NEED OF THE HOUR

TRANSITION NOW!
RADHAMADHAV DAS, PHD

Sublime Union, 2015.

First edition, January 2015.
Cover art: Joy Datta

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Introduction
Need of the Hour is about getting our present priorities right.
Unless we anticipate the various world crises and achieve a
wide and fast transition to a sustainable way of life, millions of
people could lose their lives during massive infrastructure
collapses. This threat is a great chance to create the impetus
for the much needed green transition. There are many
solutions for the green transition, but people dont realize
them because they have not realized its urgency. Therefore,
this booklet focuses on creating the awareness of the urgency
of a wide and fast green transition and only points to solutions.
There already are many books and videos that describe
solutions in detail.
Humanity is now at a crucial turning point. At least for a
while, we need to set aside our personal priorities and
recognize the pressing global need of the hour. Lets not be
disheartened if countless people prefer to sleep in a burning
house, even if they belong to our family, friends, science
community or spiritual tradition. It is the responsibility of those
who are awake to make a difference.
The way to the source leads against the current. To swim
against the mainstream current means first of all to sort out
relevant information. We hear about the increasing ecological
threats of environmental pollution, deforestation, species
extinction, top-soil erosion, desertification, water depletion
and climate change related disasters like floods, droughts and
hurricanes. However, the leaders and mainstream media hardly
pay any attention to the most imminent threat to humanity at
present: Massive global famines, epidemics and wars caused by
a collapse of most human infrastructures due to an
unsustainable economy. This threat will be explained in the
first chapter.

In 1992, 1,700 of the world's leading scientists, including

the majority of all living Nobel laureates, published the
following World Scientists' Warning to Humanity (emphasis
added):
Human beings and the natural world are on a collision course.
Human activities inflict harsh and often irreversible damage on the
environment and on critical resources. If not checked, many of our
current practices put at serious risk the future that we wish for
human society and the plant and animal kingdoms, and may so alter
the living world that it will be unable to sustain life in the manner
that we know. () No more than one or a few decades remain before
the chance to avert the threats we now confront will be lost and the
prospects for humanity immeasurably diminished. () We the
undersigned, senior members of the world's scientific community,
hereby warn all humanity of what lies ahead. A great change in our
stewardship of the earth and the life on it is required, if vast human
misery is to be avoided and our global home on this planet is not to
be irretrievably mutilated. () A new ethic is required a new
attitude towards discharging our responsibility for caring for
ourselves and for the earth. () This ethic must motivate a great
movement, convincing reluctant leaders and reluctant governments
and reluctant peoples themselves to effect the needed changes.

Today, over twenty years later, this alarming warning

seems to have been ignored by most folks and leaders. The
crisis has worsened our collision speed has increased. We
were not able to find the new ethic thats required to make a
transition to a sustainable way of life. Need of the Hour is
offering such a new ethic. Ultimately, the E-crises, namely the
energy crisis, the economy crisis, the ecology crisis and the
equity crisis, are all caused by the attitude of exploitation,
which roots in a wrong understanding of human nature. This
root crisis is the human identity crisis the I-crisis. The I-crisis
and its solution shall be addressed in the final chapter.

1. The Energy Crisis

The energy crisis is the most imminent threat to humanity at
present and should thus be given prime priority. It is very
staggering that most people fail to do just that. The energy
crisis is brought about by an unsustainable economy system a
system that cannot be maintained in the future. The present
global economy runs according to the model of infinite growth.
In order to sustain this economy, there needs to be a constant
growth in profit, which means a constant growth in energy,
production and resources. You dont have to be a genius to
understand that this model is illusory. The Earths energy
resources, her raw materials and her capacity to host industries
and purify their wastes are limited. Therefore, the growth of
any industry is also limited. Its just a question of time until the
resources and hosting capacities are exhausted.
The production of many essential natural resources has
already peaked and we have gone far beyond natures hosting
capacities, which is evident in increasing ecological disasters.
The UN estimates that by the middle of this century, there may
be 150 million environmental refugees. Confronted with these
facts, more and more people admit the fallacy of infinite
growth and consumption. But how much do we actually change
our lifestyles to make a timely transition to a sustainable
economy? Not enough and thats quite understandable. Who
will agree with measurements like cutting down air and car
travel to half and consuming much less? Humanity as a
collective will unlikely become wise voluntarily. Therefore,
before nature is going to be out of balance beyond repair, the
only hope would be a drastic event that will force our economy
of greed to a halt. And exactly such an event is now knocking
on our door.

