Marilyn Ferguson: Trending quotes (page 3)

“If we stubbornly refuse to look at that which seems magical or incredible, we are in distinguished company. The French Academy announced at one point that it would not accept any further reports of meteorites, since it was clearly impossible for rocks to fall out of the sky. Shortly thereafter a rain of meteorites came close to breaking the windows of the Academy.”

Marilyn Ferguson

The Aquarian Conspiracy (1980), Chapter Six, Liberating Knowledge: News from the Frontiers of Science

“If a new prototype of society is to emerge, rather than a coup d'etat, dialogue and debate must occur at the highest levels.”

Marilyn Ferguson

The Aquarian Conspiracy (1980), Chapter Five, The American Matrix for Transformation

“The perturbation would come from the privileged classes, he said, because that is the way of revolutions. They are launched by those disenchanted with the culture's ultimate reward system.”

Marilyn Ferguson

The Aquarian Conspiracy (1980), Chapter Five, The American Matrix for Transformation

Way

“Like Transcendentalism, Revel's revolution would encompass "the liberation of the creative personality and the awakening of personal initiative" as opposed to the closed horizons of more repressive societies.”

Marilyn Ferguson

The Aquarian Conspiracy (1980), Chapter Five, The American Matrix for Transformation

Personality

“There also must be an internal critique of injustices, of the management of material and human resources, and of abuses of political power. Above all, there must be criticism of the culture itself: its morality, religion, customs, and arts. And there must be demand for respect of the individual's uniqueness, with the society regarded as the medium for individual development and for brotherhood.”

Marilyn Ferguson

The Aquarian Conspiracy (1980), Chapter Five, The American Matrix for Transformation

Religion , Art

“If that happened, and if one political civilization were exchanged for another, as seemed to be happening, the impact might be felt worldwide by osmosis. This radical transformation would need the simultaneous occurrence of smaller revolutions—in politics, society, international and interracial relations, cultural values, and technology and science.”

Marilyn Ferguson

The Aquarian Conspiracy (1980), Chapter Five, The American Matrix for Transformation

Science , Relation ships

“The stuff of revolution, and its first success, must be the ability to innovate. In that sense, there is more revolutionary spirit in the United States today, even on the Right, than elsewhere on the Left. The relative freedom in the United States would make it possible for such a revolution to occur bloodlessly, Revel said.”

Marilyn Ferguson

The Aquarian Conspiracy (1980), Chapter Five, The American Matrix for Transformation

Sense , Freedom , Making love , Success

“A New Order of the Ages Begins, says the reverse side of the Great Seal, and the Revolutionaries meant it. The American experiment was consciously conceived as a momentous step in the evolution of the species. The cause of America is in great measure the cause of all mankind, Thomas Paine said in his inflammatory pamphlet Common Sense (1776).”

Marilyn Ferguson

The Aquarian Conspiracy (1980), Chapter Five, The American Matrix for Transformation

Sense , Pain , Age

“Although it is rarely noted in histories of the American Revolution, many of the arch-Revolutionaries came from a tradition of mystical fraternity. Except for such traces as the symbols on the reverse side of the Great Seal and the dollar bill, little evidence remains of this esoteric influence (Rosicrucian, Masonic, and Hermetic). That sense of fraternity and spiritual chisement played an important role in the intensity of the Revolutionaries and their commitment to the realization of a democracy.”

Marilyn Ferguson

The Aquarian Conspiracy (1980), Chapter Five, The American Matrix for Transformation

Sense , Democracy , History

“The revolution was in the minds of the people. This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people was the real American Revolution. Long before the first shot is fired, the revolution begins. Long after truce is declared, it continues to overturn lives.”

Marilyn Ferguson

The Aquarian Conspiracy (1980), Chapter Five, The American Matrix for Transformation

People , Change

“Hardly anyone expected the American uprising to succeed. Thousands of colonists emigrated to Canada or hid in the woods, certain that the king's armies would tear the colonial regiments to shreds. Nor did a majority of the people support the struggle for independence, even in theory. Historians estimate that one-third favored independence, one-third favored retaining British ties, and one-third were indifferent.”

