Transforming Terror Karin Lofthus Carrington, Susan Griffin / Karin Lofthus Carrington, Susan Griffin
2011
eBook
This inspired collection offers a new paradigm for moving the world beyond violence as the first, and often only, response to violence. Through essays and poetry, prayers and meditations, ...Transforming Terror powerfully demonstrates that terrorist violence—defined here as any attack on unarmed civilians—can never be stopped by a return to the thinking that created it. A diverse array of contributors—writers, healers, spiritual and political leaders, scientists, and activists, including Desmond Tutu, Huston Smith, Riane Eisler, Daniel Ellsberg, Amos Oz, Fatema Mernissi, Fritjof Capra, George Lakoff, Mahmoud Darwish, Terry Tempest Williams, and Jack Kornfield—considers how we might transform the conditions that produce terrorist acts and bring true healing to the victims of these acts. Broadly encompassing both the Islamic and Western worlds, the book explores the nature of consciousness and offers a blueprint for change that makes peace possible. From unforgettable firsthand accounts of terrorism, the book draws us into awareness of our ecological and economic interdependence, the need for connectedness, and the innate human capacity for compassion.
Transforming terror Carrington, Karin Lofthus; Griffin, Susan
2011., 20110503, 2011, 2011-06-02, 20110101
eBook
This inspired collection offers a new paradigm for moving the world beyond violence as the first, and often only, response to violence. Through essays and poetry, prayers and meditations, ...Transforming Terror powerfully demonstrates that terrorist violence—defined here as any attack on unarmed civilians—can never be stopped by a return to the thinking that created it. A diverse array of contributors—writers, healers, spiritual and political leaders, scientists, and activists, including Desmond Tutu, Huston Smith, Riane Eisler, Daniel Ellsberg, Amos Oz, Fatema Mernissi, Fritjof Capra, George Lakoff, Mahmoud Darwish, Terry Tempest Williams, and Jack Kornfield—considers how we might transform the conditions that produce terrorist acts and bring true healing to the victims of these acts. Broadly encompassing both the Islamic and Western worlds, the book explores the nature of consciousness and offers a blueprint for change that makes peace possible. From unforgettable firsthand accounts of terrorism, the book draws us into awareness of our ecological and economic interdependence, the need for connectedness, and the innate human capacity for compassion.
PART ONE. Introduction Susan Griffin; Karin Lofthus Carrington
Transforming Terror,
05/2011
Book Chapter
At this crucial moment in history, we are facing a formidable challenge. Over several de cades, as new incidents of violence continually arise in different locations throughout the world, countless ...attempts to stop terrorism by force have lead to failure or, with the seemingly endless proliferation of violence, a sense of futility. Yet even if the means we have been using are in effective, the task of ending terrorism is not insurmountable. What is required of us all, however, is not simple; no single approach or strategy will solve the dilemma. We are being asked by circumstance to undergo nothing
Introduction SUSAN GRIFFIN; KARIN LOFTHUS CARRINGTON
Transforming Terror,
05/2011
Book Chapter
We have called this collectionTransforming Terrorinstead of transforming “terrorism” for a reason. If many of the pieces included here address the complex causes of terrorism, this book also explores ...the dominion of terror itself. Over the last de cade, whether in Palestine or Israel, Pakistan or Mumbai, Baghdad or Kabul, Rwanda or the Sudan, the United States, Spain, or Great Britain, we have witnessed a vicious cycle in which terrorism causes terror and the experience of terror seeds acts of terrorism. And yet, though the human emotions we all share—fear, grief, and loss—are so clearly part
PART TWO. Introduction Susan Griffin; Karin Lofthus Carrington
Transforming Terror,
05/2011
Book Chapter
The damage that the infliction of terror causes cannot be overestimated. Like toxic radiation, such damage has widespread consequences, psychological and spiritual wounds that are often passed from ...one generation to the next. In some lives, this damage can never be entirely erased. But the same human genius that devised weapons of mass destruction by probing the nature of the molecule and atom has also probed the nature of consciousness, finding compelling ways to understand and heal the human spirit.
Each of the chapters that follow explore various aspects of the understanding of the experience of terror, terrorism, and healing, insights
Introduction carrington, karin lofthus; griffin, susan
Transforming Terror,
02/2011
Book Chapter
Over the last decade, there has been a vicious cycle in which terrorism causes terror and the experience of terror seeds acts of terrorism. Instead of viewing terrorism according to those who enact ...it, this book argues that it should be viewed from the perspective of those who are harmed by it. Thus, it sees terrorism as acts of violence against unarmed civilians, no matter who perpetrates them. The book considers the way terror damages the human psyche or soul, and how it is through this damage that the world enters seemingly endless cycles of violence. The first part contains a series of chapters that chart the psychological, social, and cultural processes—from trauma to denial, fear and the illusion of power—by which terror and violence lead to more terror and violence. The second part of the book presents insights, approaches, and understandings—from the necessity for justice to the role gender has often played in violence, to the knowledge of interdependence and the experience of compassion—through which vicious cycles of terror might be transformed.
In a Dark Time carrington, karin lofthus; griffin, susan
Transforming Terror,
02/2011
Book Chapter
The poet Theodore Roethke's words, “In a dark time the eye begins to see,” serve as a potent reminder for our time. Assaulted by ads and images that tell us we can look young forever or be happy all ...the time, we have been taught to look away from tragedy and suffering. Yet if terror inspires blind and unthinking reactions, as with any threat, this crisis also affords the opportunity to see more deeply. If we are to make the world a safer place, we will need to face the unpredictability of existence and our mutual vulnerability in the face of violence. When we navigate grief, anger, or despair with awareness, these strong emotions have the power to transform both consciousness and the real dangers we face, making us stronger and more resilient. Mass terrorism; political uncertainty; economic decline; and ethnic, religious, national, tribal, and internecine wars have made the dark emotions pervasive and overwhelming in our time. This chapter includes essays on the wisdom in grief, fear, and despair, as well as a poem by Theodore Roethke.
An Unbearable Heartache carrington, karin lofthus; griffin, susan
Transforming Terror,
02/2011
Book Chapter
Healing the effects of terror and terrorism, an essential step in the process of transformation, must begin with an understanding of trauma. Trauma is the inevitable result of violence. The effects ...of trauma lodge in the flesh so that despite every attempt to forget, the body remembers. With even the slightest trigger—an unexpected burst of light through a window at night, a loud sound, a shadow falling suddenly across the road—those who have suffered from violence can be sent into a state of panic or anxiety. Traumas that occur in warfare become lodged in collective memory and thus erode whole cultures and civilizations. If we are to end the cycle of violence created by trauma, it is crucial to grasp, not only intellectually but emotionally, what trauma is like. For this reason, this chapter features several stories about this experience. It includes reflections after 9/11 and the ill effects of nuclear weapons, as well as poems by Rainer Maria Rilke, Nelly Sachs, Ariel Dorfman, and St. Thomas Aquinas.