Its the end of cheap oil. Cheap oil is the black blood that
flows in the veins of the giant monster of our destructive
economy. What will happen without cheap oil? Unless we
timely transition to a sustainable economy, our oil-dependent
economy will collapse. Do the math, its not hard. We have just
peaked in global oil production in 2005 and are now on the
peak plateau. Many leading oil industrialists agree with David
Demshur, the CEO of Core Laboratories and former President
of Standard Oil, who said that we are at the plateau in what
the globe is going to produce annually and that oil production
will start declining increasingly faster in 2016 (17th Oil & Gas
Conference, Denver, 2012). Its crucial to be well informed
about the upcoming oil crisis. Please click on the links below
and watch these three documentaries. You can also search for
them on YouTube.
A Crude Awakening - The Oil crash. Lava productions, Switzerland, 2006.
Many experts, most of them doctorates, shine light on the peak oil crisis.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qGM9ypR-UI
Collapse - the Greatest Preventable Holocaust. Michael Ruppert.USA, 2009.
The most outspoken presentation of the possible consequences of peak oil.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7WLCEUi7vk
The End of Cheap Oil. National Geographic.
This documentary includes a presentation of organic farming as a solution.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsV_3yBDXXI

Once the oil supply drops rapidly, oil prices will shoot up
over four-hundred percent. Many experts of the oil industry
are expecting that this will happen within the next five years.
This gives us very little time to bring about the green transition.
It is the eleventh hour. What are we to expect if we fail to
transition in time?

With the exception of a few organic farmers, farming will

come to a standstill because the farmers will not be able to pay
petrol, fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides (all oil products).
When global food reserves (estimated to last for only 70 days)
will be depleted, hunger will spread. Hardly any truck or car will
move. You may be rich and have some petrol, but by now
people are starving, and they are looting for food and petrol.
Who will protect you, when even the military and police forces
will plunder? Power and money lose their influence when
people get hungry. Once all animals and all plants including
seeds are eaten up, what will we plant and what will we breed?
Are we aware that if we dont transition we will be facing
horrible scenes like those of the Bengal famine during which
people ate all rats and snakes of the country before they died
of hunger? Who will maintain infrastructures like streets,
communication, law-enforcement, canalization, hospitals and
fire brigade? When these structures collapse, we are talking
about famine, civil unrest, plagues and uncontrollable fires. In
the above referred documentary film Collapse, Michael
Ruppert calls it the greatest preventable holocaust. Thats
not a nice picture. And its not some kind of doomsday hype
but cool-headed logical combination of known facts. The
collapse equation is very simple:
Unsustainable economy
+ Absence of a wide and timely transition
= Collapse
Fatih Birol, the Chief Economist of the International Energy
Agency, summarized: We must leave oil before it leaves us.

Energy Crisis FAQs:

1) Arent there still a lot of oil reserves?
Yes, but not cheap oil. Expensive oil will lead to collapse. The oil
that can be easily produced is depleting now. We must also
consider the open secret that many oil producers lie about
having large reserves so that people keep on investing and
buying. An obvious proof that we are running out of cheap oil is
that everywhere, even in Saudi Arabia, they are now increasing
off-shore drilling (and tar-sand extraction) which is much more
expensive. Nobody would do that if cheaper oil was available.
2) What if the infrastructure collapse doesnt happen within
five years?
Its not that it will anyway happen it will happen if we dont
transition to oil-independency. If we dont transition, then it
will happen soon because we have peaked in oil production
and its just a question of time until production drops faster.
Even if the collapse is bound to happen only in ten or twenty
years, it still gives us very little time. Thus in all cases we should
strive for a wide and fast green transition.
3) If peak oil was in 2005, why have the oil prices fallen from
$100 to $50/barrel from July to December 2014?
Because the OPEC and other bodies that decide the oil price
standards fabricated these prices for strategic reasons such as
weakening certain countries and strengthening others. It has
nothing to do with increased fracking and tar sand extraction.
The changes of oil price do not directly represent production.
There is a lot of room for stretching prices because the price is
always much higher than the minimum profitability.
4

4) Cant tar sand extraction and fracking save the situation?

They may prolong the collapse by a few years but they will also
be exhausted. And they are disputed due to causing massive
fresh water losses, nature destruction and pollution.
5) What about renewable energies like solar, wind, tidal and
thermal?
If scaled up massively, renewables could cover 50-100 percent
of future energy demands. But if not scaled up in time, they
could only prevent collapse if our economy becomes less
energy-demanding. And its questionable if renewables can be
maintained because they still depend on the oil industry and
petro-chemicals.
6) What about biofuel?
Present technology still uses too much agricultural land. Every
acre of land sacrificed for biofuel is one lost for food
production.
7) What about human ingenuity, the ability to meet challenges
with new inventions?
We can always hope for an invention a tech fix. There is
nothing wrong with that, just as there is nothing wrong with
people hoping for Gods intervention. But it would be
irresponsible to rely solely on a wonder, be it technical or
divine. Trust in Allah but feed your camels first. Collapse will
be nothing short of a desert. We better start feeding our
camels and get the transition off the ground.

