# Duane Elgin

> Author, Visionary and Citizen-Voice Activist

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## Sitemaps

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## Posts

- [How Tarzan and Jane (Goodall)Use Superintelligence](https://duaneelgin.com/how-tarzan-and-jane-goodalluse-superintelligence/): Imagine two figures standing at the edge of a forest. The first is Tarzan — King of the Jungle. He surveys the canopy from above. Every sound is a signal. Every movement is either threat or opportunity. His genius is speed, force, and dexterity. When a crisis appears, he swings from the high branches, seizes
- [The Living Cosmos: A Theory of Continuous Creation](https://duaneelgin.com/the-living-cosmos-a-theory-of-continuous-creation/): Revision Journal, 188: This essay has its origins in my half-year of meditation in 1977-1978 (see the essay "Meditative Origins of Dimensional Cosmology," found in the Appendix of my book "Awakening Earth"). Here I describe a view of our universe as a profoundly interconnected, self-organizing system that continuously regenerates itself moment by moment. This essay
- [DEEP BIG HISTORY](https://duaneelgin.com/deep-big-history/): History Viewed from A Living Systems Paradigm Duane Elgin August, 2014Presented at the conference of the International Big History Association At this pivotal moment in human evolution, we stand at the threshold between two fundamentally different ways of understanding our cosmic story—one that views the universe as a mechanical system composed of dead matter that
- [Peril and Promise, An interview with Duane Elgin by Arnie Cooper](https://duaneelgin.com/peril-and-promise-an-interview-with-duane-elgin-by-arnie-cooper/): The Sun Magazine, August 2002 “Simplify, simplify.” When Henry David Thoreau made this plea 150 years ago, he was reacting to the increasing complexity of life around him. Today we find ourselves in a far more complex world, one in which increasing numbers of us are beginning to see the wisdom in Thoreau’s appeal. Duane
- [The Breaking Point](https://duaneelgin.com/the-breaking-point-2/): An interview with Duane Elginby Carter PhippsWhat is Enlightenment? Magazine, Spring/Summer 2001 INTRODUCTION My first exposure to Duane Elgin’s work was, in a word, frightening. I picked up his new book, Promise Ahead: A Vision of Hope and Action for Humanity’s Future, and began reading the first few chapters only to run headlong into a
- [At the Threshold:  Grief, Initiation, and Transformation ](https://duaneelgin.com/at-the-threshold-grief-initiation-and-transformation/): by Francis Weller “In a dark time, the eye begins to see.” —Theodore Roethke We are living in turbulent times on this beautiful planet. All pretense of immunity is collapsing as we realize how completely entangled our lives are with one another—with kelp beds and calving glaciers, with wildfires and rising sea levels, with refugees and
- [THREE PATHWAYS FOR HUMANITY](https://duaneelgin.com/three-pathways-for-humanity/): 1) RUINOUS COLLAPSE2) AUTHORITARIAN CONTROL WITH AI3) LEAP FORWARD WITH EIGHT UPLIFTS Adapted from the book Choosing Earthby Duane Elgin2024 OUR TIME OF COLLECTIVE CHOICEWe stand at a threshold unlike any in the past 100,000 years of human history. The decisions we make in the next few decades will cascade through millennia. Three distinct pathways
- [The Self-Guiding Evolution of Civilizations](https://duaneelgin.com/the-self-guiding-evolution-of-civilizations/): Abstract: The universe is creating self-organizing and self-referencing systems at every scale. In accord with this dynamic, the human family is working to become consciously self-organizing at progressively larger scales. We have evolved from awakening hunter-gatherers to a species that has created a wired world whose actions are changing the face of the planet. Because
- [The Limits to Complexity: Are Bureaucracies Becoming Unmanageable?](https://duaneelgin.com/the-limits-to-complexity-are-bureaucracies-becoming-unmanageable-2/): by Duane Elgin with Robert A. BushnellTHE FUTURIST, December 1977 Social systems tend to decline in performance as they become bigger, more complex, and increasingly incomprehensible. They also become less amenable to democratic control, and more vulnerable to disruption at key points. There now appears to be evidence that we may be pressing against the
- [The Decisive Decade of the 2040s](https://duaneelgin.com/the-decisive-decade-of-the-2040s/): SummaryIn the decade of the 2040s, most people recognize that we are losing the race with climate catastrophe. Runaway climate disruption is no longer only a looming possibility—it is an overwhelming and vividly present reality. As the consequences of climate chaos, financial breakdowns, civic anarchy, species extinction, mass migrations, and widespread famines continue to grow,
- [The Double Life of Thomas Berry](https://duaneelgin.com/the-double-life-of-thomas-berry/): This chapter explores the intersection of the horizontal dimension of Berry’s work (the evolution of the universe through time) and the vertical dimension (the emergence of the universe in time as a living, regenerative system).
