The Evolutionary’s Guide to Changing the World:

Applying the Principles of an Evolutionary Worldview

A 6-Week Virtual Course

We’re at the Edge of a Profound Turning Point in Human Civilization
Throughout history, pioneering individuals have come together and changed the course of humanity. In fact, historians now think that the Renaissance only involved about 1,000 people—setting in motion the creativity and innovation that eventually launched the Western Enlightenment, the Scientific Revolution, and the sweeping changes of the modern world.

Today, we are at the edge of another profound turning point in human civilization. And the question is: who will be the innovators, explorers, and architects of the future? Who will be the contemporary equivalent of those 1,000 men and women who launched the last shift in human culture?

The Evolutionary’s Guide to Changing the World is designed for individuals who are inspired by the idea that they could join the ranks of our brave Renaissance forebearers and take an active role in creating the future now. It is for those of us who don’t simply want to survive the crises we are facing as a species but feel compelled to create a new horizon of potential and possibility for us all. The world we inhabit is far different from the one that the courageous thousand of the Renaissance found themselves in. The challenges we face demand a new way of understanding who we are and where we are going as a species. We need a new worldview—a new way to make sense of life.

And as leading-edge thinkers from philosopher Ken Wilber to former President Bill Clinton have noted, a new worldview is beginning to emerge. Indeed, many see this worldview—what we at EnlightenNext call the evolutionary worldview—as culturally significant as Copernicus’s discovery that the Earth moves around the Sun. As our thousands of loyal readers can attest, we at EnlightenNext magazine have been tracking, documenting, and exploring this emerging worldview with thought leaders, visionaries, and innovators for nearly two decades—integrating and catalyzing what many see as the foundation for culture’s next stage.

The central insight of this new worldview is the realization that everything in the cosmos—from the big bang to the striving of human beings to create a vibrant global culture—is part of one vast developmental process. Each and every one of us is an inherent part of that process, not separate from it. In fact, we are actually the eyes and ears of the evolving universe becoming aware of itself, and through our capacity to think, to develop, and to engage with each other we further the evolution of the whole. Taken deeply to heart, this realization can unleash a new energy and potential between individuals that can help us to solve the most pressing problems of our time.

And in The Evolutionary’s Guide to Changing the World, you’ll discover not only that same energy in yourself, but you will also learn how this evolutionary worldview changes how we approach just about everything, enabling you to become a truly twenty-first-century agent of change.

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A Different Way to Change the World
Since the 1960s, whether we are Boomers, Gen X, or Gen Y, so many of us have been struggling with the question of change—knowing that change is so desperately needed in so many aspects of our world, yet often cynical about the possibility that it will ever become a reality.

Some have spent years in the activist trenches, trying to bring about social justice, end the degradation of the environment, or create new forms of education and support. Others have engaged deeply in personal transformation—meditating, exploring the frontiers of the psyche, or engaging with other methods for self-actualization—in the hope that changing oneself and finding a deeper peace will somehow have an effect on the world around us. Many have gone back and forth, striving to find the right relationship between individual transformation and cultural change, knowing that it will take both but just not being sure how.

The Evolutionary’s Guide to Changing the World will open a new way to understand the profound relationship between consciousness—the deepest part of your self—and culture—the values and ways of relating that we share. It will provide you with a way of seeing the world that can deeply unite us. We all need a higher purpose to come together in, a purpose that transcends egoic boundaries and enables us to work together in miraculous and new ways. Through this course, you’ll discover a profound source of enlightened inspiration that comes deep from within your own self, illuminating the connection between who you are and cultural transformation.


Who Are We?
EnlightenNext is dedicated to catalyzing evolution in consciousness and culture. We are a not-for-profit organization, committed to awakening, connecting, and cultivating a global movement of “Evolutionaries”—individuals who feel personally responsible for creating the future. For nearly 25 years, the organization has been inspired and driven by the vision of spiritual teacher Andrew Cohen and has become widely recognized as a focal point and guiding light for spiritual leaders, progressive thinkers, visionaries, and inspired activists who are passionately interested in and contributing to the evolution of consciousness and culture.

EnlightenNext magazine is the flagship publication of the organization and is the result of the creative engagement between Editor in Chief Andrew Cohen and the editorial team—his students as well as evolutionary thinkers in their own right. Each issue of the magazine tracks the leading edge of this emerging worldview—borne out of the editorial team’s own engagement with the thrill and challenge of realizing this evolutionary perspective themselves—not as an intellectual enterprise but from the inside out. The magazine team functions more like a “think tank” than editors in any usual sense: they are concerned with discovering and documenting the development of this new perspective and its impact on all aspects of life.

The Evolutionary’s Guide to Changing the World gives you the unique opportunity to learn from the team at EnlightenNext magazine—to join with them in the creative process of charting the next steps in human consciousness and culture.