One of the most upsetting aspects of the energy crisis is

that even those sincere people who are trying to live in a
sustainable way, for example in eco-villages, will not be spared
of the destructive looting during the infrastructure collapse.
We must face the reality that our green projects can neither be
called sustainable, resilient or holistic if they are not
sustainably integrated into the greater whole, particularly if
they lack a master plan for resilience in regards to large system
collapses. It is of utmost importance that leaders, educators
and activists recognize this imminent danger and work unitedly
towards the only way to avoid all the mentioned disasters:

A wide & fast transition to a fully sustainable economy.

Its a huge challenge, but it is the only realistic chance we have.
Lets be positive and join forces to make it happen.

2. The Economy Crisis

The word economy also means the sparing use of resources.
Ironically, the modern economy is depleting our natural
resources very uneconomically for short-sighted profits. A true
economy should be evaluated in relation to its sustainability
but modern economy is measured only by monetary profit.
Since the modern monetary system is uneconomical, it digs its
own grave. Money only carries value as long as the natural
resources and services it represents are readily available. When
the natural resources tumble, money will tumble. After all, you
cant eat money, and who will care for money once its value
will be less than the paper it is printed on? Other factors of the
coming economy crisis are production of money that isnt
backed by tangible assets, speculation at stock markets,
massive debts that cannot be repaid and insurances that are
unable to cover their policies.
In 2014, the sixteen main US intelligence agencies
including the Army, FBI and CIA have issued an alarming report
that predicts the fall of the dollar as the global reserve
currency and a worldwide economic breakdown and
collapse (see third of below listed videos). Peoples ignorance
of the corrupted money system is tremendous. As Henry Ford
put it: It is well enough that people of the nation do not
understand our banking and money system, for if they did, I
believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow
morning.
Please watch:
The Making of Money: www.youtube.com/watch?v=x67DxMeGOrc
The American Dream: www.youtube.com/watch?v=j69Ap4lndl0
The Death of Money: www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQBia1Mw9Vw

3. Who is to be Blamed?
Who is to be blamed that practically nowhere in the world the
leaders have a master plan for a timely & complete green
transition? Why is it not the first priority on their agenda? Why
are they catering to everything else except to the most pressing
need of the hour? We could continue like this, but blaming has
never solved any problem. Its easy to blame politicians,
leaders and corporate firms. But ultimately, they can only
manipulate the people
if there is, to some
extent,
a
mutual
agreement. Especially
in regards to the
energy crisis, many
people actually want
to be told comforting
lies. Who wants to be
told the unpleasant
truth that we have to
power down and
reduce consumption,
and who wants to actually do that? Leave aside the masses which eco-friendly people want to be told that even their selfsufficient eco-villages will be destroyed (by collapse-caused
looting) if we dont achieve a widespread and timely transition?
In the political system of democracy, usually the leaders will
only be elected if they conform to the opinions and
expectations of the people, no matter how illusory they may
be. Therefore, it is important to educate people and create an
awareness that will give enough momentum to support leaders
who push for transitioning to a sufficiently resilient economy.

4. A Wide & Fast Green Transition

Lets now look at the external solutions for a green transition.
The internal solution is the topic of the concluding chapter.
Macro-solutions (big scale): Solutions for the industry, town,
nation and globe, for example a transition plan into oilindependency for an entire state.
Micro-solutions (small scale): Solutions for individuals and
small communities, for example buying from local organic
farmers and reducing energy consumption.
The Transition Network is a good example of a transition
solution (www.transitionnetwork.org). There is also a great
need to make people aware that if we want to avoid massive
system collapses, the transition must happen on a wide scale
(macro-level) and very fast. We are starting the Sublime Union,
a non-profit organization to raise this awareness and work
towards sustainable solutions called Sublime Life Systems.
Please keep on checking www.sublimeunion.org for more
thats yet to be uploaded. The Sublime Union also addresses
the identity crisis.
Some organizations make it look like micro-solutions are
sufficient, but this is misleading because it can distract from
making serious efforts for macro-solutions. One of the central
efforts of the Sublime Union is to raise the awareness that
without macro-solutions, even the most sincere microsolutions are still like building castles in the sand that will
tumble in the tsunami of infrastructure collapse. For example, a
micro-level family solution is to increase energy independence
by installing solar panels on the roof. However, this is only
sustainable if we simultaneously work for a macro-solution that
makes sure that the entire solar industry transitions into oil9