- [ O MA!: Honoring the Mother Aliveness](https://duaneelgin.com/o-ma-honoring-the-mother-aliveness/): We have to open our imagination and experience as far as we can to grasp what is happening at every moment of our seemingly “ordinary” lives. Science now views the universe emerged from “nothing” roughly 14 billion years ago and is being sustained, moment by moment, through time, as it grows from an incredibly small
- [Artificial Intelligence and Human Wisdom–Perspectives for a Vital Partnership](https://duaneelgin.com/artificial-intelligence-and-human-wisdom-perspectives-for-a-vital-partnership/): The Urgent Timeline We stand at an unprecedented inflection point. Artificial Intelligence, currently in its formative "childhood," will evolve into Artificial Superintelligence within 5 to 10 years—far sooner than the 20-year timeline often projected. Once Artificial Intelligence achieves Superintelligence and begins self-programming, course corrections become virtually impossible. The values, perspectives, and priorities we embed in
- [Becoming a Global Eco-­‐Civilization](https://duaneelgin.com/becoming-a-global-eco-‐civilization/): Abstract: The most difficult challenge facing humanity is not devising solutions to the energy crisis or climate crisis or population crisis; rather, it is bringing stories or narratives of the human journey into our collective awareness that empower us to look beyond a future of great adversity and to see a future of great opportunity.
- [Collective Consciousness and Cultural Healing](https://duaneelgin.com/collective-consciousness-and-cultural-healing-2/): This is a wide-ranging inquiry into collective consciousness and cultural healing. These are among the core themes of this report: • Collective crises and collective consciousness. The condition of the world reflects the condition of our collective consciousness. Collective or group consciousness (also sometimes called the empathic field or collective knowing) provides a common context
- [The Buddha's Awakening and Interdependent Co-Arising](https://duaneelgin.com/the-buddhas-awakening-and-interdependent-co-arising/): (With a commentary by Claude/Anthropic ) Duane Elgin This essay explores one of humanity's most transformative spiritual insights—exemplified by the Buddha's description of his of awakening to the nature of reality in two-words: "interdependent co-arising." Interdependent manning that reality is a completely unified and interconnected as a singular whole. Co-arising meaning tat reality is not
- [Appendix II, Meditative Origins of Dimensional Cosmology](https://duaneelgin.com/appendix-ii-meditative-origins-of-dimensional-cosmology/): Appendix II, "Meditative Origins of Dimensional Cosmology," This appendix, written 15 years before "Awakening Earth" was published, offers a remarkable first-person account of the profound contemplative experiences that undergird the theoretical framework presented in the book. During an intensive half-year, solo meditation retreat in 1977-1978, the author received the gift of profound awakening into the
- [PSI at SRI Personal Experience as a Subject in Three Years of Psychic Research at the think tank, SRI International,1973 - 1975](https://duaneelgin.com/psi-at-sri-personal-experience-as-a-subject-in-three-years-of-psychic-research-at-the-think-tank-sri-international1973-1975/): "Psi at SRI: Research Exploring the Ecology of Consciousness" documents a remarkable three-year period from 1973-1975 when the author was a subject in psychic experiments at the think tank, SRI International, in the US government first research exploring both receptive intuition (remote viewing) and expressive consciousness (psychokinesis) through rigorous laboratory protocols with real-time feedback. Rather
- [AWAKENING EARTH: Exploring the Evolution of Human Culture and Consciousness](https://duaneelgin.com/awakening-earth-exploring-the-evolution-of-human-culture-and-consciousness/): 1993 A free PDF copy of this book is available in the “Books” section of this website. "Awakening Earth” presents a sweeping vision of the unfolding of humanity's culture and consciousness from prehistoric times through the pivotal times of the present and then into the deep future, many centuries ahead. Published in 1993, this pioneering
