Earthward Implications of Cosmic Migration (con.)

Now, let's take the big jump, let your mind go free and create for yourself a vision of the ultimate potential. What will be the ultimate impact on humanity, the Earth and those living on it if we all (spacers and earthlings) commit to this future. How will we live? How far can we go? How much can we discover? How much will we learn? Where might we live?

Again, turn to your friends and share this ultimate vision and then, record it on the cards so that it might also be shared with us, and through us with people who want to know what you think...what you dream.

Now that you have that vision, now that you know it will be shared with others, let me ask you, what are you going to do with it? Visions are created to be shared, from one person to another, from a believer (an apostle) to a seeker. I want to show you how and why this vision is important. Once you know this you will have a very effective tool for creating a future that includes humanity in space.

The future of our society is dependent on our hopes, expectations and images of it. We can increase the possibility of a more positive future by developing and nurturing positive visions and images of it. F. L. Polak in his book Images of the Future said, "Human society and culture are being magnetically pulled towards a future fulfillment of their own idealistic images of the future, as well as being pushed from behind by their own realistic past." Our thoughts and beliefs of what the future will be like can move us toward that future and help to create and affect the present.

While a strong, positive vision of the future does lead to confidence, I'm not talking only about a confidence in the future. Confidence is a reaction to a belief about the coming short term future, next month or next year. No, what I'm talking about is a people's response to a vision of what the future can be. A image of a future that is as far reaching and challenging as any of the great visions of the past, the type of vision that moves a society and the people within it. When the people begin to believe a vision of this magnitude everything is changed and the world is never the same again.

O. W. Markley of the Stanford Research Institute said, "The development of our societies has been in large part dependent on the creative vision of the great members of the human race, and of the images of the future of the important cultures throughout history." Malachi Martin, a Jesuit priest and student of why societies succeed or fail, in his book The New Castle said, "The greatest heights of culture and civilization were always fashioned, not within the molds of sociological cause and effect, but within a transcendent vision." Finally, the late Ed Lindaman, a past director of program planning for the design and manufacture of the Apollo Spacecraft and President of Whitworth College in Spokane, Washington said, "The believer not only interprets history but, above all, he changes it, because he believes, because he hopes."

The vision, or image of the future is a society's conception or belief in a time that is yet to come. It can be either positive or negative, but, in either case, it must be an exaggeration of what would be reasonably expected. It is either a hope or a fear that lives in the minds of the societal group, both collectively and individually. When the image of the future is projected clearly it is leading the society into a future that is truly their conception of tomorrow. It is a promise of what the future will be like within the life time of the society. It is the hope of what that future can be like within my lifetime. In other words, the society expects to see the actualization of the vision; the individuals within the society believe they will play a part in the realization of the vision, and they, as individuals, hope to live to see it happen.

Citizens react to the image of the future as if it were already here and, therefore, act in a purposeful way that is directed toward this future's goals and expectations. It is through shared dreams and beliefs that these visions operate, humankind acts Polak says, "...through...enthusiasm, through the pulsating dynamic of ideas." The power to compel the dramatic movement of events in culture through time lies with us as we are moved to act by our vision of the future. Polak says, "History does not unfold by itself but evolves through man's evolving."

Malachi Martin too believes in the power of the image of the future. In his book he speaks of the image of the future as a vision of the "Castle." Different people and different societies throughout history have experienced this vision of the future, of a better world, a world where anything and everything was possible. The Castle was their vision of that ideal state.

For example, there was an obscure Semite nomad, named Abraham, who was the first witness of the Jewish vision and the patriarch of the major religions of the western world. The power of his vision has lasted for over 5000 years.

How many of you have seen the desert around Salt Lake City, Utah? I don't know how you feel, but I have never seen one more desolate. The legends say there were only seven trees in that whole valley when Brigham Young chose it as the site for the Mormon community. They had no money and very little material goods. Most of them didn't even have horses. But they did have a vision, a vision of a city by the shores of the Great Salt Lake. Only seven years after the first person stepped foot in that area, the foundation to the temple was being laid; and today we have Salt Lake City, Utah, a thriving, green and well planned city, a jewel in the desert.

There have been many visions that have shaped the history and future of our world including the "American dream" that is just slightly over 200 years old. Each of these cultures was/is being driven by a vision, a vision that began with a few people and spread throughout the society, shaping the future and transforming the present.

Did you hear me just now? Did you hear me say "transforming the present?" Does our image of the future effect the present too? Why else do we pay money for life insurance, build bomb shelters, open savings accounts, take a new job, return to school, research solar energy, or come to a space conference.

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