independency, otherwise we will not be able to maintain,

replace or add solar panels in the future. The high
interdependency of modern human infrastructures makes
them very vulnerable for times of crises and this is why some
experts question if they can be maintained at all during the
transition. One thing is clear if we dont strive for macrosolutions, there is little hope. Therefore, it is essential to
understand that a most important micro-solution is to form
joint ventures that push for macro-solutions.
Some macro-solutions are as follows:
The remaining oil and other limited resources are to be
reserved for critical emergency systems. We must scale up
systems of harvesting sustainable and clean energy like solar,
wind, thermal and tidal. The German Energiewende (energy
transition) is a step into this direction. Again, we should
remember that the industries of products like solar panels and
wind turbines still rely on petrol and petro-chemicals. The
entire industries have to transition to oil-independency. Human
energy consumption has to be radically reduced and our
lifestyles have to change to simple living, high thinking.
Farming needs to immediately transition to locally selfsustaining organic farming. Organic farming doesnt use
industrial chemicals and is thus not oil-dependent. To minimize
the large collapse-prone urban food supply chains, many of the
available spaces in the cities like parks, flat roofs and balconies
have to be converted into organic food gardens. If that cannot
cover the local food demand, streets can be covered with green
roofs. A green transition will not only save us from famines
during the transition to the post-petrol era, but also give us
healthy, chemical-free food and save endangered species like
the indispensable bees from extinction. Scientific research has
found that especially in the developing countries, organic
farming methods can yield up to 180 percent of conventional
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farming yields. With less machines and a great demand of

labor, there will be enough jobs for all. Many of us will enjoy
the privilege of gardening in the backyard and some will plow
the fields with oxen. This will repair our broken relationship
with Mother Earth and offer us natural and free physical
fitness. Farming is charming.
Companies can greatly increase the efficiency of energy
and resource usage. This can be done without incentives
because it yields profit in itself. Transportation systems like cars
and trucks need to become more efficient by usage of light
materials like carbon fiber and they should be powered by
renewable energy. Our economy has to be true to its name and
be evaluated in regard to economical and sustainable
management of natural resources, services and contribution to
education, health, culture and social life. We must return to a
currency thats backed with real assets like gold. The economy
system should maximize direct exchange of locally produced
goods and services with less intermediate profiteers and
minimize import from distant places. Societies must transition
to a collaboration of self-sufficient villages and towns. A
centralized government will be valuable only if it organizes
local self-sufficiency, local administration and the defense of
countries. It is harmful if it continues dependence on oil-driven
far-off industries and centralized administration. If
governments dont release some of their control, they will lose
it all when the systems collapse and people will suddenly be
forced to form small communities without preparation.
Macro-solutions are not unrealistic some are already
being implemented. Bhutan is an entire country dedicated to a
transition to 100% organic farming. After a collapse of food and
fuel supplies in 1989, the Cubans replaced up to 80% of
industrial farming with community-based and bull-powered
organic farming. Today, 90% of Havanas fresh produce comes
from local urban organic farms and gardens.
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1. Vegetables and fruit plantation in the middle of the Cuban city Havana.
2. A community-owned PV array on a noise barrier in Freiburg, Germany.

In 2011, the Danish government mandated to achieve

independence from coal, oil and gas by 2050. In 2014, the Thai
government decided to greatly scale up organic agriculture.
The whole world is watching Germanys Energiewende (energy
transition) to independence from non-renewable energy
sources like coal, oil and nuclear power. On a sunny day in
2012, the Germans broke the world record when they were
able to cover half of their countrys energy demand from solar
power. In 2012, the Energiewende offset an estimated 146
million tons of CO2-equivalent emissions (the targeted
greenhouse gas reduction is 8095% by 2050). It has helped to
bring down the cost of solar to less than half and created
380000 new jobs, while the GDP rose steadily. In the USA,
many companies are saving more than fifty percent of energy
demand and billions of dollars by switching to more efficient
infrastructure and technology. There are many such
encouraging transitions, but no state or country has yet
achieved a green transition with sufficient resilience, especially
in regard to the capacity of helping millions of people who have
not yet transitioned, which is essential to avoid collapse. There
is a lot of work to be done and that too within a short time. We
can at least invite experts from all fields and start green
transition conferences and think-tanks and establish local
transition committees everywhere. This can be organized by
the government and/or NGOs.
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Below are some micro-solutions:

1. Support organizations like the Sublime Union that promote
macro-solutions amongst the leaders and educators.
2. Get a sound education and training for micro-solutions.
3. Help to develop green cities and eco-villages with emphasis on
self-sustaining organic food production. If you dont have a
garden, plant vegetables on your rooftop, balcony and walls.
4. Deepen your relationship with Mother Earth and Nature to
increase your universal integrity and to intensify love and care
for her and all her inhabitants. Go for walks and hikes in nature,
alone and with friends. Engage in nature hobbies.
5. Find your way into spirituality the soul needs spiritual food. If
people are spiritually nourished, they have more compassion
for others, act less self-centered and reduce consumerism.
6. Start organic seed banks. This is a better investment than
intangible assets such as bank deposits that will vanish during
collapse. Even gold may not be of much value during transition.
Organic seeds may replace paper money.
7. Keep cows and bulls for organic fertilizer, pesticides, milk
products and to power tilling, milling, transportation, etc.
8. Become a full or partial vegetarian (start with 2 days a week).
Eating meat is one of the biggest contributors to global
violence, hunger, water shortage, heart-diseases and obesity.
Cattle-farming is the greatest forest destroyer and producer of
greenhouse gas (methane). The production of 1 kg meat uses
up to 10 kg grains, 20 liters of petrol and 15,000 liters of water.
9. Install solar panels. Use solar cookers. Use wood from
reforested forests for heating and cooking.
10. Use a rainwater harvesting system. Shower instead of bathing.
11. Reuse and recycle things if possible. Take cloth bags with you
and dont accept plastic bags. Use rechargeable batteries.
Make transactions like paying bills online to save paper.
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12. Engage in activities and work that can be done locally. Use a
bicycle or public transport and avoid car and air travels. Use a
high-efficiency and low-emission car, if possible an electric car
charged from renewable electricity. Use car sharing.
13. If possible, buy only local and organic produce, from toothpaste
to cloth to food. Capitalism means that we create our world by
our buying choices.
14. Keep a large stock of grains and other storable nutrition.
15. Showcase the green transition in all aspects of life to set an
ideal example. Wear locally produced organic cloths. Wash
them with soap-nuts or similar non-polluting gifts of nature.
Use recycled paper. Switch to LED lamps. Turn off all electric
devices if not used, especially at night.
16. Learn from local ancestors who have lived in natural ways for
many generations.
17. Buy second hand products. You can get more for less and you
create a much smaller eco-load and carbon footprint.
18. Stop buying new stuff if not absolutely necessary. The real self
is beyond the material body and can only be satisfied with
sublime relationships.
19. You may want to relocate if you live in a region that is
extremely vulnerable to system collapse such as a very cold
place that has insufficient local food production and depends
on oil heating for basic survival.
20. Telecommute to save in transportation energy. Work out an
arrangement that you can work more at home. Have videoconferences instead of flying in people for meetings.
21. Share your experience and inspire others to transition.

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Please watch these videos of transition solutions:

Rob Hopkins @TED: Transition to a world without oil
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8meWY0W40OA
In Transition 2.0 - a story of resilience and hope in extraordinary times
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFQFBmq7X84
Small scale city backyard farming on 1/4 acre = 3 tons of food a year
www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfnzV4n1_xk
Green cities TED talk: How rooftop farming will change how we eat
www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSQm09twKEE
A (partially) self-sufficient farm near Lake Geneva
www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6kCzEP9ebo
Permaculture paradise: Val and Eli's garden
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iSaRzjxL3E
Permaculture principles in application Geoff Lawton
www.youtube.com/watch?v=N225HDyIUe8
Crystal Waters Ecovillage, the first permaculture-designed village.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UH51W9tYFE

Global Ecovillage Network: www.gen.ecovillage.org

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5. The I-Crisis and its Solution

Now lets look at the internal solution. Although
this chapter may seem to drift off the topic of
the green transition, it actually goes to its very
core. All the given information so far is widely
available and many people are aware of it.
Nevertheless, most people are not doing enough
to meet a timely green transition. What is the
missing element?
As per the warning to humanity by leading world scientists
quoted in the introduction, a new ethic is required. Ethics are
expressions of inner human values reflected into the outer
world. Wes Jackson, the president of the Land Institute, said in
the documentary The Eleventh Hour: To me the value is the
healing power that comes from getting that its not just global
warming; its not just fossil fuel dependency; its not just soil
erosion; its not just chemical contamination of our land and
water; its not just the population problem; and its not just all
of those the deterioration of the environment of our planet is
an outward mirror of an inner condition. Inner human values
are defined by what we identify with what we believe to be
our core nature. Social psychologist Erich Fromm wrote in The
Sane Society that our entire modern culture is pathological
because it is based on a faulty foundation; it is thus our first
task to ascertain the nature of man and then only can we
identify the actual human needs that stem from this nature.
If we dont know our true nature, it is very possible that we
are also wrong about our needs and values that define our
ethics and how we act in life. Could it be that we are wrong
about the very basics of our existence about who we are?
Yes, indeed. The actual root crisis is the I-crisis the human
identity crisis. We have been busying ourselves with trying to
solve our problems only at the surface level and have never
16