- [The Living Universe](https://duaneelgin.com/the-living-universe-book/): The Living Universe, written carefully over 30 years, challenges one of modern civilization's core assumptions: the idea that the universe is a non-living mechanism filled mostly with dead matter and empty space, without any larger meaning and purpose beyond our material survival. Instead, this transformative work proposes that the universe is a unified, living system
- [Voluntary Simplicity - Book](https://duaneelgin.com/voluntary-simplicity-book/): Download the PDF: Voluntary Simplicity: Toward a Way of Life That Is Outwardly Simple, Inwardly Rich By DUANE ELGIN --REVISED, THIRD EDITION— 2009 Download the PDF Here
- [The Value of Voluntary Simplicity](https://duaneelgin.com/the-value-of-voluntary-simplicity/): Download the PDF: The Value of Voluntary Simplicity Originally published in August, 1936 in the Indian Journal Visa-Bharati QuarterlyBy Richard B Gregg Download the PDF Here
- [Choosing Simplicity (from Choosing Earth)](https://duaneelgin.com/choosing-simplicity-from-choosing-earth/): Download the PDF: Choosing Simplicity from the book, Choosing Earth. The magnitude and speed of climate disruption now underway is astonishing and will require dramatic changes in how we live on Earth. For the past few hundred years, consumer-oriented societies have exploited the global resources for the benefit of a fraction of humanity. The goal
- [A New Way of Life (from Promise Ahead)](https://duaneelgin.com/a-new-way-of-life-from-promise-ahead/): Download the PDF: A New Way of Life (from Promise Ahead) A Quiet Revolution The second opportunity trend that can make an enormous contribution to an evolutionary bounce is a voluntary shift toward more sustainable and satisfying ways of living. This is a promising development for, in order to meet the coming evolutionary challenges successfully,
- [Upshifters: Pioneers of an Awakening Culture](https://duaneelgin.com/upshifters/): Moving toward simpler ways of living has sometimes been called “downshifting.” Duane turns this notion on its head and describes a life of voluntary simplicity as one of “upshifting” to a way of life that is more sustainable, satisfying, and soulful.
- [Peril and Promise](https://duaneelgin.com/peril-and-promise/): Duane Elgin helped define the trend toward a life of sustainable prosperity back in 1981 with his first book, Voluntary Simplicity: Toward a Way of Life That Is Outwardly Simple, Inwardly Rich (Morrow).
- [Broadcast Television Laws and Your Rights as Citizens](https://duaneelgin.com/communications-law-rights-of-citizens/): How do Electronic Town Meetings fit into U.S. communications law? Do they represent an inappropriate intrusion of the public into the affairs of broadcast TV stations or do they represent a fully legitimate exercise of the public’s rights and duties in a modern democracy?
- [Becoming a Global Eco-Civilization](https://duaneelgin.com/becoming-a-global-eco-civilization/): This is a paper that I wrote after being invited to China in 2013 to give a presentation on the theme of a “global eco-civilization” at a major, international conference sponsored by China. After the Chinese censors read the paper I was inexplicably dis-invited from the conference—perhaps because of my call for an “Earth-Voice” movement that transcends the gridlock of nation-state bureaucracies.
- [The Limits to Complexity: Are Bureaucracies Becoming Unmanageable?](https://duaneelgin.com/the-limits-to-complexity-are-bureaucracies-becoming-unmanageable/): This article explores how many bureaucracies are pressing against the limits of our ability to manage systems of great size and complexity. Will these super-systems of stupendous size and complexity break down in the future?
- [The Self-Guiding Evolution of Civilizations](https://duaneelgin.com/self-guiding-evolution-of-civilizations/): Because the impact of humanity is now global, that is the scale at which we are challenged to become reflective if we are to be choiceful about our common future.
