In this remarkable essay, Charles Eisenstein tells stories of people who have the gift of seeing a possible future and creating it with their words and intentions. He focuses on Elon Musk as an example, but also Nelson Mandela and Mohandes Gandhi.
“Two things are required to wield the power of prophetic speech. First, one must actually see a real vision in order to speak it into existence. The prophet cannot create on whim or fancy. Human beings are the receivers and not the creators of true visions. The vision must be true, and one must actually see it; otherwise, no one will believe you when you say, “Here is what shall be.” No matter how hard you persuade people of its necessity and feasibility, and even if they verbally assent to it, still they will not play the roles necessary for its manifestation.
“Put a different way, the world was already pregnant with the possibilities that Musk, Namadamu, Mandela, Marcos, and the rest declared into actuality. Please understand that I am not putting these individuals into the same moral category. Yet they have something in common: the power of word, which can be the instrument of any potentiality, good or ill.
“The second requirement is the bow into service. The vision granted to the prophet has chosen the prophet as its instrument. She must then agree to be that instrument, for which some kind of sacrifice will be required, a letting-go, a dedication to this, and therefore not to that. To serve one future and not another entails the loss of what might have been and who I might have been. Something will be lost and something will be gained. It is inescapable.
“For me a third thing is required as well: community. When I behold a radiant vision and then turn my eyes back to the world as it is, I may come to doubt whether what I saw was real. I need others to confirm it. “Yes, what you saw is real, I have seen it too.” Many who are reading this have played that role for me in times of doubt. Sometimes they do it through words. More powerfully, they do it through the example of devotion. Because, their devotion would waver if they didn’t know that what they served were possible. When I witness kindness, generosity, healing, forgiveness, or courage, I know I’m not crazy. Such acts are the vision showing itself to me anew.
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“Another future beckons, and in the spirit of invitation I will speak it more directly and less abashedly in coming months and years. It is quite different from the vision of technological utopia, although perhaps in some mysterious way convergent with it, as it bears the similarity of denser and denser interconnection. Because I know many others have seen it too, I also know that many will hark to and amplify the invitation. This is not a single person’s vision; it is a vast potentiality that speaks with a million visionary voices. Again, visions are not created, they are not owned, they are not even found; they are beings in their own right that reveal themselves to those who seek them. A More Beautiful World is seeking us. It finds us through our seeking of it. I will share what I have been shown, so as to kindle the fire of recognition in those who have seen it too, who have also walked the path of half-belief, doubt, and healing.”
Read the whole essay by Charles Eisenstein
