Library

Introduction
About Indigos and Crystals
Parenting
Education
Personal Growth
Books for Children
Society / World Perspectives

Introduction Here are resources we have found helpful, and which we think will be of interest to useful to people in our elayna community.

Please help us share good resources by sending us additional resources you think belong here. If you have time, please include your review and/or a description of the book, CD, article, link, or whatever other form the information takes.

Important note about some links in this section: Where possible, we have included a link to the details of referenced material (books, CD’s) on Amazon.com. If you click this link and purchase anything on Amazon after entering the Amazon site through that link, elayna.org receives a small commission from Amazon. Our purpose in doing this is not to market certain materials; it is to inform and support. All commissions are applied directly to the cost of maintaining this elayna.org website.
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About Indigos and Crystals
Are They Here to Save the World? (NY Times article)
The Indigo Children (book)
The Crystal Children (book)
Anger and the Indigo Child (book)
Children of Now (book)
How to Raise an Indigo Child (book)
Indigo Rising – Book One (book)
Beyond the Indigo Children (book)
Indigo, Crystal & Rainbow Children (audio CD)
Indigo Celebration (book)
Indigo Adults: Forerunners of the New Civilization (book)
The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Indigo children

Are They Here to Save the World?
By JOHN LELAND
New York Times article, January 12, 2006

The Indigo Children
By Lee Carroll and Jan Tober
This is one of the earlier texts and most widely known books on the Indigo children. It contains channeled information that came through one of the authors, and also includes information gathered through interviews, including an especially informative interview with Nancy Ann Tappe. Tappe is described as the first person to write about the Indigos in her now out-of-print book, Understanding your life thru color: Metaphysical concepts in color and aura, It is an excellent resource. Carroll and Tober also have an excellent website, indigochild.com that contains lots of helpful information and links.
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The Crystal Children
A Guide to the Newest Generation of Psychic and Sensitive Children
By Doreen Virtue, Ph.D.
In this little (literally) book, Doreen Virtue has written a chapter on many of the key characteristics of the children – their eyes, late talking, telepathy, sensitivity, natural-born healers, magical spirituality, connecting to nature, animals and rocks, angels and other invisible friends, etc. A good book for new parents of Crystals.