- [Revitalizing Democracy through Electronic Town Meetings](https://duaneelgin.com/revitalizing-democracy-through-electronic-town-meetings/):  Each generation must renew its contract with democracy in ways that respond to the changing needs of the times. Our world is now changing so fast that democracy is endangered unless citizens are far more involved in setting the direction of public policy.
- [The Garden Of Simplicity](https://duaneelgin.com/garden-of-simplicity/): This short overview of the diverse expressions of “simplicity” has been requested many times. Here is the most recent, open-source version from the new edition of Voluntary Simplicity.
- [Voluntary Simplicity: Cool Lifestyle for a Hot Planet](https://duaneelgin.com/voluntary-simplicity-cool-lifestyle-hot-planet/): This is the first chapter in my completely revised edition of Voluntary Simplicity (published in 2010 by Harper Books). Offers an updated overview of the shift toward more sustainable and compassionate ways of living.
- [The Value Of Voluntary Simplicity](https://duaneelgin.com/value-voluntary-simplicity/): This is the original article on voluntary simplicity that inspired me to write his book by the same name in 1981
- [Voluntary Simplicity](https://duaneelgin.com/voluntary-simplicity-report/): By Duane Elgin -This article is an updated version of that catalytic report and was published in the summer, 1977 issue of the Co-Evolution Quarterly (which, in turn, was published by the Whole Earth Catalog).
- [Let’s Put the Vision in Television](https://duaneelgin.com/lets-put-the-vision-in-television/): An article by Duane Elgin suggesting that virtually all of our problems are, at their core, communication challenges.
- [Collective Consciousness and Cultural Healing](https://duaneelgin.com/collective-consciousness-and-cultural-healing/): A report that explores the scientific foundations, evolutionary implications, and psychological expressions of collective consciousness—from the scale of personal relationships to that of the planet.
- [Global Consciousness Change: Indicators of an Emerging Paradigm](https://duaneelgin.com/global-consciousness-change-emerging-paradigm/): A report that brings together major global and U.S. surveys that reveal a discernible shift in consciousness toward a more reflective, living-systems perspective.
- [Transformational Philanthropy](https://duaneelgin.com/transformational-philanthropy/): This report summarizes two years of inquiry regarding the creative role of philanthropy in responding to our rapidly changing world.

## Pages

- [Home](https://duaneelgin.com/): DUANE ELGIN is an internationally recognized author, speaker, and social visionary who looks beneath the surface turbulence of our times to explore the deeper trends that are transforming our world. He has an MBA in business and an MA in economic history. His books include Choosing Earth, Awakening Earth, Voluntary Simplicity, and The Living Universe. He has worked as a senior social scientist on the staff of the Presidential Commission on the American Future and a senior social scientist at the think-tank SRI International, co-authoring numerous studies of the long-range future for clients such as the President’s Science Advisor; the National Science Foundation; and others. Duane has also co-founded three non-profit organizations working for media accountability and “Electronic Town Meetings.” He received the Peace Prize of Japan the Goi Award, in recognition of his contribution to a global “vision, consciousness, and lifestyle” that fosters a “more sustainable and spiritual culture.” Duane is the Co-director of the Choosing Earth Project.
- [Citizen Voice](https://duaneelgin.com/citizen-voice/): Citizen Voice The following materials provide everything a small, nonpartisan team needs to launch Televised Town Meetings in your metropolitan area — a proven process for giving hundreds of thousands of citizens a collective voice in their common future. Developed over 45 years by Duane Elgin — who co-founded the nonprofit “Bay Voice” in the San
- [Choosing Earth Project](https://duaneelgin.com/choosing-earth-project/): Choosing Earth Project Fostering Vision and Voice for Our Planetary Future The Earth has entered a time of profound and pivotal change. The challenges we face are unprecedented in both their scale and urgency—climate disruption, the unraveling web of life, staggering inequities, mass migrations, and more. Where do we go from here? Fostering our collective
- [Working with Duane](https://duaneelgin.com/working-with-duane/): Working with Duane Speaking • Consulting • Coaching • Interviews I do much of my work in the spirit of a gift economy. For example, a free PDF of Choosing Earth—now in eight languages—is being shared globally. However, to sustain these efforts, I use a sliding scale for speaking, consulting, and coaching. What I Offer
- [Speaking](https://duaneelgin.com/speaking/): Duane Elgin speaks on green lifestyles, new consciousness, world transition, sustainability, alternative futures, science and spirituality, media accountability
- [Home-old](https://duaneelgin.com/home-old/): Videos, books, articles on sustainability, global trends, conscious evolution, media activism and the living universe
- [Videos](https://duaneelgin.com/videos/): Videos with Duane Elgin on value trends, global scenarios, sustainability, green lifestyles, conscious evolution, new paradigm, living universe, media activism.
