Culture of Peace and the Evolution of Consciousness
an article by Iris Spellings

On June 2, 2004 at United Nations Headquarters in New York City a seminar entitled "Building a Culture of Peace and the Evolution of Consciousness" was held under the sponsorship of Aquarian Age Community in association with the UN Department of Public Information.

The meeting opened with a visualization activity and meditative reflection. Participants were asked to consider a culture of peace as "the externalization of the most sacred, most honored and most universally compassionate way of life that you can imagine;" to imagine that it already exists; that it is vital and alive within us and our planet; to reflect on how we would behave, feel, think-and BE within such a culture of peace and to focus clearly, lovingly and with purpose on that vision. Participants were offered the opportunity to share their experience during the latter part of the program, but the hope was that all would retain this experience, build on it and seek out ways to vitalize and actualize this vision from that moment onwards.

Offering keynote thoughts on "The Evolution of Human Consciousness and the Role of Culture", including the Roerich Pact and Banner of Peace and UNESCO’s World Heritage Program, were Ida Urso, Ph.D., President of the Aquarian Age Community and Iris Spellings, Artist and NGO Representative for Operation Peace Through Unity.

Belgian filmmaker and multimedia director, Tito Dupret, gave a tour of his interactive website. He has ambitiously embarked upon the massive project of photographing all of the sites on UNESCO's World Heritage List.

Guest Speaker Anwarul K. Chowdhury, a UN Under-Secretary-General, addressed the essential question: "How Can the UN and Civil Society Promote a Culture of Peace?" His broad perspective and knowledge based on many years of service and experience in this field inspired all.

The audience participated in answering the following questions:

A. What is the UN already doing to foster and facilitate a Culture of Peace in the world?

B. What is my vision of a Culture of Peace -for myself? For my home and community? Within the United Nations and within the World?

C. In what ways can I contribute to a Culture of Peace-in my personal and professional life?

Readers are invited to respond to these, sending them by e-mail to optubrookiana@xtra.co.nz or by postal mail to OPTU, Te Rangi, 4 Allison St., Wanganui 5001, New Zealand.

The full transcripts of this seminar are available on-line.

DISCUSSION

Question(s) related to this article:

What is the United Nations doing for a culture of peace?


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GLOBAL MOVEMENT FOR A CULTURE OF PEACE

Latest reader comment:

The theme that development cannot be divorced from peace and democracy has been taken up most eloquently by Wangari Maathai, the 2004 Nobel Peace Laureate from Kenya.  See her remarks as summarized in the CPNN report on her speech on December 20 at the UN.  It is a very different approach than taken by the UN experts as quoted above.

This report was posted on September 13, 2004. The moderator is CPNN Coordinator.

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