Virtue is also widely known for her many books and material regarding angels.
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Anger and the Indigo Child
By Dianne Lancaster
This is an excellent book for parents and other educators. The author teaches her excellent principles of Transforming Anger into LoveTM , which she has been teaching to non-Indigos, as well as Indigo children, for years. The parents of one of the first Indigos she worked with came to her saying, “I’m afraid my son is going to be another Columbine headline unless we get some help.” Lancaster teaches practical, step-by-step methods for teaching children how to channel anger safely and productively. Lancaster states (pg xvii), “I am continually inspired by the gifts and potential of those who are often compromised by emotional dysfunction and rage.” Also (pg. 143), Children who suppress anger – or who are given medication that suppresses anger – do not learn to recognize or utilize anger as an indicator of needs.” An excellent book.
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Children of Now
By Meg Blackburn Losey, Msc.D., Ph.D.
This is one of the newer books about these children (2007). Losey goes beyond writing about Indigo and Crystalline children. She also thoroughly describes Star children and Transitional children. She classifies all these new children into the category of the Children of Now. She also shares personal stories of these children. Her chapter on medical issues addresses ADHD. She renames it as Ability to go into Dimensional Hyper Drive, and explains that ADHD can be misdiagnosed because it mirrors the different way that the brains of these children operate: “The Children of Now have brains that work differently. Instead of using linear logic, they think compartmentally. In order to visualize t his, imagine that the brains of these remarkable kids have lots and lots of little drawers in them, and each one of those drawers holds different types of information. The drawers open categorically, often with many opening at once. The result may resemble the symptoms of ADD or ADHD because the child does not seem to stay on any recognizable track, jumping from one thing to another, often at an impressive pace. When they think, the Children of Now are able to leap from one subject to the next, recognizing and storing data for later use or until they have enough information that the totality of it begins to make sense.” ... “The truth is that these children do not need to think about things for long, if at all, because they have already neatly stored the information for future use!” (page 55)
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How to Raise an Indigo Child
10 Keys to Cultivating a Child’s Natural Brilliance
By Barbara Condron
Condron shares in an engaging way what she has learned from parenting her own Indigo child, Hezekiah. She teaches us that for the Indigo, what they are going to be when they grow up is less important than who. She provides a list of essential life skills “that every child wants to learn,” including entrainment, intuition, undivided attention, concentration, memory, listening, imagination, breath and reasoning. She goes more deeply into each one. She says she has written this book, “to share the experiences of teachers of metaphysics for the enrichment of your own experience.”
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Indigo Rising
Awakening the Powers of the Children of the New Earth
BY G. W. Hardin
Harden is a New York Times best selling author. He says his purpose for writing this book is, “To bring forward stories he thought he would never tell.” He feels (from the back cover) “The time has come to give these gifted young people a voice.” Hardin tells the true story of Jeed, an Indigo, and his initiation into manhood. He tells us in the Introduction, “Much has been written already about what an Indigo is and is not, and much more will continue to be written in an effort to define a phenomenon that escapes definition. Indigos will tell you today that they (or anyone) cannot be put into boxes.” I relate to what Hardin says on the back cover: “A great shift has swept across the earth with only the few truly noticing. The blessings of the sons begin the healing of the fathers. A corporate mentality that has kidnapped fatherhood from hearth and home is being replaced by a revolution that cannot be stopped because it cannot be understood in full.”
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Beyond the Indigo Children: The New Children and the Coming of the Fifth World
By P.M.H. Atwater, L.H.D.
This is a complex book. Betty Maxwell, Associate Editor, Advanced Development journal, in her recommendation on the back cover states it well: “Takes the new children – those often termed ‘Indigos’ – and places them in a context whose scope boggles the mind. Weaving together metaphysics, legends, new physics, sociology, child development, gifted education, near death experiences, and transformation, this book explains why such children are making waves on the planet and why this is happening now.” Whew! I refer to this ambitious book often and always learn something new. P.M.H. Atwater is a distinguished researcher of near-death experiences, prayer chaplain, spiritual counselor and visionary. She is the author of eight books, including We Live Forever: The Real Truth About Death, which is also fascinating in that she shares what she saw and learned during her three(!) near death experiences and, subsequently, her hundreds of interviews with adults and children who have had NDE’s. In Beyond the Indigo Children, Atwater explores the relationship of the Indigo children to the Mayan calendar ascension predicted for December 21, 2012, and describes the characteristics of Indigos in relation to the fifth root race and the fifth chakra, which she tells us will be opened for humankind as the new children grow to maturity. It also includes a chapter on new ways to educate the children.
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Indigo, Crystal & Rainbow Children (Audiobook/CD)
By Doreen Virtue, Ph.D.
Virtue is one of the pioneers in writing about these children, and very knowledgeable. This audio CD is informative, and it’s nice to hear her voice instead of just reading about her experiences with these children.
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An Indigo Celebration
By Lee Carroll and Jan Tober
This is a delightful book that was written about two years after the authors published their seminal book on Indigos, The Indigo Children. It is a compilation of information about Indigos that the authors have learned since their first book was published. There are many stories from and about Indigos. As well, it contains another enlightening interview with Nancy Ann Tappe, the author of Understanding your life thru color: Metaphysical concepts in color and aura. Tappe tells us (page 128-129) that the “earlier Indigos” are not Indigos at all, but rather “violet.” She tells us that people who feel they are Indigos “have the same consciousness as the Indigos. ... They will have some of the similar traits, but more important, the Indigos have their traits.” This book will expand your understanding of the Indigos and at the same time entertain you. I found myself smiling many times and even laughing out loud while reading it.
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Indigo Adults: Forerunners of the New Civilization  
Are You a Grown-Up Indigo Soul and Don’t Know it?
By Kabir Jaffe and Ritama Davidson
This excellent book is unique in many ways.  My copy of it is thoroughly highlighted in yellow. The book contains a series of eight lectures by Jaffe in Frankfurt, Germany in 2003, plus some new material.  Most of the chapters include the questions and answers that were discussed at the end of each lecture.

One of the most unique, informative and fascinating parts of this book is the way the authors tie the Indigo phenomenon to the 25,920 year cycle formed by the precession of the equinoxes, the astrological Age we are moving from and into, and how the Indigos fit into this much bigger picture.  They tell us (page 1), “To understand Indigo Souls it is helpful to know a little about astrological cycles – the ‘bigger picture’ of unfolding time....Because of complex celestial mechanics, the spring equinox slowly moves backwards (precession) around the zodiac by one astrological sign every 2160 years.  This 2160-year period we call an Age, i.e., the Age of Pisces, the Age of Aquarius, etc.”  The past 2000 years has been called the Piscean Age.  Each Age carries its own mood (page 2): “It brings to the foreground certain archetypal images, beliefs, and paradigms, and stimulates certain chakras within the human energy field with their corresponding thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.  The energies of an Age are an immensely powerful force shaping our lives in countless ways:  the psychology of the peoples of that Age, the fork of religion and spirituality, the structure of society and the very fabric of civilization.”