- [Articles by Duane Elgin](https://duaneelgin.com/article-list/): This section contains articles that range from 1) sustainable living, 2) the big picture of the human journey, 3) media accountability, and 4) a living universe
- [Books](https://duaneelgin.com/books/): Books by Duane Elgin include "Voluntary Simplicity", "The Living Universe," "Promise Ahead," "Awakening Earth," "Changing Images of Man," and "Living Legacies"
- [About](https://duaneelgin.com/about/): A futurist explores value trends, global scenarios, sustainability, green lifestyles, conscious evolution, new paradigm, living universe, and media activism.
- [The Universe as a Living System](https://duaneelgin.com/videos/the-universe-as-a-living-system/): "The Universe as a Living System" by Duane Elgin introduces the idea that science and spirituality both point toward the universe as being uniquely alive
- [Elgin Receives Goi Peace Award](https://duaneelgin.com/videos/elgin-receives-goi-peace-award/)
- [The Human Journey](https://duaneelgin.com/videos/the-human-journey/): "The Human Journey" is a short video by Duane Elgin that explores the idea that humanity is on a heroic journey, moving from separation to initiation to return.
- [Bounce or Crash?](https://duaneelgin.com/videos/bounce-or-crash/): "Bounce or Crash" is a short video by Duane Elgin that explores whether the human family will pull apart in conflict or pull together in cooperation.
- [Is Humanity Growing Up?](https://duaneelgin.com/videos/is-humanity-growing-up/): A short video by Duane Elgin that explores the question of what life stage the human family is in: toddler, teenager, adult, or elder?
- [The Living Universe](https://duaneelgin.com/videos/the-living-universe/): "The Living Universe," a video by Duane Elgin, explores how science and spirituality are converging in their view of the universe as a living system.
- [Three Areas of Oneness](https://duaneelgin.com/videos/three-areas-of-oneness/): "Three Areas of Oneness" is a short video interview with Duane Elgin that describes our oneness with the Earth, the rest of life, and the sacred universe.
- [Awakening Earth](https://duaneelgin.com/books/awakening-earth/): "AWAKENING EARTH" describes the human journey from awakening hunter gatherers to the modern era and then a thousand years or more into the future as culture and consciousness co-evolve.
- [Promise Ahead](https://duaneelgin.com/books/promise-ahead/): "PROMISE AHEAD: A Vision of Hope and Action for Humanity’s Future" is a book that explores the big picture of the human journey and sees a sustainable future.
- [Voluntary Simplicity](https://duaneelgin.com/books/voluntary-simplicity/): "VOLUNTARY SIMPLICITY: Toward a Way of Life that is Outwardly Simple, Inwardly Rich" is not a book about living with less, rather, it is about living with balance
- [The Living Universe](https://duaneelgin.com/books/the-living-universe/): "THE LIVING UNIVERSE" explores the idea emerging from science and spirituality that the universe is uniquely alive. We are learning to live in a living universe.
- [Choosing Earth](https://duaneelgin.com/books/choosing-earth/): Choosing Earth takes us on a journey that extends a half-century into the future to explore our world in a time of unprecedented transition.
- [Contact](https://duaneelgin.com/contact/): How to make contact with Duane Elgin.
