Continued from page 1

The Declaration of Interdependence

We, the people of planet Earth,
In recognition of the interconnectedness of all life
And the importance of the balance of nature,
Hereby acknowledge our interdependence
And affirm our dedication
To life-serving environmental stewardship,
The fulfillment of universal human needs worldwide,
Economic and social well-being,
And a culture of peace and nonviolence,
To ensure a sustainable and harmonious world
For present and future generations.

Lynn Perkins, from Oregon, had this to say about the experience. “There were parts of my life I had been holding onto for a long time that I was not really aware of until during the many days of walking they surfaced. I could see how I had limited myself through my beliefs, attachments and judgments of myself and the world we live in. It was much easier to release this baggage through the action of walking, leaving what is no longer needed behind (with no harm to Italy ) and walking on. The walk culminated at Vatican square. We arrived there renewed carrying the energy of peace, love and joy. I felt a shift during our ceremony there, a merging of the energies of the divine feminine and the divine masculine. I felt a big "ah ha" this is why we are here, to heal this separation. It was a truly amazing experience. The world has been waiting a long time for this to be healed.”

While we did not have a face to face meeting with the Pope, I’m quite certain that together we planted some powerful energy in Vatican square for peace. In our closing ceremony, James sang the peace prayers again as well as the St. Francis of Assisi prayer. The Cloth of Many Colors was gently held for a short time as we completed this part of our journey together for peace.

Cori Nielsen later reflected on our arrival in the Vatican this way. “The part that touched my heart the deepest was when we walked to the obelisk in St. Peter's square and re-united the feminine aspect of the Church of the Beloved Disciple, the church of St. John and Mary Magdalene with the church of St. Peter. My heart burst open and said, YES! I agreed to do this 2000 years ago with this group of people and here we are! WE DID IT! At that moment I finally understood why my heart had called me to Assisi and on the pilgrimage for peace.”

As Oprah says, “What I know for sure” is that the 12 peace prayers put to music by James and sung throughout our journey from Assisi to Rome, are having a transformative effect on the planet now, just as the song Crystal Blue Persuasion has transformed me over a lifetime. May the exponential power resonate in the heart of humanity.

To learn about how you can get involved with the funding and planning for the establishment of the Seattle Center For Peace, contact Sandy at (206) 322-9899.

The Wilde Boys talk about their music and What the BLEEP?!

Over the weekend of October 14 – 16, 2005, the Scottsdale Plaza Resort in Scottsdale, Arizona hosted the final What the Bleep Do We Know Conference. On Saturday night the soaring melodies of R. Carlos Nakai's Native American flute was joined by the vibrant tones of William Eaton’s lyraharp guitar and the subtle pulse of Will Clipman's worldbeat percussion for an evening of earthy and ethereal music. The following is a reprint of an interview with The Wilde Boys by freelance writer Sheri Christopher, from the August/September Issue of Four Corners Magazine. The interview was conducted prior to the conference.

By Shery Christopher

With the permission of Four Corners Magazine

Click image for larger view

Something ethereal... of the earth... of illumination... a trialogue between distinct voices, an alchemical blending of disparate elements into a new alloy.... like the airborne feather, the music arises out of improvisation; like stone forming in the molten heart of the earth, it moves with patient certainty toward structure; and like light, it quickens and enlivens what it touches....

SC/FC: Directing this question to each of you, let’s give our readers an idea of what you thought of the movie What the Bleep Do We Know.

RCN: I thought it was interesting in that it is information that we should already know but we often refuse to acknowledge. I like the humanistic approach to the philosophy of existence. In the movie, all of the presenters were interesting in how they approached that reality and what our awareness is and how we experience influences that affect our perspectives. The one thought that kept coming back to me was, of course, this is stuff we already know. But again, how many people acknowledge that we are in control of ourselves? How many are consciously aware of that? Most people will address it, but most won’t discuss it. Often it is because they don’t have a place to start from or they have never bothered to be aware of themselves as an entity within the world. And they spend most of their time following others.

