Gregg Braden’s newest book is entitled, The Turning Point, by Hay house Publishing, 2014. His eight previous books include New York Times Best Selling titles, Deep Truth, The Divine Matrix, and Fractal Time.
In essence, it is about creating and instilling personal and societal resilience at a time when we are confronted with extremes in our world. World wide events show us that the new normal is change. The old world as we knew it has evaporated and will not be returning.
Resilience is defined as the ability to recover readily and quickly from an illness, depression or adversity.
The reason for all of this upheaval is that our planet and it’s population are currently experiencing:
Extreme and disruptive climate changes: the kind that only come in cycles every 5000 years or so.
Massive world economic debt load.
Exhaustion of the availability of cheap fossil fuel deposits.
A world population explosion that began around 1650 and that now teeters near 7 billion people as of 2012. Prior to 1650, and for nearly 11,000 years, the population of our planet remained stable at around 500 million.
All of these above events are happening at once. How has this all come about? Looking back at the geological history of our planet, we find that we are on track for a cyclical weather change that occurs once every 5000 to 5200 years. The weather challenge is being brought to us by Mother Nature. The debt load problem along with over population, feeding everyone and the depletion of cheap energy fuel is our own doing.
All of these challenges are pushing us to the brink or a tipping point of no return as Gregg writes. A tipping point has been described by Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point, as the “moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point.” A tipping point arises as a result of a pile up of extremes and leads to irrevocable change.
Before this tipping point happens, there is time to execute a turning point. A turning point can be thought of as an opportunity that arises to take advantage of. There is a time when every crisis can be turned into transformation: when simply surviving can become thriving. That time is the turning point, and, based upon Braden’s writing and research, that time is now.
Gregg argues that we are close to a tipping point now but that there is still time to pull away from such an event by means of executing a turning point.
Our outdated world view that we have embraced up to now has substantially lead us to where we are. It is a story of separation and competition amongst us all that had it’s origins along with the birth of modern science approximately 300 years ago. Charles Darwin’s 19th century theory of life being a struggle and a contest of survival of the fittest has also reinforced the mindset of competition among people and nations for mineral resources, currency and power.
The counter to the above is Nature’s world view model that has begun to gain traction:
Nature exemplifies cooperation. The natural world is widely recognized as a proving ground for experiments in unity, cooperation, and survival among insects and animals. From nature’s lessons we’re shown, without question, that unity and cooperation are advantageous to living beings.
Gregg writes, “The latest discoveries in the fields of biology, physics, archeology, and genetics are forcing scientists to rewrite the story of who we are and how we fit into the world. In biology, for example, the publication of more than 400 studies showing that nature is based upon a model of cooperation, rather than Darwin’s “survival of the fittest,” has turned the thinking of evolutionary science upside down.”
Becoming collectively resilient in order to adapt to the changes we must make, a study funded by the Rockefeller Foundation came up with the following elements:
Spare capacity
The notion of being supplied or stocked up with food and other basic household items to counter when the power is knocked out, a freak storm arises or fewer stocks of available goods arise causing shortages.
Flexibility
The ability to change, evolve, and adapt in the face of disaster
Limited or “safe” failure, which prevents failures from rippling across systems
Rapid rebound
The capacity to reestablish function and avoid long-term disruptions.
Constant learning, with robust feedback loops
What I liked about this book.
It appealed to my interest in science and history. Gregg’s disclosures and arguments are set forth in a logical order, and, backed with scientific research studies and citations, are very credible and compelling. It is not a gloom and doom prophecy offering. Neither is the book a contrived ‘survivalists’ manual.
This latest book of Gregg Braden offers a detailed in-depth look at the multiple global problems we are collectively facing all at once. He then sets forth a novel but achievable series of common sense steps we all need to embrace in order to execute a turning point away from where we have been headed.
If you are a citizen concerned about our planet including it’s global weather changes, the escallating cost of food and the energy required to grow it, and, how our countries have struggled with natural disasters in recent years, then you’ll want to grab a copy of this book. Become informed about the kinds of choices we all need to be contemplating then acting on.
Jeffrey Dodson
March 20th 2014
FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from Hay House Publishing for this review. The opinions expressed in this review are unbiased and reflect my honest judgment of the product.
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