of it or not,
we each feel the conflict within ourselves because each of us, along with all other lifeforms on the Earth, ARE an integral part of the web of life.
We are quite literally on the brink of the unknown; In the words of Barry
Brailsford, we stand at the greatest cross-roads ever reached by human kind. So
where do we go from here? I think that we are crossing a threshold into a new
paradigm that is beyond science-fictiona new level of awareness which is a
synthesis of leading-edge science reality, spiritual psychologies, metaphysical
philosophy and multidimensional artistic creativity; a new world view which

recognizes the inter-relatedness of all things, the power of individual action and
creativity attuned to our highest knowledge; a way of being and living which utilizes
leading edge science and technology, guided by the full spectrum of indigenous
wisdom to which we are heir.
I call this new paradigm synthaissance cryobenthics. It is a hybrid term
created from synthesis, renaissance, cryo- (which means cold) and benthic
(which means deep dwelling, as in down in the ocean). Hence, synthaissance
cryo-benthics is a flowering of creativity that is extremely cool and very deep!
This new paradigm is extremely diverse and interdisciplinary, but probably the
most fundamental dimension is the recognition that we ARE the ultimate technology.
All life-forms and ecosystems, ourselves included, are brilliant works of cosmic
genius. We all have innate powers and abilities which are just waiting to be brought
on-line and developed, once we wake up to who and what we really are. Each of us is
a unique work of cosmic art; we each have our own contributions to make.
Once you have begun to actualise your internal technology, you can then
regain your brain from the powers that be, who, in the words of Diane Harvey,
powerfully discourage individual mental development through impressing the notion
of superior external authority. You can also begin to network with other minds on
similar wavelengths, accessing and sharing diverse reservoirs of alternative
information. Because what we call creativity is by its very nature unbounded, the
rest is literally up to us.
When you look around at the Earth and bring yourself up to date on the stateof-the-art in what we know, the real world becomes freakier and more miraculous
than ANY science-fiction movie. The dynamics of Spaceship Earth and the Gaia
hypothesis; the knowledge of ancient and existing indigenous cultures, much of
which has to do with long-term cycles of solar and astronomical phenomena; the
ancient harmonic languages which are based on the vibration of the spoken word;
the mysteries of the Mayan calendar, whose current cycle ends in December 2012;
the true identity of the whales and dolphins, large-brained mammals who have lived
harmoniously on the Earth for millions of years longer than we have; the unexplored
dimensions of shamanic experience and the consciousness of DNA itself; the
profoundly disturbing scenario shared by Dr. John C. Lilly (with whose dolphin
communication group I worked in the early 1980s) of the battle between water-based
life-as-we-know-it, and a solid-state, silicon-based intelligence vying for control of
the Earth.
The real world does not run on money, petroleum, heroin, or gold; the real
world runs on fresh air, water, sunlight, gravityand most importantly, love. Again,
in the words of Barry Brailsford, we are the ancestors. We are the sum of all that has
ever been. When we acknowledge this we step into the real world.
Where we go from here is up to us all. Do we matter in the grand scheme of
things? It matters to us, if to no one elsewe are the passengers/crew of Spaceship
Earth. We are the artists of our own design, and co-creators of whatever we perceive
our reality to become. The time is now to make a difference that makes a
difference.
REFERENCES
The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight, Thom Hartmann
Culture Jam: The Uncooling of AmericaTM, Kalle Lasn
Stupid White Men, Michael Moore

Brave New World Revisited, Aldous Huxley

Power Versus Force, David Hawkins
Beyond Prophecies and Predictions, Moira Timms
The Lorax, Dr. Seuss