Beyond Conditioned Thinking

This Editorial precedes Volume 25, Issue 1 of Kosmos. Scroll down to access featured content.

Dear Kosmos Reader,

Welcome to a new issue of Kosmos. It has been a chaotic start to the new year and many of us wonder what to do. The news of the day can make our heads spin. But what is actually going on when our thoughts spiral like that? We lose our inner freedom, becoming prisoners of fear, outrage, and confusion. Inner freedom isn’t given to us by others—nor by governments. It is the ability to be fully present, to love and to live with peace and stability —regardless of external circumstances. If we haven’t felt this kind of freedom very much, such words can sound like we are bypassing the real problems of the world. That is not the case. Inner freedom comes from fully recognizing our situation, understanding how we got here, and facing it with courage and a tender heart. Only then can we take compassionate yet firm action.

Much of today’s harsh rhetoric assumes that a single perspective can fully explain reality. Yet, we know that thinking is conditioned by many factors, including historical forces, and inherited identities. When we recognize that no viewpoint is complete, we open the door to a more expansive view. By learning to witness our thoughts as a kind observer, we can move beyond conditioned thinking. We are free when we learn to use our thoughts wisely, like well-cared-for tools, rather than letting our thoughts carry us away.

This issue of Kosmos offers a few paradigms that can help. Earth-based thinking deepens our sense of place and the many miracles of life around us, especially in the places we call home—our gardens, towns, and bioregions. Design science teaches us to think like a planet, aligning with Buckminster Fuller’s vision of Spaceship Earth, where we learn to operate within planetary limits intelligently. It also reflects indigenous knowledge systems, which have long viewed humans as co-creators within a living Earth system. It’s never too late to live gently upon the Earth.

We can also develop our unitive thinking. The story of the Universe is the ultimate expression of unitive thinking, revealing that from a single cosmic unfolding—beginning with the Big Breath—everything is interconnected, from stardust to sentient life. When we take time to reflect that we are not separate from the Universe, but rather the Universe becoming conscious of itself, we feel some relief from our fears.

Yet, we must also be reminded that we run the risk of outsourcing our thinking when we rely too heavily on technologies that increasingly mediate our perceptions, filter our choices, and mechanize decisions that once required deep reflection and human wisdom.

I hope you find in this issue of Kosmos at least one new idea—one tool to borrow, refine, and use—to help restore your freedom, strengthen your resolve and deepen your connection to the great unfolding story of life.

With love and trust,
r.fabian, for Kosmos

Kosmos Journal Volume 25 Issue 1

Technology

Have We Outsourced Our Thinking?

By Charles Eisenstein

Artificial intelligence is the culmination of the revolution in information technology that began in the 15th century with the printing press, followed in succeeding centuries by lithography, photography, phonography, and film, each of which extended the mass production of information to a new realm. A review of the cognitive and social effects of those previous technologies will help to illuminate what is crashing upon us in the age of artificial intelligence.

Commons

Bioregioning and Our Felt Sense of Place

By Nate Hagens, Isabel Carlisle, Samantha Power, Daniel Christian Wahl

A bioregion is a coherent geographical entity—a landscape—not politically defined. It has coherent geology, landform types, fauna, flora, rainfall, and human history. So, there's a coherent story that runs through all these layers. When we think about the kinds of "islands of coherence" we need to move forward as a species, bioregions provide that cultural grounding—what was historically true and what we need for the future.

Spaceship Earth

Design Science: Thinking Like a Planet

By Medard Gabel and David Heeney

Design science is different from other problem-solving and planning methodologies in its comprehensive, anticipatory, inclusive, and transparent approaches to the development of solutions. It takes a ‘whole to particular’ approach that is both global in perspective and in its examination of options. It seeks to build capacity rather than merely solve problems and to develop solutions that are transformative rather than merely the reforming of already inadequate systems.

Cosmogenesis

The Art of Belonging | Emergent Universe Oratorio

By Sam Guarnaccia, Cameron Davis, Paula Guarnaccia

The Emergent Universe Oratorio (EUO) is a musical and poetic composition for chorus, orchestra, and orator, of the Great Story of our vast evolving Universe, the new scientific cosmology of our cosmic birth, to galaxies, stars, Earth, life, of human emergence and transformation. It is a response to the greatest crisis in the history of humanity, and if we can respond as one thread in the tapestry of living Earth, it is also its greatest opportunity.

Living Earth

Gaia Within | Choosing Care in an Unraveling World

By Michael Gray

Time might bring back the coral reefs and provide space for species that are not yet extinct to rebuild their populations. Forests could reclaim hillsides while birds, butterflies, and bees construct their nests and hives in their shade. But how can our species survive when we choose leaders who are blind to the living intelligence that created us?

Mind and wellness

Softening the Rhetoric: What Therapy Teaches Us About Social Change

By Pauline Baudon

Much of today’s social and climate justice culture focuses on change—yet often skips over the loss that comes with it. It’s okay to grieve what we’re leaving behind, even if it was flawed. It’s okay to feel conflicted. There’s a call for a softer approach to change—one that makes space for paradox, complexity, and the full spectrum of our emotions.