Yesterday I installed the new Google Earth 4 Beta and was astonished about the accuracy of details one can see from the cosmos. You could even see the shadow of the small bushes in our little garden. Soon you even might even see the “Flowers on the Wayside” from space…

Luckily as far as missile targeting is concerned 😉 the name of our village, Muri, was about 1 kilometer in the wrong direction, but this is also already a great increase, since some times ago it was still about 5 kilometers in another direction, where a different village is located.

The Elon University, USA, together with Pew Internet have asked about 742 technology thinkers and analysts to give their opinions about the future of the internet in the year 2020. The site “Imagining the Internet – A History and Forecast” invites people to add their forecasts or to read others’ forecasts. The opinions of the specialists are to be found in a study, which shows the range of hopes and fears about control over technology and being controlled by manipulators, about addiction to virtual realities, where people might lose themselves or about world-wide access to information or about widening gaps and greater social fragmentation and cyber-violence.

There is a sentence in the study of the 20th century visionary and architect R. Buckminster Fuller saying that “We are called to be architects of the future, not its victims.” And Alan Kay commented on this by adding: “The only way you can predict the future is to build it.”

This sentence is very true also from the spiritual standpoint. With every act we shape our destiny – as individuals as well as with society. And this holds true for the internet as well: We decide whether we use it for activities and purposes of good will, constructing better human relations, or by using the interconnection the web offers to expand egotism, despotism and misuse of money, sex and power.

Today I came across a spectacular photo on the ESA-website showing the transit of the International Space Station (ISS) and Space Shuttle Atlantis in front of the Sun on 17 September 2006, taken by amateur photographer Thierry Legault. It is taken from Mamers, in Normandy (FR).

If you click on the picture on the ESA-Website, you can see a larger version of the image.

On 8th of September, professor Shuji Nakamura, the inventor of the blue, geen and white LED (Light emitting diode), got the Millenium Technology Prize 2006, the world’s largest prize for technical inventions (1 million Euros), which have a favourable impact on the quality of life and wellbeing.

Professor Nakamura has invented a new revolutionary light source, of which he says: “Using LEDs for lighting could halve the amount of electricity consumed for this purpose.” This is of particular interest for developing countries. The LEDs can also be used for water processing in the Third World or for purifying the air or proving the presence of biological weapons. White LEDs are also used for handy displays and blue, green and red LEDs in TV-liquid crystal screens. From next year on white LEDs will be used for car headlights and for the lighting of houses. And there are more applications on the way.
The Millenium Technology Prize is awarded every second year by a Finnish foundation for life improving innovations and as a support for humane technological development. The first prize was presented to Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the world wide web, in 2004.

Improving the quality of life through innovative technology is really an expression of good will, for the advancement of humanity.

Tuesday I had the visit of an assistant of the Institute of Religious Studies of the University of Berne, who is working on a handbook of religions and spiritual movements in the Canton Berne. His goal is to give a complete overview of the religious situation existing in the canton, describint the socio-graphic data and the main contents of the groups.

We had an interesting exchange, and he wrote an article about our Circle of Good Will, which he sent me for proof-reading. He said that he came into contact with aout 160 groups and movements. An interesting project showing the multitude of ways in search of the One.

A friend from California sent me the link to a site about the amazing micro-sculptures created by Willard Wigan. He makes the micro-sculptures out of dust particles, sugar crystals etc.

He quotes William Blake’s famous poem:

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower
Hold Infinity in the Palm of your Hand
And Eternity in an Hour.

By the way, Snoopes certifies, that these astonishing artworks are not a fake, but true.

With the astronomical degradation of Pluto to a dwarf planet (see our post), he has also lost his name and is now classified as 134340 Pluto since September 13th. Many researchers are not willing to accept this degradation. In this context it is very typical that the newly discovered dwarf planet who caused the new classification of astronomical objects and thus of Pluto is now called Eris, in Greek the goddess of strife and discord. She is accompanied by a moon now called Dysnomia, meaning lawlessness.
What an upheaval in the heavenly spheres – may it not reflect to much unto us humans 😉 Or is it a sign of our times, which are called in the East the dark age of lawlessness, Kali Yuga, where rightfulness is at its lowest point?

If you would like to see a picture of the Transneptunian planets, please click here (and click on the photo for further enlargement).

We are working in a network of groups of the World Teacher Trust, which is focused on service activities on the background of inner transformation work. Last weekend we were at an exchange meeting of group responsibles in Einsiedeln, Switzerland. 30 persons from Austria, Belgium, Germany, Spain and Switzerland had come together. They are active in different projects. It was a very intense and focused exchange.

Saturday morning was devoted to clarify questions around the Paracelsus – Health and Healing magazine. It is a publication run solely by volunteers working in their freetime – with activities ranging from gathering articles, translations for a 3-language publication, layouting, printing, dispatch, administration to marketing… Many collaborators have developped professional qualities in the work, which often is very demanding.

In the afternoon several gorup service projects in the social field were presented. It was fascinating to see how by intelligent commitment small groups are running substantial social projects such as on migrant integration in Spain, a school in Kinshasa, Congo, a food distribution project in Argentina or a children summer camp in Switzerland.
Sunday morning we engaged in ideas for developing new initiatives. The whole time the focus was very much on practicality and inter-connection. I felt very much inspired when we returned home.

As I entered the train yesterday afternoon after the online marketing forum, the free daily Swiss newspaper “Heute” (Today) was lying on the seat. My first look fell on a headline: “Successful by Self-Marketing” and on the last paragraph: Mahatma Gandhi once said: “Chose your goals great enough, and the circumstances will orient towards your goals.”

The article was about ego-marketing, to be more successful in one’s job, some general recommendations how to be better perceived by your superior – and a series of “self-branding” books decorating the article. I thought by myself that this Great Soul (: lit. for Mahatma) didn’t have ego-marketing in his mind when he uttered the statement.

Yesterday I was at an Online & Dialogue Marketing Forum in Zurich, with about 200 participants mainly from the business world. It was interesting to see the many ways and approaches to turn people into customers: How do I attract people to buy what I want to sell? One speaker, Markus Gabriel, however pointed out that more and more people turn away from being receptible to traditional advertising activities, by zapping away or by using communication channels without ads. And more and more people like expressing their opinion online – in blogs, forums, comments. He said that about 85% of the content on the web is done by private persons in their freetime – besides enormous amounts of trash you find highly qualified contributions, and all done without financial benefit. The whole Wikipedia encyclopedia lives by this free commitment.
People like to express freely and directly, give comments and recommendations – which are often more observed than the official communications of enterprises. There are blogs with high interlinkings and thus are sometimes positioned as high as the enterprise sites, even of big companies.
The voices of private people become more dominant than official channels. On the other hand companies are profiling customers to be able to approach them more directly with what they suppose people want.
Most important however for people is trust in the information, and thus they go by what their friends recommend them. Mouth-to-mouth recommendations are the strongest.
This I also observe in the field of the good-will website: When the monthly newsletter goes out, normally there are several new people asking to be included in the mailing list. This is probably the result of recommendations of the readers. On the other hand it is true that wisdom does not spread by marketing, but by itself. It attracts people who are searching for it, and no marketing activity would ever really incite someone to follow the path of self-transformation, where an enduring effort and commitment is needed.