I quickly learned from internet research that this was one of many projects being inspired by a new book circulating in both business and academic circles entitled HOLONOMICS: BUSINESS WHERE PEOPLE AND PLANET MATTER. Authors Simon and Maria Morae Robinson certainly do not look like idealogues or schemers. Instead, they come across as a fresh faced relatively nice young couple. They are are presently important players in stirring the pot of a concept called “holism.” It also goes by the name of “holonomy” and the term they say they “coined” of “holonomics.” For sure, they are true and sincere believers in their cause. Their cause beautifully and unfortunately illustrates what I call “the hidden dangers of the New Age rainbow.”
Simon and Maria Robinson are now Brazilian based
educators. They are teachers at a college level school in Sao Paulo, Brazil. It is
my impression that they are perhaps cradle New Age believers. They are passionately trying to convert the
world, particularly at the business level, to what they call “holonomics.” It appears to be quite the New Age stew of "paradigm shift", "Systems Thinking" "earth reverence," "holistic thinking," "all is interconnected," GAIA theories; Buddhist management, Sai Baba, phenomenology, and self-organizing evolution theories mixed in with let's all love each other so we can grow together type exhortations.
They also mix a great deal of current science research they believe supports their theories. Their work is receiving glowing reviews from varied sources.
New Agers I discovered as relatively young radicals (e.g.
Fritjof Capra) are now aging academics who represent settled wisdom and
knowledge to these young authors. I
personally just finished reading the Kindle edition of their book. I’ve ordered the paperback copy as I want a
copy I can freely markup and annotate. The hard copy book is taking its sweet time to reach me -- that is part of the delay on this article. I just finished reading the Kindle version as I write tonight. It is a sizable book with many twists and turns -- while well written, it is not easy reading.
Marilyn Ferguson
(1938-2008) wrote in her 1980 New Age landmark book, THE AQUARIAN CONSPIRACY (page 280) that “You
can only have a new society . . . if you
change the education of the younger generation.”[i] While complaining that young people were “limited”
because entrenched educators controlled the system. To gain degrees and academic credentials
necessary for advancement, one had to go along with the established educational
bureaucracy.
On the same page, she
also happily wrote about the large number of conversions in the academic world
to New Age thinking.
It is now appearing that
those carrying the same new thinking advocated by Marilyn Ferguson and her many
associates, e.g. Willis Harman, Maurice Strong, Hazel Henderson, Fritjof Capra,
and so many others have become the new established bureaucracy in
education. More often these days, students must regurgitate as 'gospel,' the theories of this indoctrinated group of new academics.
These developments also remind me of another book popular in New Age circles, PARADIGM WARS (1996) by Professor Mark B. Woodhouse.
The Robinsons are
interviewed as a couple by California New Age activist Gunther Sonnefeld. The online video is available for watching by CLICKING HERE . Several other interviews are available
there as well.
Early on in the video,
the Robinsons say they “coined” the word holonomics, fashioning it from words dealing with both holonomy and economics.
However, that word has long been used by others and given very similar meanings by others in New Age and neo-pagan circles.
In my personal library, which I am far from done surveying, I have found that term used in the same sense as that expressed by the Robinsons in several books among them being
- Barbara Clow in her 1994 book CHIRON purporting to be channeled writing concerning "Rainbow Bridge" between inner and outer planets. Barbara Clow was and is a close Matthew Fox associate (the Catholic cum Episcopalian priest/'theologian);
- Bob Samples in his 1981 book MIND OF OUR MOTHER. This is one of the earlier books in my library;
- Globally & Locally, Seeking a Middle Path to Sustainable Development (1998)
- Jose Arguelles (2011), MANIFESTO FOR THE NOOSPHERE."
I'm just starting on this topic. To be continued.
Stay tuned,
CONSTANCE
