# Global MindShift **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 17, 2007, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/global-mindshift/415960 "2007-08-17T16:55:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2007, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/global-mindshift/415960/1 "2007-08-17T16:55:38Z")
I’m halfway through my introductory, week-long, “conversation”, with a half dozen other individuals. Have any other Dopers explored this site/community? I have a lot of observations from just a few days. Some of them bad, some of them good. It is difficult, as yet, to determine if the negative things are attributable to other individual participants and not associated with the site/organization. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2007, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/global-mindshift/415960/2 "2007-08-17T17:46:36Z")
Can you summarize this site because it’s hard to tell what it’s about from the site. Is it a community of psychologists? A cult? What is it’s aim? What will my role be? ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2007, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/global-mindshift/415960/3 "2007-08-17T17:52:33Z")
HEY! This organiztion uses rhetoric dangerously similar to a cult. You should stop your “introductory, week-long, “conversation”, with a half dozen other individuals” ASAP, & check these folks out through a 3rd party source. I advise against a face-to-face meeting with them. I strongly advise against going on any form of “retreat” with them. ---
**Author:** ![ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2007, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/global-mindshift/415960/4 "2007-08-17T18:05:27Z")
I have my full Skeptical Shields up. Thanks for the concern. I’ve done the same degree of due-diligence that I give everything online, and could find no “Operation clambake”-esque cites, but my research was not exhaustive. I felt comfortable at least taking a peak. The format appears to be focused on org-produced and “user produced” content, mostly videos and animations. You are encouraged to interact with them ala carte, or join a small discussion about them with others. I’ll post again later with the list of authors/books/videos that have been recommended by both the facilitator and the other participants. I freely admit that, in spite of what didn’t turn up during my due dilligence, that the word “cult” has crossed my mind and passed my lips. But, as I said in my OP, I do not yet have a clear reading as to whether those vibes are coming from some of the other participants, or from the org itself, or both. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2007, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/global-mindshift/415960/5 "2007-08-17T18:07:20Z")
Dude, from the heart–these guys make my Spidey-Sense tingle. Go elsewhere, for enlightenment. FAST!! ---
**Author:** ![ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2007, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/global-mindshift/415960/6 "2007-08-17T18:14:52Z")
Ok, ok. Point taken. Do I at least get to list the “recommended reading/watching” and discuss what insight they offer, if any, into their motivations? ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2007, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/global-mindshift/415960/7 "2007-08-17T18:30:21Z")
Sure, give us the reading/watching list. That will tell us more about them and where they’re coming from. ETA: There are some interesting ideas here. Just keep your hand on your wallet. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2007, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/global-mindshift/415960/8 "2007-08-17T18:37:44Z")
So, what’s the One Big Idea? What it the one shift we all have to make to solve all the complex, complicated problems in the world? ---
**Author:** ![ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2007, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/global-mindshift/415960/9 "2007-08-19T00:34:20Z")
I am still working on those references. Mafia V has me preoccupied. No tinfoil hats have been handed out. No retreats scheduled. No contributions requested. I am still in possession of all of my 10 fingers and 10 toes. I still have both kidneys. ---
**Author:** ![ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2007, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/global-mindshift/415960/10 "2007-08-23T00:49:53Z")
> [@My blog](#): > > Cited authors/”thinkers”: > > Daniel Quinn (author, cited by me) > Ervin Laszlo (author) > Buckminster Fuller (author) > Lynne McTaggart (author) > Brian Swimme (author, and of which whom the footage is that comprises the two short videos that are the focus of our “Conversation”) > Sharif Abdullah (author) > > Sites/orgs: > > [http://www.common-society.org/csm/](http://www.common-society.org/csm/) > [http://www.earthcharter.org/](http://www.earthcharter.org/) > [http://evolve.org](http://evolve.org) > [http://www.barbaramarxhubbard.com](http://www.barbaramarxhubbard.com) > [http://mattole.org](http://mattole.org) (recommended by me) > > Films: > > “What the bleep do we know?” > “What the bleep do we know, down the rabit hole.” > > Published participants: > > Phil Lawson > [http://www.phillawson.com/](http://www.phillawson.com/) > Author of “Being Spherical – Reshaping Our Lives and Our World for the 21st Century” > > And as a point of interest, one of the participants was an alternative energy engineer from Germany, but the only stuff I found under his name when searching was a filed patent for a “circuit arrangement for a photovoltaic system”. He seemed like a very cool fellow. I ramble more about my experiences. My full blog post is [here](http://rabidrenaissance.com/blog/2007/08/23/thoughts-on-my-first-global-mindshift-conversation/) . It might be fun to see if y’all can guess which of the recommendations came from the same individuals, and what my reaction was to those individuals. For example, I rented _What the BLEEP do we know?_ and I was not impressed. I was actually disappointed because some seemingly solid information was presented along with such utter tripe, that I think it does more harm than good in the struggle for informed awareness. One of probably many previous threads on the film can be found [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=353290). From what summaries I’ve seen (and the foreword, which is all I’ve had a chance to read of the copy I just bought) I’m probably going to have some problems swallowing what Ervin Laszlo has to say in _The Chaos Point_. I haven’t gotten around to finding any SDMB threads about it yet. In summary, they’re not advocating a big “IT” to solve our problems, unless you consider the idea that the have to start thinking about the world differently (as individuals and populations) as a bit “IT”. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2007, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/global-mindshift/415960/11 "2007-08-23T22:22:04Z")
[QUOTE=ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies] In summary, they’re not advocating a big “IT” to solve our problems, unless you consider the idea that the have to start thinking about the world differently (as individuals and populations) as a bit “IT”. [/QUOTE] If _that’s all_ they ain’t worth bothering with. You got that _here_, on the SDMB.