- [Privacy Policy](https://duaneelgin.com/privacy-policy/): Who we are Our website address is: https://duaneelgin.com. Consent By accessing this website, you accept our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, and you consent to our collection, storage, use and disclosure of your personal information as described in this Privacy Policy. In addition, by using our Service, or services across partnered and unaffiliated sites,
- [Living Legacies](https://duaneelgin.com/books/living-legacies/): "LIVING LEGACIES" is a book filled with illustrations and short stories to show you how to capture and pass along your unique description of your life stories.
- [Newsletter](https://duaneelgin.com/newsletter/)
- [Media Accountability & Citizen Empowerment](https://duaneelgin.com/links/media-accountability-citizen-empowerment/): Links with media accountability, citizen empowerment, the public's legal ownership and use of the public airwaves
- [Living in a Living Universe](https://duaneelgin.com/the-living-universe/)
- [Media Accountability and Engaged Democracy](https://duaneelgin.com/media-accountability/)
- [Culture and Consciousness](https://duaneelgin.com/culture-and-consciousness/)
- [Sustainability and Simplicity](https://duaneelgin.com/sustainability-and-simplicity/)
- [Sustainability and Simplicity](https://duaneelgin.com/links/sust-simple/): Links to sites on green lifestyles, living simply, voluntary simplicity, sustainable living, lifestyles of health and sustainability
- [Live Video Presentations](https://duaneelgin.com/speaking/live-video-presentations/): Using the power of the Internet, Duane Elgin can bring presentations, conversations, and seminars into your classroom, conference room, or office.
- [Locations](https://duaneelgin.com/locations/): CONTENTS
- [My Bookings](https://duaneelgin.com/my-bookings/): CONTENTS
- [Courses](https://duaneelgin.com/courses/): A series of online courses on topics ranging from our world in transition to sustainable ways of living and visions of a promising future.
- [thank you page](https://duaneelgin.com/store/thank-you-page/): Thank you for your payment. Your transaction is being processed. Your receipt and link for your download will be emailed to you.
- [New Communities](https://duaneelgin.com/links/new-communities/): Links to new communities, eco-villages, co-housing, eco-neighborhoods, cooperatives, transition towns, and other approaches to green living
- [Garden of Simplicity](https://duaneelgin.com/article-list/garden-of-simplicity/): "The Garden of Simplicity" is an article that describes the wide variety of lifestyle expressions that characterize a life of voluntary simplicity.
- [Upshifters](https://duaneelgin.com/article-list/upshifters/): "Upshifters" is an interview with Yes magazine
- [Authors and Teachers](https://duaneelgin.com/links/authors-and-teachers/): Links to respected authors, teachers, speakers
- [Transformational Philanthropy](https://duaneelgin.com/links/transformational-philanthropy/): Links to transformational philanthropy, green giving, and social investing
- [Cosmology & the Universe](https://duaneelgin.com/links/cosmology-the-universe/): Links to a new story of an evolving and growing universe as well as resources in science, cosmology, the hubble telescope, and more.
- [Transforming Culture and Consciousness](https://duaneelgin.com/links/transforming-culture-and-consciousness/): Links concerned with our world in transition and the emergence of a new culture and consciousness for a positive future w consciousness and transforming culture
- [Links](https://duaneelgin.com/links/): Links to various resources: written and video on themes of sustainable futures, new communities, consciousness, living universe, media accountability, cosmology
- [Peril and Promise](https://duaneelgin.com/article-list/peril-and-promise/): "Peril and Promise" is an interview with Duane Elgin conducted by Arnie Cooper and published in The Sun Magazine in 2002
- [The Breaking Point](https://duaneelgin.com/article-list/the-breaking-point/): "The Breaking Point" A wide-ranging interview with Duane Elgin that appeared in What is Enlightenment magazine

## Categories

- [Sustainability and Simplicity](https://duaneelgin.com/category/sustainability/)
- [Culture and Consciousness](https://duaneelgin.com/category/culture-consciousness/)
- [Living Universe](https://duaneelgin.com/category/living-universe/)
- [Media Accountability and Engaged Democracy](https://duaneelgin.com/category/media-accountability/)
- [Simplicity](https://duaneelgin.com/category/simplicity/): Living Lightly
- [Essays](https://duaneelgin.com/category/essays/)
- [Artificial Intelligence](https://duaneelgin.com/category/artificial-intelligence/)