Sep 2017
[In late July I moderated a panel at the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) that remembered the work and life of a man who was a tremendous influence in my life – Willis Harman. Below is an updated short piece I did on Willis for the Global Dialogue Center four years ago. If anyone is interested in viewing the IONS event, here is a link to the video c/o Sergio Lub of Friendly Favors who sponsored the event.]
Willis Harman was a visionary and a strong advocate for human transformation. He taught me much during our friendship, from the early-1980s when we first met until his passing in 1997. Working with him was a true joy. Knowing him was also a joy. Harman was a strong advocate for the interconnectedness of humankind and gave talks and wrote prolifically about the subjects of “global mind change,” paradigm shifts and human consciousness.
Willis Harman (1918-1997)
For those who may not know who this man was, he began as a professor of engineering at Stanford University where he also started human potential classes, all the time remaining under the administration’s radar. He then went to work at Stanford Research Institute (now called SRI) where he was involved in various experiments and research projects on human consciousness, including remote viewing and future studies work, much of it sponsored by the U.S. Government. In the 1970s he was recruited to head the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS), which researches and publishes on subjects related to human consciousness. He remained at IONS until resigning soon before his death. He wrote a number of books, my favorite of which is Global Mind Change, which was republished after his passing.
Several years ago, the non-profit Global Mindshift (now defunct after making some provocative videos) got hold of a sound recording of one of his short talks and added an animation to the audio, producing a short 90 second video. Click on picture below to play video.
Global Mind Change video (90 seconds)
Harman’s words are as pertinent today as they were then: we can no longer fix any one system unless we fix them all; we can no longer have some people having their needs met but not others. My way of saying this is that we all interconnected and “we’re all in this together!”
