Evolutionary guidance media

Evolutionary guidance media (EGM) is an emergent discipline offering a paradigm for the design of conscious media, green media, socially-responsible media, and transformative media, arising from the convergence of ideas derived primarily from the fields of systems science, humanistic and transpersonal psychology and integral psychology.

Overview

Research in evolutionary guidance media began at Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center by Dana Klisanin under the guidance of systems' scholars Bela H. Banathy, his son Béla A. Bánáthy, and Stanley Krippner, a distinguished scholar in the field of consciousness research and a leader in the transpersonal psychology movement.

Evolutionary guidance media is defined as "media designed both in content and context specifically for the purpose of guiding and/or facilitating the societal emergence of transpersonal consciousness – specifically planetary consciousness" (Klisanin, 2005). Planetary consciousness is “the knowing as well as the feeling of the vital interdependence and essential oneness of humankind, and the conscious adoption of the ethics and the ethos that this entails” (Ervin Laszlo, 1997, p. 143).

The evolutionary guidance media framework was designed using a generic blueprint for the creation of evolutionary guidance systems as described by Bela H. Banathy (1996, 2000). Evolutionary guidance systems are systems designed such that human beings can take responsibility and control for their own evolutionary processes. Banathy suggested that such systems might include input from the following interactive dimensions: social action, economic, wellness, moral, design (learning and human development), aesthetic, scientific, technological, and political. These areas are not value neutral but rather value-laden (geared toward promoting a more just and equitable quality of life for all beings). These dimensions are an integral facet of evolutionary guidance media such that data from these nine dimensions are required in creating both the context (structure of the media company) and content (the creative product/media).

Fundaments

Fundamental to the design of evolutionary guidance media is the concept of "transception," a term coined by Klisanin (2005) that posits the pairing of compassionate-seeing/action with that of cyberception, or humankind’s rapidly advancing technological abilities.

The core values of evolutionary guidance media include "the promotion of values that support conscious evolution, planetary consciousness, transpersonal experiences, and superconscious learning. These include but are not limited to being-values, compassion, love, personal and social responsibility, creative altruism, peace and conflict resolution skills, gender and racial diversity" (Klisanin, 2005).

Drawing heavily upon research in systems science, specifically evolutionary guidance systems as well as integral, humanistic, and transpersonal psychology, evolutionary guidance media was developed because of the perceived need for a method of rapidly advancing human consciousness due to the problematic conditions (environmental and social) confronting the global society.

References

* Banathy, B (1996). "Designing social systems in a changing world". New York: Plenum Press.
* Banathy, B. (2000). "Guided evolution of society: A systems view". New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.
* Laszlo, E. (1997) "3rd Millennium: The challenge and the vision". London: Gaia Books Limited.
* Klisanin, D. (2005). Transpersonal artistry: Designing evolutionary guidance media. "Journal of Transpersonal Psychology" 37(1).
* Klisanin, D. (2007). Applying Banathy's Design of Evolutionary Guidance Systems to Media: A protegee's experience. Systemist. 29(3).
* Klisanin, D. (2007). Transception: The Dharma of Evolutionary Guidance Media. In J. Wilby (ed.)"Integrated Systems Sciences: Systems Thinking, Modeling, and Practice" CD-ROM Proceeding of the 51st Annual Conference of the International Society for the Systems Sciences, Tokyo, Japan.