The book explains the struggle of Indigo souls in a Piscean Age and much, much more.
The authors tells us (page 3), “At this moment, two 2160-year ages are meeting -- Pisces and Aquarius, which they tell us first began in the 1700s. Further (page 3), “Every Age begins with one or more keynote events which ‘strike the cord’ of the themes and energies for that Age.  The formation of the United States, with its constitutional basis of freedom of speech and religion, and its structure of many individual states joined together in a common union, is one of the powerful symbols for the themes of this coming Age....Aquarius’s keynotes are: freedom, progressiveness, individuality, intellectual understanding, and group consciousness.”  They describe the characteristics of other ages, and, of course, the Piscean Age, which we are still transitioning out of:  sacrifice, suffering, redemption, and transcendence...the heart, connected with love and compassion....The birth of Christianity is the event which ushered in the Piscean Age and has colored the past 2000 years.”

Other important topics are covered well too:  a description of Indigo Souls, their nature and their purpose, the new archetypes and ideals held in their higher levels of consciousness, the new man and the new woman, and the unfoldment of Indigo Souls through the upper chakras.
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The Complete Idiot's Guide to Indigo Children
An enlightened approach to nurturing an Indigo Child
By Wendy Chapman, Dir., MA in Ed. Psy., SRM<T and Carolyn Flynn
This highly readable book is jam packed with helpful information.  The fact that Wendy Chapman is herself an Indigo, and has worked as an elementary school teacher, adds to the reliability of the information, its usefulness and its thoroughness.  The authors include the names of many “famous Indigos we have known.”  These include (page 9) Olympic figure skater Johnny Weir, Olympic speed skater, Apolo Anton Ohno (Elayna note:  Ohno also won ABC-TV’s Dancing with the Stars championship in 2007.)  Others Indigos they identify are: “Emily Dickinson, Jane Austen, Benjamin Franklin, Rosa Parks, Joan of Arc, Maria Montessori, Leonardo DaVinci, Vincent van Gogh, Salvador Dali, Howard Hughes, Henry David Thoreau, Susan B. Anthony (who learned to read and write at age 3), Dr. Seuss, Lewis Carroll, Anne Frank, Bella Abzug, and Mark Twain.”  They tell us that Princess Diana shows up on Indigo lists “because of her high physical sensitivity and humanitarianism.” They also say “The Unibomber, Ted Kaczynsi, shows up on some people’s Indigo lists.”

They state in the Introduction, “Experts estimate that more than 85 percent of the children born since 1982 and 95 percent or more of those born since 1999 are Indigos.”  In the preface to Part I they say the Indigos, “Started arriving in greater numbers in the 1990’s and that 95% of those children being born toward the close of the twentieth century were Indigos.”  Later (page 5), they add a caveat:  “Wendy thinks that this may be too high.  More than likely the percentage is above 50% of elementary school age children.”  They don’t make it clear who the “experts” are who they were referring to in the Introduction, or where the first percentage (95%) came from, and I wonder why they included it since Wendy doesn’t agree with it.  It does show us that there are differing opinions on the number of Indigos.

Parenting
How Much is Enough? (book)
Reviving Ophelia (book)
Beyond Consequences, Logic and Control (book)
Optimal Parenting (book)
Mother Styles (book)
Parenting with Love and Logic (book and DVD’s)

