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So long as we need to control other people, however benign our motives, we are captive to that need. In giving them freedom, we free ourselves.

Marilyn Ferguson

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Marilyn Ferguson
Age: 70 †
Born: 1938
Born: April 5
Died: 2008
Died: October 19
Author
Writer
Grand Junction
Colorado
Giving
Motive
Needs
Libertarian
Long
However
People
Control
Captive
Liberty
Captives
Freedom
Benign
Free
Libertarianism
Need
Motives

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Mystical experiences nearly always lead one to a belief that some aspect of consciousness is imperishable. In a Buddhist metaphor the consciousness of the individual is like a flame that burns through the night. It is not the same flame over time, yet neither is it another flame.
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Many artists have said that when life itself becomes fully conscious, art as we know it will vanish.
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Our biggest failure is our failure to see patterns.
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The beginning of personal transformation is absurdly easy. We have only to pay attention to the flow of attention itself.
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We live what we know. If we believe the universe and ourselves to be mechanical, we will live mechanically. On the other hand, if we know that we are part of an open universe, and that our minds are a matrix of reality, we will live more creatively and powerfully.
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The mind aware of itself is a pilot... vastly freer than a passenger mind.
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Spirituality is a kind of virgin wisdom, a knowing that comes prior to experience.
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Power is a central issue in social and personal transformation. Our sources and uses of power set our boundaries, give form to our relationships, even determine how much we let ourselves liberate and express aspects of the self. More than party registration, more than our purported philosophy or ideology, personal power defines our politics.
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Before we choose our tools and technology, we must choose our dreams and values, for some technologies serve them, while others make them more unobtainable.
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The person and society are yoked, like mind and body. Arguing which is more important is like debating whether oxygen or hydrogen is the more essential property of water.
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If we are to find our way across troubled waters, we are better served by the company of those who have built bridges, who have moved beyond despair and inertia.
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Of all the self-fulfilling prophecies in our culture, the assumption that aging means decline and poor health is probably the deadliest.
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only that which is deeply felt can change us. Rational arguments alone cannot penetrate the layers of fear and conditioning that comprise our crippling belief system.
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By definition, revolutions are not linear, one step at a time, event A leading to event B, and so on. Many causes operate on each other at once. Revolutions shift into place suddenly, like the pattern in a kaleidoscope. They do not so much proceed as crystallize.
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The creative process requires chaos before form emerges.
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An atmosphere of trust, love, and humor can nourish extraordinary human capacity. One key is authenticity: parents acting as people, not as roles.
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The brain's calculations do not require our conscious effort, only our attention and our openness to let the information through. Although the brain absorbs universes of information, little is admitted into normal consciousness.
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Cultural transformation announces itself in sputtering fits and starts, sparked here and there by minor incidents, warmed by new ideas that may smolder for decades. In many different places, at different times, the kindling is laid for the real conflagration-the one that will consume the old landmarks and alter the landscape forever.
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The other side of every fear is a freedom.
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...As Thomas Kuhn pointed out in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, new scientific theories in any field are regarded with skepticism because scientists become attached to the old perspective earlier in their careers.
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