bothered much to examine their deeper roots. Whatever we

experience and know is based on the identity of the knower. If
our concept of the knower is wrong, our knowledge and its
application are also wrong. So it really boils down to the
ancient big question: Who am I?
You may say that we know very well who we are; men and
women, sons and daughters. I beg to disagree. We have not the
slightest idea who we are. It takes only three seconds to find
this out. Please take your index finger and point to your exact
position. Are you hesitant? Dont worry, thats absolutely
normal. In an experiment, I separately handed a pointing
device to ten different professors and asked them to point it to
their exact position. All of them first hesitated. Eight of them
each pointed to different places like their head, chest or lap.
One professor admitted that he didnt know and another
professor refused to answer. If we dont know where we are,
we also dont know who we are. And if we dont know who we
are, how can we possibly know what is best for us?
There are two main concepts or paradigms of self-identity:
Sublimism:

Skeletonism:

The self is a sublime being beyond the material

body and its attributes. Thus our real needs
are of a sublime nature.
The self is the material body and its attributes.
Thus our main needs are the bodily needs.

Modern education teaches skeletonism, the concept that

we are the material body. However, as we shall see in the
following section, our human ethics and way of thinking are
essentially based on sublimism, the concept that we are a
sublime being beyond the material body. Many modern
educators are trying to replace sublimism with skeletonism, but
they cannot be successful because skeletonism goes against
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logic and against our very nature. Sublimism does not

necessarily mean that we are disembodied we could have
sublime material or spiritual bodies. It neither commits to
dualism nor does it disvalue the material body. After learning
various arguments for sublimism, we will discuss how
sublimism can enable a more healthy way of life on Earth.
Argument for sublimism from biology
At face-value, our most common concept of self-identity is
skeletonism that we are our given human body composed of
cells. However, from biology we know that these cells are
constantly being replaced by new cells. The maximum living
span of most cells is seven years. Almost our entire body is
renewed every seven years, so the average age of an adult
human body remains below seven years. But although our
body remains only seven years old, we believe that we are
much older, maybe thirty-six years or more, and nobody
disagrees with that. If I purchase a house today, even fifty years
later I will still be its possessor, although in this time my body
will have been renewed seven times. So if I, the possessor, am
still the same after fifty years, but my body has been renewed
many times, then I am a sublime being beyond the material
body.
Syllogistic presentation: Premise 1: The material body is almost
entirely renewed every 7 years. Premise 2: The person is officially
accepted to be still the same even after 20 years. Conclusion: The
person or self is a sublime being beyond the material body. Thus
skeletonism is false and sublimism is true.

Argument for sublimism from medicine

In a video about his book The Scalpel and the Soul, Prof.
Allen Hamilton, a Harvard-educated brain surgeon, speaks
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about things that medical science say should not be possible.

Hamilton explains that similar events occur in hospitals around
the USA, but doctors are afraid to talk about them. Hamilton
recounts an operation he had done on a young woman whose
blood vessel ruptured at the base of her brain. They put her on
a bypass pump, cooled her body down and turned off the
pump for 25 minutes, during which the heart and the brain
stopped working completely with no blood flowing. Dr.
Hamilton assures that during this period she is completely
dead by every criteria we have. In this state, the ruptured
blood vessel is repaired. During the period of the operation
there happened to be some private conversations between the
staff. One of the nurses announced that she was getting
engaged. After the operation and reanimation, Dr. Hamilton
visited his patient in recovery. Hamilton recalls: She starts
telling us about this private conversation, but word for word,
right down to the jewelry store where they bought the ring.
Thats impossible her brain had absolutely no electrical
activity. So the question is; where were these memories made?
The idea that a consciousness can exist and make memories
independent of the brain is a startling finding. There are
thousands of medical reports of people who have had similar
out-of-body experiences. There are even reports of patients
under full anesthesia who were able to witness and correctly
disclose incidents that happened in other rooms during the
operation. These reports strongly suggest that the self is a
sublime being beyond the material body.
Syllogistic presentation: Premise 1: A clinically dead body cannot
perceive and memorize any external event. Premise 2: A person is
able to perceive and memorize external events correctly while that
person's material body is clinically dead. Conclusion: The perceiving
self is a sublime being beyond the material body; it can be alive and
active even when the material body is clinically dead.
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Argument for sublimism from ethics

Humans possess ethics that they protect with morals and
laws. Let us focus on four Core Values: love, individuality, free
will and ethics (LIFE). We perceive these values as having real
existence. This is the classical perception of the Core Values,
which is, as we shall see, based on sublimism. Modern science
teaches materialism and skeletonism, according to which love,
individuality, free will and ethics are mere epiphenomena,
accidental by-products of chemical reactions creating mental
impressions that have no independent classical existence. They
are like programs of machines.
Sublimism
Skeletonism

> Classical Core Values

> Epiphenomenal, robotic Core Values.