How Much is Enough?
Everything You Need to Know to Steer Clear of Overindulgence and Raise Likeable, Responsible and Respectful Children -- from Toddlers to Teens
By Jean Illsley Clarke, Connie Dawson and David Bredehoft
When I was raising my son, I had a hard time saying no to him when he wanted something. I could not use the reason that I couldn’t afford it, as my parents aptly used. I had no framework for what amount was just right, and what was overindulgence. My sister is a teacher and parent of four children. We both wish we had read this book twenty-five years ago. It is an essential guide for parents and teachers of all children in today’s world of rampant consumerism. You will learn how to raise happy, productive adults in an over indulgent world. You will understand how important it is not to overindulge your child, how to recognize the symptoms of overindulgence, and how to set boundaries and teach your children responsibility, self-esteem and respect. How to say no with conviction and supported by a great mental model.
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Reviving Ophelia
Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls
By Mary Phpher, Pd.D.
This was a New York Times best-selling book in the mid-nineties. The authors say it is, “an eye-opening look at the every day dangers of being young and female, and how adults can help. My sister is a teacher and has raised two daughters to adulthood. She highly recommends it to mothers of teenage girls.
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Beyond Consequences, Logic and Control – Volume I
A love based approach to helping attachment-challenged children with severe behaviors
By Heather T. Forbes, LCSW and B. Bryan Post, LCSW
This book is written for parents of children who have severe attachment disorders or who have suffered traumatic childhood events. However, the techniques in the book are well worth knowing by every parent, as it teaches parents practical ways to respond to a child who is challenging us, and at the same time pushing all our own vulnerability buttons as we try to deal with him. Their list of childhood traumas include auto accidents, childhood illness, adoption, abuse, domestic violence, bullying, depressed parental care, loss of caregiver, frequent moves, and foster care. The authors teach us that there are only two emotions – fear and love. Their techniques are love based. The theoretical underpinnings of these practices are not the focus, but the techniques are effective and that’s what counts.
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Optimal Parenting
By Ba Luvmour
Ba’s deep caring comes through on every page. From the publisher: “Luvmour has created a solid program for raising and teaching children using what he calls the Natural Learning Rhythms™ model. He has great insight into children and years of experience working with them and their parents. He pioneered whole-family experiential learning.” His website is also very informative. Luvmour is a developmental psychologist and recognized internationally as an expert on whole family experiential learning and the development of the child from the perspective of well-being.
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Mother Styles (book))

Parenting with Love and Logic (book and DVD’s
By Foster Cline, M.D., and Jim Fay
I wish I had known about the Love and Logic parenting systems when I was raising my son. They teach children responsibility and they are the parenting manuals we all need to make our lives as parents pleasant and empowering for ourselves and our children.  According to the authors (page 13), “Effective parenting centers around love:  love that is not permissive, love that doesn’t tolerate disrespect, but also love the is powerful enough to allow kids to make miostakes and permit them to live with the consequences of those mistakes.  Most mistakes do have logical consequences.  And those consequences, when accompanied by empathy – our compassionate understanding of the child’s disappointment, frustration, and pain – hit hom with ind-changing power.”    Their parenting styles centers on (page 13) “building self-concept, separating problems, neutralizing anger and arguments, using thinking words and enforceable statements, offering choices, and locking in our empathy before our kids dace the consequences of their mistakes.  These are the building blocks of effective love and logic parenting.”  I think every parent and grandparent will love to read this book.  There are also love and logic books on parenting teens and on grandparenting. 
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Education
Here are resources that pertain to improving educational systems, and which teachers have told me are helpful. Please help us share good resources regarding education by sending elayna your suggestions for inclusion here. Please include your review and/or a description of the resource, if you have the time.
All Kids Are Our Kids (book)
Tomorrow’s Children (book)
Honoring the Light of the Child (book) 

All Kids Are Our Kids (Second Edition)
What Communities Must Do to Raise Caring and Responsible Children and Adolescents
By Peter L. Benson, Ph.D.
This book is an excellent resource for everyone who is interested in educating our children and youth, including policy makers, educators, parents, and society at large since we all rise and fall on the strength of the generation of adults that follows our own, and on the education we have provided for them. 

Dr. Benson is president of Search Institute, an independent, nonprofit organization whose mission is (from the back cover) “to provide leadership, knowledge, and resources to promote healthy children, youth, and communities.  He is widely recognized as one of the leading contributors to the field of child and adolescent development.”

He begins this book by saying of the United States society (page xi), “The measure of a society’s health is how well it takes care of the youngest generation.  By this standard, we fail. When it comes to paying attention to one’s most precious resource, this is a society losing its way.  U.S. rates of just about any indicator of well-being – alcohol, tobacco, too-early sexual activity, too-early pregnancy, violence, school dropout, the percentage of children raised in poverty, achievement test scores – are unsavory, whether you take them in absolute terms or in comparison to other nations.”  He presents the depressing and hopefully motivating results of many studies to back up this statement.

The good news is there too.  Judy Vredenburgh, president and CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, states in her recommendation of the book, “Peter Benson provides a gift: a unifying vision that we can all rally around: parents, neighbors, youth-serving organizations, and ultimately whole communities committed to the healthy development of all our kids.”