I went up to Flagstaff for a meeting with the Hopi and had the opportunity to hear Dr. Masaru Emoto speak on his philosophy of communicating with water. Again, I had that “of course” feeling because most indigenous people are raised in the prospective of wholeness or unity. It’s the variety of the interactions between those realities that create what we experience and of course we are able to communicate with those things around us because we are also a component of all of that. There is nothing but the very simple awareness of fear that keeps us from being totally involved in being here now.

Of course we all know this, but how do we integrate it into our lives and how do we make ourselves well in order to have a good time in the world, rather then worrying about things that we have no control over, or that we have created to encourage fear so that we can have a sense of being out of control? We often catch ourselves in our own game.

WE:What the Bleep Do We Know was a groundbreaking movie in exploring quantum physics and the fine line between science and spirituality. What comes first to mind is how successful the film is in drawing attention to our perception of physical reality. On a quantum level there is a serious amount of space out--and in--there that contains an almost insignificant amount of physical matter. The film helps us to reconcile this fleeting, transient physical reality with our daily perception of bumping up against seemingly solid beings and objects.

My thirteen-year-old daughter Taylor really liked it and grasped a lot of the concepts. She had just finished reading Siddhartha, which has some references to this nature of reality and the awareness of this present moment. We had some good talks, and of course the movie inspired a lot of conversations throughout the community. Weaving the story line that featured Marlee Matlin within and throughout the documentary-style interviews was brilliant. It was a very interesting production style throughout.

WC: I have seen the movie twice, some time ago when it first came out and then again very recently. I thought the premise for the movie was pretty ingenious: namely, establishing a plausible link between quantum physics and spirituality; and more generally, between science and spirituality, the two being one and the same. The word science comes from the word ‘to know.’ If we think of the science of spirituality as being a way of knowing ourselves in the world and our relationship to the world, then they really are one and the same thing. That is one of the things I enjoyed about the movie, just breaking down those barriers between different ways of knowing and coming to the realization that there really is only one reality to know.

SC: The Wilde Boys Trio will be performing at a convention on the movie, and many of the scientists and visionaries who were in the film will be speaking at the event. People will have been sitting in on workshops that Friday and Saturdaybefore they actually come and attend the concert with the Wilde Boys on Saturday night. So, how would you describe the Trio’s music in relation to this particular event? How do you see it unfolding on a spiritual or energetic level?

RCN: The music we will be performing is basically a conversation between all three of us, and specific entities that travel in our own sphere of existence. How it’s going to affect our audience, I don’t know. That is something I encourage that we don’t do, or write about, in such a way that will give them a direction of how to listen to what we do, because then we are enforcing a sense of authority over other people, which we don’t have the right to do. So, we are really creating our conversation among ourselves, and people who are sitting around us will be hearing what we are saying and possibly thinking, “I have this thought, too.” It allows people to integrate and realize whatever the influences may be to reinterpret what we are saying, and that is entirely respectful of the listener, rather then the musician saying, “This is what we are going to do with you.” We don’t want the listeners to come with a pre-conceived notion of what we do as musicians and what they are going to hear…. The music the Trio creates together is a meandering of sound. How we meander relative to one another is entirely within our control as musicians, and we have to be sure that we wander relative to each other in a way that will encourage a good-sounding experience.

SC: So your desire when you create and co-create is to have each member of the audience interpret or resonate with the music.

RCN: Yes, because the group dynamic in the performance is performing a dream.

SC: Anything else?

RC. Well, I think for those who are going to come to listen to the music, to not read the liner notes, because they will be meaningless. What we perform at this event will be one of a kind, unique to how we feel ourselves in that space at that moment in time. It is a one-of-a-kind performance that will never be performed anywhere else on the planet, anywhere in the cosmos ever again. So, just be prepared to have a good time.

WE: I would describe the Wilde Boys’ music as quantum-world-trance-groove-improvisatory- fusion music. I’m not certain why they asked us to play for this event, but at the very least you’ve got the three elements of feather, stone and light. R.C.’s ‘feather’ inspired, soaring melodies are as good as it gets for cedar flute. Will’s versatile and mesmerizing percussion grooves are as solid as stone. And my stringed instruments are inspired out of the particles and waves of string theory that contemplate the expression of light…. Our music comes from this moment. Defining it is an exercise for critics and musicologists. Obviously, music is in many ways its own language, whether you think of it as an abstract language or simply the observation or perception of sound and patterns.