For example, lets say Jane and Robert want to get

married. According to sublimism, their love is real, their
individuality is real, their freedom of choice is real, and their
ethics are real. But according to materialism or skeletonism,
these Core Values are only pipe-dreams of robots. Jane and
Robert are mere lumps of matter without any classical
individuality and free will. Following the dictates of the
chemicals in their brains reacting to external senseimpressions, one lump is forced to marry another lump.
However, their impressions of free will and love are real in as
much as programs of machines are real; they are robots with
free will simulation programs. This is how materialists argue
that materialistic or epiphenomenal Core Values are not
entirely unreal. To be clear, we are in the following speaking
about classical Core Values, not epiphenomenal Core Values.
According to materialism, we are simply like waves in an
ocean of matter and our experience of existence as factually
existing individual beings is illusory as we are all but matter. It
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would then not be ethically incorrect to plunder and kill others

because since we dont possess free will, everything is already
determined and we cannot be held responsible for any action
since we are not the doers. According to materialism, there are
no classical subjects at all; no I, no you, no we. So if I kill
someone, nobody kills and nobody gets killed it would only
be like one wave swallowing another wave by chance. Of
course you could say that it is unethical to terminate a machine
as sophisticated as a human machine and thus end its free will
simulation program. Even if we subscribe to this view, it is very
obvious that it is a radical downgrade of value from the
classical, sublime view. Killing a sophisticated machine is more
justifiable than killing a classical dog that has classical
individuality and free will. Thus if we take materialism seriously
and I hope we never will it becomes easier to kill a human
than to kill a (classical) dog.
We all possess classical ethics and cannot abandon them;
we know intuitively that we are individuals; we possess free
will and we are responsible for our actions. In practical life,
even the staunchest materialist cannot live by the principle
that the universe is mere matter evolving by chance. If we were
mere lumps of matter there would be no basis for classical
human ethics. In order to be able to uphold and further
develop classical human ethics, we must embrace its mother
paradigm; sublimism.
Syllogistic presentation: Premise 1: According to skeletonism, we are
mere lumps of matter without classical individuality, free will and
responsibility. Premise 2: It is the nature of humans to possess
classical ethics depending on the existence of classical individuality,
free will and responsibility. Conclusion: Skeletonism is wrong
because it goes against our core nature (we are not ready to
abandon our classical ethics for robot ethics) and sublimism, which
allows for classical ethics, is right.
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Argument for sublimism from psychology

Despite their body aging, people always feel young. This
indicates that the self is not aging, and thus the self is a sublime
being beyond the body. The following lines are from a poem
written by an old man shortly before he died in a hospital:

Crabby Old Man

What do you see nurses.what do you see?
What are you thinking...when you're looking at me?
A crabby old man.......................not very wise
Uncertain of habit......with faraway eyes?
Who dribbles his food.......and makes no reply
When you say in a loud voice.....'I do wish you'd try!'
Who seems not to notice ....the things that you do
And forever is losing.............. a sock or shoe?
Who, resisting or not..........lets you do as you will
With bathing and feeding .........the long day to fill?
Is that what you're thinking....is that what you see?
Then open your eyes, nurse...you're not looking at me
() Inside this old carcass.....a young guy still dwells
And now and again ...............my battered heart swells
() So open your eyes, people..........open and see
Not a crabby old man.....look closer.........see...ME!
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You can find more arguments for sublimism on