Dr. Benson also states, “It’s not that we’re not trying – often heroically.  Dedicated, effective parents, educators, youth workers, social workers, and others are pouring their energy, passion, and time into the lives of children and adolescents.”  He continues, “I saw that we needed to reframe both the targets and the strategies if we as a society were to meet young people’s needs.  We needed a new lens to see both the challenges and the solutions in a new light.  We needed to look beyond programs, beyond the problems, beyond the issues and the challenges of individual youth and groups of youth.... We need to look at the culture that raises them.”

Dr. Benson “began to contemplate an approach to intentional social change aimed at building communities of care, encouragement, compassion, connection, and shared commitment.  Instead of struggling for incremental improvement in programmatic impact, we needed to think boldly and expansively.  We needed a new energy, capacity, and strategies.  We needed committed activists and change agents to join with us in a journey to use what we know about what kids need to succeed, and to work together to bring about the changes in relationships, opportunities, and environments that would transform the cultures in which young people are nurtured.”  Then he presents an impressive, ambitious and complete game plan for accomplishing this.
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Tomorrow’s Children: A Blueprint for Partnership Education in the 21st Century
By Raine Eisler, Ph.D., J.D.
Every teacher I have shown this book to loves it. (Thankfully, it’s very cheap in used book section of Amazon.) Riane Eisler, Ph.D, J.D., is an eminent social scientist, attorney, cultural historian and social activist. Amazon’s editorial describes this book well: “From the three little pigs to Shakespeare's tragedies, the literature children study and absorb throughout their school years smacks of trickery, cruelty, and heroic violence. Similar examples can be drawn from science (ruthless genes "competing on the evolutionary stage") and from religion (man as "a species irretrievably flawed by 'original sin'"). Dr. Riane Eisler offers an alternative course of action for educators worldwide: the partnership model (previously outlined in her 1987 international bestseller, The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future., now in 22 languages). This book is an educational tapestry that focuses on working together, inviting exploration, promoting self-confidence in youth through encouraging their active participation, and fostering creativity rather than squelching it.”

Dr. Eisler has received many honors, including selection as the only woman among twenty great thinkers including Hegel, Adam Smith, Marx, and Toynbee for inclusion in Macrohistory and Macrohistorians in recognition of the lasting importance of her work as a cultural historian and evolutionary theorist.
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Honoring the Light of the Child
by Sonnie McFarland
This book is a must for all parents and teachers.  Sonnie McFarland is a world renowned Montessori teaching expert, and a leader in the field of peace education.  In addition to teaching and leading schools for 35 years, she served 8 years on the American Montessori Society Board, and presents workshops and consults internationally on holistic peace education, including teaching the concepts in this wonderful book.  It is filled with 22 classroom tested activities that parents and teachers can easily do with their children to honor the light of love within children and reflect it back to them. 

As Sonnie says in the Introduction, “All around we see suffering because so many people only know how to act from a paradigm of confrontation, conflict and war.  They are unaware of alternative ways to respond to life. … We must provide all children with the tools to interact from a position of respect, understanding and cooperation in order for a culture of peace to emerge.  The activities in this book directly speak to these principles as they relate to young children.

Some examples of the activities are:  Awareness of the Love Light Through Silence; Making Peaceful Choices; Circles of Self Awareness; Body: Breath Awareness; Mind: The Five Senses as Messengers; and Emotions: Identifying and Expressing Feelings.

I have used some of these activities with adult learners too – slightly modified, of course – and they had the same effect.  If all children learned the concepts in this book, I would not have a thriving business teaching adults conflict and anger management skills, as well as how to have difficult conversations.  This is one part of my work that I’d gladly give up.
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Personal Growth
Here we present resources that we and other people have told us have been especially helpful to their personal growth.  Naturally, the stronger and more evolved we are as people, the better we can be as parents to our children.
Ask and It Is Given
Change Thrivers

Ask and It Is Given
by Esther and Jerry Hicks
I was introduced to the teachings of Abraham, as channeled by Esther Hicks, in the early 1990’s.  Their tapes (now CDs) resonated with me and had a profound influence on my own development and the expansion of my consciousness.  This book explains the key concepts of the way the universe works to meet our needs:  he Laws of Attraction and Allowing, the Science of Deliberate Creation, and the principle of Segment Intending,   In the early 2000’s, I gave a set of these four CDs to several people as Christmas presents.  It was puzzling to me that they chose not listen to them.  Recently, however, people are not only open to hearing about Abraham’s message, bit alsp eager to listen to them.   When the student is ready, the teacher appears. 

