In 1983 Lucile delivered two versions of a speech presenting her understandings of a New Consciousness.
REACHING FOR A NEW CONSCIOUSNESS — CORE PERSPECTIVE
Lucile Says:
“There is a conspiracy afoot!!! A conspiracy of love and empowerment. Networks of people interested in maximizing human potential and transforming the human experience are reaching for a new kind of world consciousness.
We’re moving into a cultural awakening, a new beginning, a new Genesis.
“These transformative explorations and activities indicate the scope of the revolution – a deep underlying shift in the entire culture the like of which has not been experienced in recorded time – a change in values, a change in consciousness, a rejection of hierarchy and domination.”
Reaching For A New Consciousness-one page summary
The first version of the speech was delivered at a meeting of the Pacific Central District in Northern California on January 8, 1983. It is typed in all caps with hand written changes. The second is dated January 25, 1983 and appears to be an edited version of the speech, in essay form. It is single spaced, upper-lower type with no handwritten corrections. It does not contain all of the content of the speech and summarizes points that were given more coverage in the speech.
Following are highlights of both versions.
FIRST VERSION
Reaching for a New Consciousness 1-8-1983
Lucile says (selected quotes):
“Traditionalists back East do not always see this embracing of change as such a great virtue, but I do.” (She just talked about how it is to live in earthquake country in California. She thinks this reality is why people in this in this part of the country are so open to new ideas.)
Taking the Name Longview
“I think of myself as a futurist and that name “Longview” which you may have wondered about includes that. “Longview” came from my subconscious and attached itself to me nearly 4 years ago and I’m only now beginning to own it. After all of these years of ignoring and squelching my inner voice it is a scary turn-around to claim the power of naming for the empowering act that it is. Owning “Longview” is a naming of my being and my becoming – encompassing more than my past; including also my perceptions of myself as a futurist.
“As a futurist I believe with those who claim that a deep underlying shift in the entire culture is taking place. The more I’m open to such change, the more I look for evidence of it. The more people I find are writing about it.
“The following quotation is taken from the book jacket of Marilyn Ferguson’s book The Aquarian Conspiracy – Personal and Social Transformation in the 1980s. She says: ‘A great shuddering, irrevocable shift is overtaking us. It is not a new political, religious, or economic system. It is a new mind – a turnabout in consciousness in critical numbers of individuals, a network powerful enough to bring about radical change in our culture.'”
Her Re-tread Program
“This concern for changing myths of reality is not exactly new to me. Over two decades ago I was a member of an explorative educational project at the University of Minnesota. Twenty women between the ages of 27 and 72 were enrolled in what we called our retread program. I was nurtured and stimulated by that program over a period of 6 years.
“A question by one of the professors stayed with me. Following a review of developments in history that have shaken man’s sense of himself he asked ‘what is man giving up now?’ I mean to say ‘man.’ Man was for us, the women in the class as well as the instructor, less than 20 years ago the model human. It was his culture that we studied and his record of that culture provided the materials we studied – the indoctrination we received.”
Shedding of Man’s Worldview — The Myth of Hierarchy and Patriarchy
“We can see how the tempo of changing perceptions was speeding up – how a man’s push for new insights was shredding his worldview. Freud and other psychologists were causing man to question his own self-knowledge and anthropology was making white man’s claim of ethnic superiority a questionable concept.
“And with each increasing tempo we continue to dismantle patriarchy and show how completely man has erroneously mythed his place in the universe. The flight to the moon and pictures of that tiny Earth, our only home, have forced us into global thinking and a greater understanding of interrelationships and interdependence. The environmental movement and a deeper understanding of our relationship to the totality of life expand our spirituality. The shortage of fossil fuel has pushed us toward the solar age.
“The new physics, which as Fritjof Capra now says, shows ‘that we are trying to apply the concepts of an outdated worldview — the mechanistic worldview of Cartesian-Newtonian science — to a reality that can no longer be understood in terms of these concepts,’ but those of us in the retread program could not comprehend that.
“We considered each of these developments that have shaken man’s sense of himself without seeing the overall picture. We could not then see that since the late 15th century, man, the male, and more recently women, have been dismantling the male myth of patriarchy – the only thought pattern we have had during recorded history. Piece by piece he has been stripping away the dark shroud of the myth of reality into which we are acculturated from birth and laying bare the underlying assumption of hierarchy and domination. It is this assumption that has brought us to the brink of a man-made Armageddon.”
The New Feminism
“The new feminism has not only challenged man’s anthrocentric view of himself through the feminist analysis of patriarchy and the underlying assumptions of which all disciplines of learning are based, feminism is playing a creative role in the whole process of transformation. The feminist movement is not only creating a new self-image for women but it is also creating new models of thinking and a new system of values. Capra says that ‘feminist spirituality will have a profound influence not only on religion and philosophy but also on social and political life’ and he adds ‘because feminism is a major force in our cultural transformation, especially in North America and Europe, it is likely that the women’s movement will play a pivotal role in the coalescence of various social movements.'”
Sense of Oneness
“In the realm of religion there appears to be a shift away from a religion mediated by authorities to one of direct spiritual experience. A shift from belief to knowing. There is a growing sense that whatever answers there are to be our questions must come from within ourselves.
“This new consciousness promises to release a new spiritual force transcending religious and cultural boundaries, drawing us into a sense of oneness; oneness not only with the human community globally but oneness with the totality of life. Our environment lives.
“We’re moving into a cultural awakening, a new beginning. A new Genesis and feminism offers us a greater hope. Robin Morgan in the Anatomy of Freedom says: ‘feminism is, at this moment and on this planet, the DNA/RNA call for survival and for the next step in evolution – and even beyond that, feminism is in the metaphysical and Meta Feminist dynamic the helix of hope that we humans have for communication with whatever lies before us in the vast witty mystery of the universe.'”
The next section of her presentation, Revolution by Resolution, tells Lucile’s thoughts about the significance of the W&R Resolution.
SECOND VERSION
Dated January 25, 1983, this piece is typed in manuscript style, using upper lowercase type and no handwritten changes. It doesn’t say where this appeared or was presented. It is a good summary of her views on patriarchal religion and society.
Reaching for a New Consciousness 1-25-1983
Lucile says (selected quotes):
“Our work in bringing a new awareness to the UUA and feminists’ work in other denominations, and the networks of people beyond religious institutions, who are reaching for a new spirituality, are all part of the larger search for a new world consciousness that will maximize human potential and transform human experience and spiritual understanding.
“Never before have we had so much responsibility for remaking ourselves and our world. The crisis is at hand. Thought patterns built on the assumption that hierarchy and domination is the only basis for relating lead us toward global destruction.
“Never before have we had this sense-of-self that the new feminism is bringing to women. We must own our self-empowerment.
“And never before have we had the tools – the analysis, the insights and the new perspectives with which to make a significant difference in how reality is perceived.
“One of the lessons we must all learn is that reality is standpoint determined, and where you stand in a hierarchical relationship affects what you see.
“We’re undertaking a task without end. We need an ongoing process. It is not the final agreement on a statement that it’s important, but the process of how we arrived at that statement.
“The UUA has come of age as a New Age is becoming. Our principles should reflect that fact.”
Signed:
Lucile Shuck Longview
Change Agent without portfolio
January 25, 1983