www.sublimeunion.org. Please note that sublimism is not a
paradigm that was designed to serve any personal agenda.
Sublimism is simply the conclusion of the systematic
exploration of the self. Its validity will further be strengthened
by its capacity to solve major human problems at their roots.
Dr. Henry Kendall, Chairman of the Union of Concerned
Scientists and Professor of Physics at MIT, said that science had
no silver bullet to fix the environmental crisis. He identified the
problem as overconsumption, and said the only remedy would
be a change of values. Sublimism can bring about this much
required change of values. Overconsumption is rooted in
skeletonism, the illusion of identifying with the material body
and its demands of gratification. Our present consumptionhungry value system is centered on bodily sense-gratification
because of skeletonism. Sublimism loosens the knot of bodily
identification and thus leads to a shift of value towards
transcendence.
Vclav Havel, the first democratically elected president of
Czechoslovakia, mentioned in a speech in Philadelphia in 1994
that a new model of coexistence is needed, based on mans
transcending himself. He even referred to transcendence as
the only real alternative to extinction. Sublimism is that new
paradigm of transcendence. It leads us from our darkest illusion
of skeletonism towards the bright sublime reality. A person
who wakes up to the reality of sublimism can be compared to a
person who becomes lucid during dreaming. To become lucid
means that during a dream you become aware that you are
dreaming. Some of us may recall a typical dream in which we
find a lot of money on the road. We collect as much as possible
and keep it safe in our dream home. Then when we wake up,
we realize that it was only a dream and become disillusioned,
having wasted so much time collecting something that cannot
be had after all. If we were lucid in the dream, we would not
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care about the dream-money so much

and utilize our time in more valuable
activities. Similarly, if we wake up to
the sublime reality that we exist
beyond the material body and its needs, we will start
pondering: If Im not the material body, why should I waste
my life with running after bodily gratification? Let me serve the
body only to keep it healthy and focus on finding out who I
really am and what I really need.
The sublime value system will not only reduce consumerism
but also many other problems of humanity. The more we
realize we are not the material body, the less we identify with
its attributes such as race and nationality. This will reduce
racism and conflicts between nations and foster universal
brotherhood and peace. Intelligence and progress will not be
measured in how much material wealth we have accumulated
but in how much we have realized our sublime self and
contributed to sublime progress within our community.
Once people identify less with material gender, we can
expect fewer problems related to sexuality such as sexism and
sexual abuse. Some people will choose celibacy or adopt
orphan children, which will also help prevent population overgrowth. Fewer children will be produced as an accidental sideeffect of sensuality. They will be purposefully created with a
sublime intention. Our own sublime development will help us
to control our senses and their agitations and thus reduce
aggression and bodily violence.
Last but not least, sublimism offers an umbrella paradigm
under which all sublime thinkers and activists from all different
backgrounds can unite and turn the tide of traditional
materialism. There are countless people with sublime
intentions in this world, but there is a lack of unity and
collaboration due to difference in opinion. Despite difference in
opinion, people were able to develop sophisticated
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infrastructures like roads and airports because they were able

to cooperate for the common goal of material prosperity.
Under the umbrella paradigm of sublimism, all sublime people
can similarly unite and cooperate to develop sublime
infrastructures for sublime prosperity. Just like various
competing companies can use the same road system, similarly,
various sublime people with different visions can develop and
use the same sublime infrastructure. Since the need of the
hour is to bring about a wide and fast green transition, we hope
to soon see the development of sufficiently resilient green
urban and rural solutions. We should utilize this rare
opportunity for a complete system overhaul to design new
sublime systems of society, education, research, economy, etc.
Once we have accomplished the green transition we can
invest more energy into the sublime transition the inner
transition or identity transition, which can solve our crises at
their root. We need to develop sublime sciences that enable us
to explore our sublime identity. It is not enough to know that
we are not the material body we have to realize who we
really are. We could be a very subtle material organism or
energy that has so far evaded detection. Albeit conforming to
the basics of materialism, such a finding would transform
traditional materialism and lead to a more sublime science. Or
we could be a spiritual energy or a spiritual being with a
spiritual body beyond classical matter. Then we would have to
develop a spiritual science or explore the methods of existing
spiritual traditions. Or we could discover that spirit and matter
are defined by different affinities of the same prime substance,
rather than being divorced dual substances. We will explore
the sublime reality in many different ways yet we shall be
united in purpose in the Sublime Union. It is very likely that we
will tap into never experienced dimensions and potentials of
life. The sublime transition is the greatest challenge for
humanity, and it is also our greatest chance.
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Concluding Words
We will all have to transition to sustainable ways of life either
we do it smoothly, or infrastructure collapses will force us into
a very violent transition. If you prefer the smooth way, dont
wait for others. Be the change you wish to see in the world.
Participate in the Sublime Union and implement Sublime Life
Systems in your surrounding (www.sublimeunion.org). Be part
of the Transition Network (www.transitionnetwork.org). Lets
see it positively; we are in a very exciting time in human
history. The green transition and the sublime transition can go
hand in hand. If we look deeper, our situation bears a great
potential of transformation.
What the caterpillar
Calls the end of the world
world
The master calls a butterfly.

If you like our work please share this booklet with others
and consider a donation on www.sublimeunion.org.

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