Knowledge of Abraham has been more widespread now, especially through the movie, The Secret, (link to Amazon Associate – this DVD) in which Esther Hicks shares Abraham’s perspective relative to that topic.  Now Esther and Jerry have published this book, Ask and It Is Given, subtitled Learning to Manifest Your Desires, and it has become a bestseller.  It’s a wonderful book.  I think the book jacket is a good description:  As you read, you’ll come to understand how your relationships, health issues, finances, career concerns, and more are influenced by the Universal laws that govern your time-space-reality – and you’ll discover powerful processes that will help you go with the positive flow of life.  The first part of the book describes the teachings of Abraham, and the second half contains 22 exercises or processes you can do to raise your vibration, create more positively in your life, release resistance to become free of debt, reclaim your own natural health, and much more.  These teachings and processes are wonderful to teach our children so that they don’t have to, as we adults did, unlearn and reprogram ourselves to manifest our desires and become effective change agents in the world.
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Change Thrivers
by Afsaneh Noori
Afsaneh Noori and I worked together as organizational consultants for many years, and had wonderful experiences of changing ourselves and helping others to change and grow, including very many of the organizational teams of a Fortune 200 company when their goal was to develop themselves into self-directed work teams.  Afsaneh has been through tremendous change in her life.  This includes escaping from Iran with her family when she was 21 years old – leaving everything behind – and I mean everything.  After struggling mightily in many ways and on many fronts – personal, work, relationships, self-identity -- she has emerged as a very effective, empahtetic teacher.  She documents her journey in this book, which is also a wonderful workbook for learning to not only deal with change as it occurs in our lives, but also to welcome it.  She gives us many effective tools and exercises to develop our change management skills.  Afsaneh also shares her journey with her therapist and quotes from her own journals.  Because of this, when you come to the end of the book, you will know Afsaneh so well that she will feel like a great friend to you -- someone with whom you have shared a journey and with whom you want to stay in touch.  That, in addition, to feeling that you can handle any change that comes along with aplomb.  (Afsaneh is also available for speaking and coaching engagements. She is an excellent speaker and has been featured in Fran Powers’ book, Power Stories, and theatrical performances, Power Stories – Everyday Women Creating Extraordinary Lives.)
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Books for Children

Society/World Perspectives
In Indigo Adults, Kabir Jaffe and Ritama Davidson say (page 54), “One of the most important forces inside of Indigo Souls is their sense of calling or purpose.  It can be felt in many ways:  you may have a sense that you are here for a reason, or that you have something to do, or that you have something to unfold in yourself, or that you have something to contribute to the world...there is a fundamental desire to make a positive contribution.  That feeling becomes more and more powerful over time.”  They continue, “That sense of making the world better is core to your purpose and your calling....perhaps your sense of purpose takes a more powerful form:  you desire to work in a profession that helps people, or to work with the environment, or a charity, or research for the greater good.”   In the Preface (page xiii), the authors state, “They [Indigos] carry aspirations and visions which make them long for something more, and be dissatisfied with the world as it is. They often feel limited and frustrated by what is considered the ‘normal world’ around’.”

Here are resources that pertain to societal issues and world perspectives. Please help us to share good resources by sending elayna your suggestions for inclusion here. If you have time, please include a review of the resource and/or a description.
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The World is Flat, Thomas Friedman
The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics, Raine Eisler, Ph.D., J.D.
The Secret History of the American Empire, John Perkins
When Corporations Rule the World, David C. Korten
The Post-Corporate World, David C. Korten
Yes! Magazine and The Positive Futures Network
The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot (book)
Naomi Wolf – Speech on her book, The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot  - speech at the University of Washington (You Tube Video – 47 minutes)
AVAAZ – The World in Action (website)
Poverty.com

The World is Flat
By Thomas Friedman
Friedman is a long time New York Times Foreign Affairs columnist, and this book is an easy, enjoyable, highly instructive compilation and synthesis of the forces that shaped our world over the last decade. I lived out of the U.S. from 1997-2002 in a country that did not have TV or newspapers in a language that I could understand. So, reading this book when I returned to the U.S. was a delightful way for me to catch up with what had occurred, especially technologically, and to understand the big picture of all the changes that had occurred during that time on many fronts – globalization, technology, business outsourcing and offshoring, politics, economics, environmental issues, national identity, healthcare, etc.
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The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics
By Raine Eisler, Ph.D., J.D.
This book has been hailed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu as “a template for the better world we have been so urgently seeking.” Riane Eisler, Ph.D, J.D., is an eminent social scientist, attorney, cultural historian and social activist. Eisler proposes a new approach to economics that gives visibility and value to the most essential human work: the work of caring for people and the planet.