Marilyn Ferguson

The Aquarian Conspiracy (1980), Chapter Five, The American Matrix for Transformation

Indifference , Support , People , Tear

“As historian James MacGregor Burns noted, they also formulated their protests as official appeals to the king "shipped across the Atlantic after suitable hometown publicity."”

Marilyn Ferguson

The Aquarian Conspiracy (1980), Chapter Five, The American Matrix for Transformation

Relation ships

“The Original Dream. We have forgotten how radical that original dream was—how bold the founders of the democracy really were. They knew that they were framing a form of government that challenged all the aristocratic assumptions and top-heavy power structures of Western history. The Revolutionaries exploited every available means of communication. They linked their networks by energetic letter writing. Jefferson designed an instrument with five yoked pens for writing multiple copies of his letters. The new ideas were spread through pamphlets, weekly newspapers, broadsides, almanacs, and sermons.”

Marilyn Ferguson

The Aquarian Conspiracy (1980), Chapter Five, The American Matrix for Transformation

Democracy , History , Dreams , Communication

“As we shall see, there have always been two "bodies" of the American dream. One, the dream of tangibles, focuses on material well-being and practical, everyday freedoms. The other, like an etheric body extending from the material dream, seeks psychological liberation—a goal at once more essential and more elusive. The proponents of the latter dream have nearly always come from the comfortable social classes. Having achieved the first measure of freedom, they hunger for the second.”

Marilyn Ferguson

The Aquarian Conspiracy (1980), Chapter Five, The American Matrix for Transformation

Hunger , Dreams , Freedom

“In this time of uncertainty, when all our old social forms are crumbling, when we cannot easily find our way, we can be lights to each other.”

Marilyn Ferguson

Source: The Aquarian Conspiracy (1980), Chapter Twelve, Human Connections: Relationships Changing, p. 403

Way , Time , Light

“The worldwide quest for community typified by the networks of the Aquarian Conspiracy is an attempt to boost that attenuated power. To cohere. To kindle wider consciousness.”

Marilyn Ferguson

The Aquarian Conspiracy (1980), Chapter Twelve, Human Connections: Relationships Changing

Communication

“Love and fraternity, once part of an ideal, have become crucial to our survival. Jesus enjoined his followers to love one another. Teilhard added, "or you perish."”

Marilyn Ferguson

Without human affection, we become sick, frightened, hostile. Lovelessness is a broken circuit, loss of order.
The Aquarian Conspiracy (1980), Chapter Twelve, Human Connections: Relationships Changing

Love , Making love , Parting

“Millions living today have experienced transcendent aspects of reality and have incorporated this knowledge into their lives. A mystical experience, however brief, is validating for those attracted to the spiritual search. The mind now knows what the heart had only hoped for. But the same experience can be deeply distressing to one unprepared for it, who must then try to fit it into an inadequate belief system.”

Marilyn Ferguson

Source: The Aquarian Conspiracy (1980), Chapter Eleven, Spiritual Adventure: Connection to the Source, p. 362

Search , Hope , Heart , Knowledge

“Spiritual or mystical experience, the subject of this chapter, is the mirror image of science—a direct perception of nature's unity, the inside of the mysteries that science tries valiantly to know from the outside. This way of understanding predates science by thousands of years. Long before humankind had tools like quantum logic to describe events that ordinary reason could not grasp, individuals moved into the realm of paradox through a shift in consciousness. And there they know that what cannot be is.”

Marilyn Ferguson

The Aquarian Conspiracy (1980), Chapter Eleven, Spiritual Adventure: Connection to the Source

Way , Science , Understanding , Nature

“The most potent force for change, however, is the growing recognition of millions of adults that their own impoverished expectations and frustrations came, in large measure, from their schooling.”

Marilyn Ferguson

The Aquarian Conspiracy (1980), Chapter Nine, Flying and Seeing: New Ways to Learn

School , Change