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What You Will Learn
The Evolutionary’s Guide to Changing the World takes place over six sessions, held on conference calls. Each session will consist of:

• An exclusive recorded presentation by Andrew Cohen delving into the spiritual heart of each subject.
• A presentation by Carter Phipps, Elizabeth Debold, or Ross Robertson that shares the deepest insights of the evolutionary perspective that they have gleaned in their practice and creative process.
• Dynamic discussion among the editorial team that will expand on the presentation and provide examples of how to apply the evolutionary perspective to different social and cultural issues.
• Live Q&A with Carter Phipps, Elizabeth Debold, and Ross Robertson.

Each of the six sessions of The Evolutionary’s Guide to Changing the World will cover a different core aspect of living from and applying an evolutionary worldview. The first three sessions cover the fundamentals—cosmos, self, and culture. The second three engage more directly with applications of the evolutionary worldview.


Session 1: What Is Evolution?: A Metaphysical Mystery Tour…
This session focuses on the philosophical, historical, and spiritual significance of the fact that the cosmos is evolving. Through this session you will:

Understand the multidimensional nature of the evolutionary process. Follow the trajectory of brilliant thinkers and innovators who are creating fresh, evolutionary grooves toward the next stage in culture. Discover a new philosophical and cosmological perspective on life. Contemplate the source of the creative cosmos that is your deepest self. Experience a transformative sense of confidence and connection with the totality of Life.

Session 2: Do You Believe in Evolution?
In this session, our focus is on how understanding the evolutionary, developmental nature of reality impacts the self. You will:

Find out what it really means to be an “Evolutionary”—the twenty-first-century revolutionary. Identify the evolutionary impulse—the motivation to create the new—in yourself. Discover the dynamic principles of how consciousness evolves. Break through the cultural habits that create cynicism and a sense of limitation. Realize that an evolutionary perspective shifts fundamental assumptions about who we are as women and men. Develop a newfound hope and a sense of potential in relation to the environmental and political crises we currently face as a species.

Session 3: A Brief History of History
This session focuses on evolution’s unfolding through the development of culture—which opens up the horizon of the future. In it, you will:

Engage in an illuminating tour through the basic stages of cultural development. Learn the dialectical process by which new stages of culture are born. Recognize the collective structures of consciousness that make up your sense of self. Realize how you are the culture that you inhabit—which provides a startling opening for making change. Discover how to view current issues from a developmental lens—which changes how we think about creating change.

Session 4: The Return of Progress
The focus for this session is on a key stumbling block to grasping the evolutionary perspective—the rejection of the rationality and progress made in modernity. You will learn to:

Liberate yourself from the dialectic that inhibits one’s capacity to embrace an evolutionary view. Identify the reactive patterns of thought that are instrumental in blocking individual and cultural development. Uncover key assumptions about history and human nature that reinforce the status quo. Realize the need for a higher rationality to address the issues facing us, and how to bring that rationality to bear. Develop a future-orientation in line with the evolutionary impulse of the cosmos. Experience a sense of urgency and responsibility that transcends survival impulses to embrace the challenges we face.

Session 5: A New Moral Compass
This session opens up a new understanding of what “good” means in an evolutionary context, enabling our choices and solutions to align with evolution. You will:

Identify key aspects of the postmodern ego (or self sense) that lead to fragmentation, separation, and the lack of a deep direction. Cultivate a sense of responsibility and purpose through understanding the need to evolve beyond the postmodern ego. Discover a deeper sense of wholeness in embracing the moral trajectory of evolution. Awaken to evolution’s moral imperative for the self—which is vertical development. Learn to apply the notion of evolutionary morality to determine how to respond to critical social issues.

Session 6: Discovering the Next Step
In the final session, our focus is both on identifying the dynamics that are key to applying the evolutionary worldview and on illuminating the spiritual demands of conscious evolution. You will:

Learn how the patterns of the past can inform us about the direction of the future. Understand the pivotal tensions and components of evolution in action. Realize the essential role that “creative friction” plays in collective evolution and what this means for each one of us as Evolutionaries. Discover access to a deeper source of creativity and intuition that comes from a source other than the postmodern ego. Recognize the importance of evolving beyond fundamental aspects of self, such as how we think of ourselves as women and men. Develop a new understanding of what leadership entails from an evolutionary perspective. Explore the implications of awakening to the evolutionary perspective on the self, on our activism and change work, and in our work with those from other stages of cultural development.

As you can see, this course represents the most comprehensive resource available online for understanding and learning how to live the evolutionary worldview.

Register Today for Our 6-Week Virtual Course

The Evolutionary’s Guide to Changing the World

Mondays, June 14 to July 19, 2010
2:00-4:00pm ET OR 8:00–10:00pm ET
(These times accommodate participants around the globe.)
For questions, please email us or call (510) 684-2645

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Copyright © 2010 EnlightenNext, Inc. All rights reserved.