Quote from page 148: “Neither capitalist nor socialist theory recognized what is becoming evident as we move into the postindustrial information economy: that a healthy economy and society require an economic system that supports optimal human development.”
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The Secret History of the American Empire
Economic Hit Men, Jackals, and the Truth about Global Corruption
By John Perkins
John Perkins is an interesting man. In addition to this book, John is the author of the New York Times best-selling book, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, and also the author of Shapeshifting: Techniques for Global and Personal Transformation, in which he teaches readers about the different types of shape shifting, techniques for accomplishing each, and theories regarding how those changes happen. John is a marvelous storyteller, which make learning about all this corruption easy to read. He instructs, informs and also includes recommendations for solutions to the problems he addresses.

In The Secret History, John again uses his own experiences and life stories to reveal the behind-the-scenes events that have shaped our world. Howard Zinn, author of A People’s History of the United States: From 1492 to the Present, describes the book as, “A sweeping, bold assault on the tyranny of corporate globalization, full of drama and adventure, with devastating stories of greed run wild.”

Perkins’ true tales create lessons that motivate us to take action. He concludes hopefully with ways to take our power back from the corporations. On page 323-325, John presents a “to do” list of actions that we as individuals can take to head us toward a survivable future. The list includes: “When temped to engage in “retail therapy,” instead jog, meditate, read, or find some other solution.” Also, “Make everything you own last as long as possible.” And, “Protest against ‘free’ trade agreements and sweatshops.” One more example: “Insist that those who use your money – banks, pensions, mutual funds, companies – make socially and environmentally responsible investments.” Okay, one more: “Drink tap water (get the water company to do a better job if necessary, but avoid buying bottled water.)”
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When Corporations Rule the World
By David C. Korten
I got more and more excited as I was reading this book because Korten was expressing thoughts that had resided at the edges of my consciousness for many, many years. I recall thirty years ago wondering at a young age, what’s the difference between corporations and the U.S. government? I brushed off this question of mine, thinking that I would understand as I got older. I still didn’t understand the difference until I read Korten’s book. Korten is an economist and his thesis is: Our relentless pursuit of economic growth is accelerating the breakdown of the planet’s life support systems, intensifying resource competition, widening the gap between rich and poor, and undermining the values and relationships of family and community. The growing concentration of power in global corporations and financial institutions is stripping governments – democratic and otherwise – of their ability to set economic, social and environmental priorities in the larger common interest. This reminded me of George H. W. Bush’s statement that was something like (the actual speech is shown in Al Gore’s movie, An Inconvenient Truth), “If we listen to the ecologists (people who want us to address global warming), we will be overwhelmed with owls and have no jobs.” Korten also provides solutions, thankfully. Everyone should read this book. It’s a real wake up call, and more than that, it’s a movement. http://www.yesmagazine.org/default.asp

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The Post-want World
By David C. Korten
This book follows on Korten’s first book on this topic, When Corporations Rule the World. Here Korten presents more solutions to the global problem of corporations taking the place of governments. Well written, insightful and thought provoking – with recommended solutions! Korten provides a good comparison of Capitalism to Healthy Markets on page 41. Here are some examples of the contrasts:
Dominant attractor: Money vs. Life
Defining purpose: Use money to make money for those who have money vs. Employ available resources to meet the basic needs of everyone.
The role of profit: An end to be maximized vs. An incentive to invest productively.
Purpose of competition: Eliminate the unfit vs. Stimulate efficiency and innovation
Government role: Protect the interest of property vs. Advance the human interest.

If you more on this topic, you can subscribe to the quarterly magazine of the Positive Futures Network, YES! at http://www.yesmagazine.org/default.asp.

