Stephen Dinan: Sacred America

Stephen Dinan: Indeed. One of the things that I really want to make clear is that I see Sacred America as a sort of America 7.0—we’ve gone through different up levels of the operating system, and moving to this Sacred America, or America 7.0, is really about a global operating system. It’s about service to the whole world going to its next level and simultaneously working in a more collaborative fashion with other nations, too.

So, the 6.0 version of America was about becoming a strong nation and protecting our own and our tribe in many ways and often being in a more oppositional stance with the rest of the world. We have our allies, but it’s often been like America first. I think that was a natural developmental stage that we had to go through, but ultimately, if we stay there, we stagnate and become a country that’s self-interested—a kind of self-aggrandizing empire, rather than a true leader and moving to the world that works for all.

So, I think each country has got a sacred mission or destiny, and it’s particularly important I think for America to rediscover and find ours because we have so much power on the global stage, not just politically, but militarily, economically and also culturally. We are so influential at this point that if we don’t mature to the next level, it has huge impacts on the rest of the world.

So, I wrote this book primarily for Americans to see how we can go to the next level; but the same process can essentially be applied to almost any country because I think every country has its unique contribution, its unique culture, it’s unique mission, if you will, to what it can template.

I once gave a talk in Mexico City about Mexico’s sacred contribution to the larger world, and how I saw part of Mexico’s sacred gift is to demonstrate a heart centered culture. They’re a very heart-centered culture, and they have to overcome the wounding around so much drug violence as part of their process of fulfilling their higher mission. In a way, part of America fulfilling its higher mission has to do with facing our own genocide of the Native American people and slavery and the different shadowy things that we’ve done on a cultural level to suppress other countries and economically enslave them. We have to come to terms with the shadow side. That’s the curriculum that helps us grow into greater maturity. And if we’re in denial about that, we simply can’t move forward.

When explorers first came to American shores, there was something on the order of 18 million inhabitants of this land, and it was taken down to around a million within 100 years. And we haven’t really come to terms with that.

And in Syria—we definitely have as a country a good bit of responsibility for the hornet’s nest that’s been created there. So, there’s a way of taking responsibility for helping to clean up some of the damage to the human lives involved.

So, the immigration issue is one where it is calling us to higher ground. And I get the conservative concern about illegal immigration and porous borders because part of protecting the old and protecting what exists is to have clear borders and to have things be legal and above board. And there’s also the alternative perspective that there’s a higher coming together of the Americas that immigration can represent, as well.

Sandie Sedgbear: You say in your book, “Even if we believe that we are the greatest country on earth, we are not nearly so great today as we can become tomorrow.” That is a great rallying cry.

Stephen Dinan: It’s essentially about evolution. We’re always trying to grow to another level as individuals, as companies, as cultures. We’ve done amazing service to the world, and we’ve created real destruction and devastation. There are things that we have done exceptionally well and things that we have botched badly.

And so, we’re learning how do we address this, how do we clean up this mistake, how do we go to the next level? We all want to be greater, and part of being greater isn’t just being egotistical; it’s about being greater in service and greater in creating the world that works for all.

I talk about in the book about switching more of our defense industry dollars into microfinance funds to empower developing world entrepreneurs and show how it can help people create little businesses to get them out of poverty. These little acts of generosity and upliftment do a lot more to weave the world together and actually are cheaper long term than military interventions.

Sandie Sedgbeer: What else can you suggest that helps us evolve our consciousness?

Stephen Dinan: All of the methodologies of personal growth—a meditation practice and yoga are really effective. When it comes to the political sphere, it’s about looking at our own biases and the places where we polarize in our own hearts and to consciously reach across those divides. If we want to solve more of the American/Islamic divide, reach out and make some friends with Islamic people and realize that they share similar passions, or read the Quran or make a micro finance loan to Islamic entrepreneurs.

Every time we have a strong negative reaction to a political leader, or political position, look at it and say what am I rejecting in myself by rejecting this other person? Because, ultimately, they’re just another facet of this whole sacred reality that we’ve been given by the divine, and that’s my belief and my experience: that this whole earth is a learning laboratory and we are here to help, to manifest our full potential as divine beings, and to have compassion for beings that are stuck. Our media and our culture tend to reinforce the momentum towards separation, and so we have to move towards creating oneness with people that are different than we are.

Sandie Sedgbeer: What is The Shift Network doing to help foster large scale changes?

Eddie Stern: One World Yogis

Stephen Dinan: The core of The Shift Network is really about programs that help us awaken to our full potential and express that in different arenas. So, we have courses that are about spiritual growth, personal growth, relationships, how we impact the larger world about enlightened business, peace building, and about women’s work. When you take them as an aggregate, it’s really about shifting to a new paradigm of being, and for me, that’s about living in a sacred way, which is why I call it Sacred America, Sacred World.

We need to come together as one species, one human family that recognizes we are all brothers and sisters. We need to live in reverence for what we’ve been given and live in balance with Mother Nature in a sustainable way. We need to end the war game permanently on this planet, which is absolutely a foundation of the new paradigm.

The feminization of the political process is really central so that we can have our decisions be sourced from the wisdom that comes from the balance of masculine and feminine. The feminization of the political process is really central so that we can have our decisions be sourced from the wisdom that comes from the balance of masculine and feminine.

So, there’s a lot of different dimensions to the larger shift on Planet Earth, and we just try to like bring together all the different pioneers we can.

Sacred America, Sacred World: Fulfilling our Mission in Service, sacredamerica.net. theshiftnetwork.com.

ABOUT SANDIE SEDGBEER: A professional journalist who cut her teeth in the ultra-competitive world of British newspapers and magazines, Sandie has interviewed a wide range of personalities from authors, scientists, celebrities, spiritual teachers, and Politicians. sandiesedgbeer.com