The New Paradigm
vol. I, Number Two

Dear Friends,

Thank you all for your instantaneous response to my proposal. You're all on the New Paradigm List, and we're on our way! If you find the content valuable, share it freely with any and all you think may be interested.

I find I made one promise in my initial offering which I don't seem to be able to make good on at present. [But please see the sequel to these remarks in tnp #10, 1/23/98.] "Needless to say," I wrote, "the New Paradigm List will not be made available to anybody for any reason, and will only be used for distribution of The New Paradigm newsletter." Well, as I compose the newsletter, I have "New Paradigm List" displayed in the "To:" field at the top of the page, which is the name of the list in my Address Book of you who have requested inclusion in the List. However, when I send the newsletter out, and have a copy posted back to me, I find the names of the members of the List in the "To:" field, instead of the anonymous "New Paradigm List;" and there does not seem to be a way in MS Outlook Express, my e-mail program, to suppress the identities of the members of the List. Some e-mail programs may have that capability, but evidently not Outlook Express. That means that your names and e-mail addresses will be included in the message header, which may be easily accessed by clicking on "File" in the Menu Bar at the top of your screen, and then on "Properties." So your anonymity, if that is important to you, is compromised right out of the starting gate. So I thought I'd better point that out to you, in case you're interested.

However, this whole issue of "anonymity" and "privacy" and "secrecy" raises some interesting "new paradigm" considerations; and since nobody has yet come forward with a proposal for "What Should We Discuss First?" this may be as good a place to begin as any.

The "new paradigm," as I understand it, discloses that we are all One; that the apparent "border" that enables us to distinguish between "me" and "you" is an illusion and a fabrication of our minds. This is not to say that "me-ness" and "you-ness" is "a bad, bad thing," for it enables "me" to pursue one particular constellation of interests with "my" life, while "you" are quite at liberty to pursue another with "yours." This gives "us" the capacity for a wide spectrum of experiences, which is immensely enriching and edifying. "New paradigm" awareness, however, never loses sight of our essential One-ness, and is never taken in by the illusions of "me-ness" and "you-ness" we have fabricated for the sake of enriching our experience of being.

Now if it is indeed true, as I believe it is, that "our" essential nature is in actuality One, then it must also be true that "we" can ultimately never have any "secrets" from "one another." There is no "one another;" there is only One; and that One is "you," is "me," is "each one" and "all" of "us." That is why it is so notoriously hard to "keep a secret:" because "we," being in actuality One, naturally have access to everything. The "me/you" game we habitually play is just that: a game, and it's a little like trying to play both sides of a Chess game by yourself. Black always knows White's strategy in advance, and vice versa; so it's silly to pretend that there is a real contest on the chessboard.

This, of course, is entirely contrary to "old paradigm" thinking which presumes that "What You See Is What You Get;" i.e. that "reality" really is as it appears. In that view, "you" are "you" and "I" am "me" and the only thing we have in common is that we may look somewhat similar; and anyway "you're going to 'get' me, if I don't 'get' you first." In that view, everybody needs to protect his "anonymity," his "privacy," his "business," from everybody else, lest he give some unwitting advantage to his "competition," meaning his "enemies," meaning "everybody else," and so be "gotten" by somebody who was able to slip in under his guard and do him in. This is what passes for "common sense" in the so-called "real world;" but if you ask me it is totally and utterly insane, and stark raving mad besides.

Nevertheless, "old paradigm" thinking is our shared heritage and our habitual frame of mind, it matters not who we are, or in what culture or religion we were raised. So we should not kid ourselves by thinking that shifting to "new paradigm" thought is a simple matter or easily accomplished. It is not inherently difficult, and theoretically, it should be as simple as turning on a light in a dark room; but in practice there is no more formidable task than that of changing your own mind. Do that - and I mean really do it - and changing the world is a piece of cake. It cannot be accomplished by either writing or reading a newsletter, or by thinking about it, or talking about it, or studying a lot of learned or holy books. Any or all of these may help, in the same way a map may help you find your way to a destination. But you get to your destination by traveling the path, not by tracing your route on a map. Thus a traveler without a map may reach his destination, while someone else with a room full of atlases and charts may never get out of the library.

Well, all this has applicability in many different areas of interest, which is why over time we are going to find ourselves engaged in a very wide-ranging discussion indeed. As regards the issue of "privacy," which might mean in this case feeling uneasy about the possibility that some sinister snoop may be reading your e-mail, or collecting your address for some unholy purpose such as sending you spam or auditing your tax return, let me say this: Yes, that may happen. But what is being shared in this forum is addressed to anybody and everybody, and its purpose is to assist in the raising of consciousness; and there is nobody on Earth who would not benefit from that. If there is somewhere some secret society of sinister snoops surreptitiously spying out our discourse... Hay! Welcome aboard! Send me your e-mail address, and I'll add you to the List! We have no secrets, for we are all One, "sinister snoops" and all. There is nobody and nothing in existence that does not share what Sue has called "that little spark inside of you called God;" and it is That we call forth into our conscious, purposeful awareness; it is That, unencumbered by dogma or priestly sanction, which stands naked, honest and alive within "each" of "us" and is the essential core and substance of what we are calling the "new paradigm."

There is no end or beginning to this discourse, for all things are connected together, and one thought leads to another in an endless chain reaction of exploration and growth. My hope is that something said here will set off chain reactions in your various minds, and that you will share these and your thoughts with others and with one another, to ignite a spontaneous cascade of Self Realization that sweeps the Earth! That is the natural environment in which Fortuna Alliance® II will surely thrive and prosper, and in which the tyrannical systems which seem to have bound the very Earth in endless coils and toils will be dispersed like smoke in a fresh breeze.

Love & Light,

-- Harmon
J. Harmon Grahn