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Yes! Magazine and The Positive Futures Network
Yes! Is the magazine of the Positive Futures Network, which is (from their website): “An independent, nonprofit organization supporting people’s active engagement in creating a just, sustainable, and compassionate world. ... We start with the belief that we need deep change if we are to avoid the breakdown of society and the natural world. Our hope lies in the fact that millions of people around the world are creating the needed changes in their homes, communities, work places, and nations. Powerful innovations are taking hold within agriculture, businesses, criminal justice, schools--virtually every sector of society. The work of the Positive Futures Network is to give visibility and momentum to these signs of an emerging society in which life, not money, is what counts; in which everyone matters; and in which vibrant, inclusive communities offer prosperity, security, and meaningful ways of life."
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The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot (book)
By Naomi Wolf
Naomi Wolf is a writer/journalist.  She presents “the blueprint” that every dictatorship (Lenin, Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Pinochet...) has used to destroy an open society (democracy) and install a dictatorship. She clearly explains how the US has gone through almost all the steps during George W. Bush’s administration.  But she tells us it's not too late to restore the Constitution and save the U.S. Democracy.

Wolf’s book is disturbing, very informative, intriguing, well researched and readable.  It should be required reading by all people in a democracy, especially Americans, who have reaped the benefits of the courage of our founding fathers and mothers for over two hundred years, and who seem to have become complacent citizens who feel they have no voice, and for whom this has become a self-fulfilling prophecy.  Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights, reviews the book thus on Amazon.com: “You will be shocked and disturbed by this book.  Most Americans reject outright any comparison of post 9/11 America with the fascism and totalitarianism of Nazi Germany or Pinochet’s Chile. Sadly, the parallels and similarities, what Wolf calls the ‘echoes’ between those societies and America today, are all too compelling.”
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Naomi Wolf – Speech on her book, The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot.  Spoken at University of Washington (You Tube Video – 47 minutes)
By Naomi Wolf
If you do not have time to read Wolf’s book, you can view a free 47-minute video of Ms. Wolf’s speech on the same topic on You Tube given at the University of Washington.

In the speech, Wolf describes eight of the ten steps of the blueprint used to destroy an open society (democracy) and install a dictatorship:
Step 1. Invoke a terrible internal or external threat –often hyped with fake documents.
Step 2. Create a secret prison system where torture takes place that is outside the rule of law. (Also very often establish military tribunals that strip prisoners of due process.)
Step 3. Create a paramilitary force for emergencies and declare Marshall Law.  (Blackwater was deployed in New Orleans after Katrina.)
Step 4. Create a surveillance apparatus over ordinary citizens.
Step 5. Arbitrarily detain and release citizens. Infiltrate citizens groups.
Step 6. Restrict the Press.
Step 7. Recast Criticism as Espionage and Dissent as Treason.
Step 8. Declare Marshall Law. (Naomi tells us the months before an election are a very unstable time, and to expect hyped threats during major election times.)

Wolf also reminds us that closed societies and dictatorships have a lot of the trappings of a civil society. For example, they still hold elections – but they are corrupted.

Wolf has also co-founded a grass roots movement, the American Freedom Campaign, which is now 20 million strong and growing. They have the backing of a great many people in the U.S. Congress who want to restore the U.S. Constitution.  They have asked all the 2008 U.S. presidential candidates to sign a pledge that they will reinstate the Constitution and the Rule of Law. All the Democrats have signed.  The only Republican candidate to sign is Ron Paul.  You can see the current list of signers by going to American Freedom Campaign.
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AVAAZ – The World in Action
Avaaz.org is a community of global citizens who take action on the major issues facing the world today. The aim of Avaaz.org (Avaaz means "voice" in many languages) is to ensure that the views and values of the world’s people shape global decisions. Avaaz.org members act for a more just and peaceful world and a globalisation with a human face.  Avaaz receives no money from governments or corporations, and is staffed by a global team based in London, New York, Paris, Washington DC, Geneva, and Rio de Janeiro.
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Poverty.com
This site was created for all people around the world who want to end poverty, which causes death from hunger, AIDS, Pneumonia, Diarrhea, Tuberculosis, Malaria and Measles.  The site was started in January 2007 by a private individual (John Breen) and has no political, religious or corporate affiliation.  The site states that “just by visiting this site, you have already played a key role in helping to end poverty.  Many extraordinary things in human history have been achieved simply because enough people become knowledgeable about them.”  The site contains an exhaustive list of global sources of information and resources on poverty and what we can do to alleviate it.  Examples include:  UNICEF, the United Nations and the United Nations World Food Program/WPF, Peace Corps, Project HOPE, the Rehydration Project, and the Global Call for Action Against Poverty, and many more.  They also invite you to visit their sister site, FreeRice.com