H.O.W. are we to change the world paradigm II : Spotlight on Evolver

Something that I am really excited about at the moment, is the growing movement towards positive change that I can see bubbling up in the collective unconscious of today's human society. This series of hubs is inspired by a plethora of different sources but the impetus to really start spreading these new memes comes from reading the words of a Hubber many of you may already be familiar with. This man of compassion goes by the alias billybuc, and his "H.O.W." movement for social change is worthy of all our attention. My second inspiration is a growing online and real world community that is also pushing forward the progress of the "New Planetary Culture". This community is called the "Evolver Network" and they are my choice for the spotlight this week.

The aims of this series of hubs are to:

• Spread awareness of Positive change
• Provide information on how people can get involved
• Spread the meme of Optimism

On the subject of optimism - I think this is an attitude that it would do the world well for more people to adopt. There may be a large amount of negative things going on in the world... but allowing outrage to paralyze us from action is not an option. Optimism isn't something that results from a bare assessment of the world. It isn't a result of looking round and saying, yes the net positive outweighs the negative and thus I can now think positively. Rather, an optimist sees how to turn the worst situation into a positive one. Jason Silva is a truly modern thinker for the digital age - check out the video above and to the right to hear his view on optimism. It's pretty inspirational.

The founders of this movement, (namely Daniel Pinchbeck, Jonathon Talat Phillips and Ken Jordan) describe The Evolver Network as being a "learning laboratory of local communities bringing people and groups together to learn new skills, collaborate, celebrate, and manifest change."

Now if that isn't a mission statement to get excited about - I don't know what is! This is an online community that has made its purpose to bring together forward thinking people to share best practice. The visionary people that this online community has brought together are given the mission of forming what they term "Evolver Spores". These are real world collectives that get together to share knowledge, stimulate debate and inspire activism. They examine so-called "transformative practices" such as meditation, yoga and permaculture.

Each month the central network generates a theme which is passed down to the "Spores" in order to generate debate and attract a broad spectrum of different people who bring a huge range of experience and knowledge to the table. For previous themes that have been covered by these groups check out the following link: http://www.evolvernetwork.org/past-spore-themes/

The Evolver Spores have organized conferences, festivals, workshops on any number of current topics. They have also actively taken part in projects to help their communities, brought aid to flood victims in Hungary, organized protests to combat unfair conditions in the workplace, and started up programs of tree-planting in urban areas.

I have been inspired by the work these guys are doing to the point that I now intend to start up an Evolver Spore in my own area. Once my fiance and I have gone through the upheaval of moving into the home we are in the process of buying and have got ourselves married :) Come April we will be starting the process of organizing an Evolver Spore for the midwest of England.

If you would like to get involved with the Evolver Network, the link in brackets here (http://www.evolvernetwork.org/spore-locations/) shows Spores that are already active who you could contact. Alternatively if there is nothing in your area already set up - like us you could consider getting involved on an organizational level and set up your own Spore. I seriously recommend checking these guys out. They are going to be a serious force for positive change in the emerging global culture.