Our imagination is the answer

How collective storytelling is rewriting our future

There are plenty of incredible people writing about just how cooked we are as a nation and a species. So this article will not belabor those points.

It’s important to be real and clear-eyed about the situation that is here. We are in a multi-dimensional war for the future of our world.

It’s not a physical war, with tanks and armies. It’s not a cold war, with deception and espionage. It’s a narrative war, with propaganda and archetypes. And the battlefield is our collective consciousness.

Our weapon?

Storytelling.

Yes really. I know it sounds ridiculous. I’ve spent much of my life thinking I was crazy, but I’m going to tell you this anyway. Those who create the narrative, create the game. And in their story, the game is stacked against us. It’s true, by playing their game, we are destined to lose. This makes some lose all hope.

The only way to win is to change the story.

That may seem impossible with their grip on our psyche and the distribution platforms amplifying their stories.

But what separates the dynamic of a narrative war from a physical or cold war, is that everyone has access to the same narrative “technology.” This evens the playing field. Would-be dictators depend on the power of story to keep people in line, because their actual power is deeply fragile.

And, no matter the source, a resonant enough story can propagate through a collective and change the course of history.

I’ve quoted Sapiens in most articles I’ve written, but it bears repeating, that everything we take to be true about our modern world began as a story. Corporations, nations, even money - all fabrications of our imagination that we collectively agree to keep giving power to. And this is your reminder that we can - at any time - choose differently.

So how do we begin to turn the tide? I call it the Imagination→Reality Flywheel.

Note: This dynamic can be used for serving or non-serving purposes. For this article, I’m assuming they will be used for the purpose of serving all beings. If you are a wannabe dark lord, kindly leave.

Stories start as a spark, an expression of your soul. They are suffused with the truth of you, so they attract and resonate with other People, calling them forward. This is because, stories (and all art), are your access to collective consciousness.

Those people create and cocreate more stories. At some point, you realize that these stories are pieces that fit into a larger puzzle.

While the puzzle is complex, it’s also coherent. Even when your stories come from vastly different individual perspectives, they resonate on the same frequency or fractal. In simpler terms, you realize that you are telling different stories in the same universe - one that serves all life. Your contribution fills in your corner of a “new” reality.

The puzzle is larger than any one person, and, because its intent is “pure” (creativity, serving all beings, etc) it’s self-organizing.

Seeing this, some people build and support Systems that resonate with this emerging narrative universe. Systems like decentralized social platforms, regenerative neighborhoods, and, my desire - a whole reboot of how we create stories, share them, and prosper. (Indulge me a moment and imagine if Star Wars was collaboratively owned IP and was distributed on a platform that encouraged you to write and profit from creating your own stories in that universe)

These systems empower and activate more people. As this happens, the system actualizes and energizes the stories themselves. What was once fictional (this is how it could be) becomes more “real”.

As the stories become more “real”, even more people resonate and activate, even more synergies are built, and even more systems are created. It becomes a virtuous upward spiral. This is the imagination flywheel.

In fact, this process is exactly what led us to the dystopian hellscape of today. The only difference was that the stories and systems they shared did not serve all beings, (unless you take the zoomed out view that it’s exactly this dystopia that is catalyzing the creation of a utopia…)

This is how we win. Rediscovering our child-like access to imagination, remembering and choosing our power, and cocreating a new reality using our current one as a canvas.

It begins in our imagination.

But how does this become a movement?

The self critic in my head says - “That’s all well and good, but surely it can’t be that simple.”

First of all, “Thank you, inner critic, for serving me and keeping me safe in the old paradigm. I’m choosing differently now.”

My understanding of how movements emerge in a narrative battlefield is below.

Step 1. Ideate

We ideate in the beginning with pieces of creative communication. I’m seeing this constantly on places like Substack.

Making art, writing (like this), and talking to others are easy ways to start because you can take these actions quickly yourself, and practice your own access to truth.

As you resonate with the truth embedded in your art, writing, or conversation, you know that you have a solid foundation to build on. You know, because these steps show you the “vibe” to check against while building the next steps.

You can also share these quickly, so you can check your resonation with the collective.

Step 2. Design

Next up is we design businesses and other systems to support the birth of the narrative universe onto the physical plane. These serve as an energetic blueprint that expresses the desired frequency.

These create a shared context for people to build with you, or support you. The design step opens up even more people into even more belief, as they realize that there is a better way to do pretty much everything, and start to see tangible ways to move towards them. This the step that bridges imagination and reality. For example, see the design of the imagination flywheel.

For practical examples of this, I highly recommend research into Teal organizations which are founded and operate on the pillars of self-organization, wholeness, and collective purpose.

Step 3. Actualize

Finally we actualize by amplifying the signal. There are a few vehicles for this.

One is media. While media encompasses many mediums, I want to focus on narrative storytelling. Narrative transcends the logical mind and gives people direct experience of a way of being. This is why even the greatest non-fiction works of our time don’t hold a candle to the kind of mind-share that something like the Star Wars universe has.

The setting of these stories don’t have to be in the same place, for them to express the same creative paradigm. Look at a streaming service like Dropout that shows a coherent worldview through a kaleidoscope of different creators and creations.

Stories resonating with the shared utopian story-verse can be told in endless ways. I’m currently cocreating one (more on that later).

Fictional narrative doesn’t have to be used for passive escapism. It’s an activating and animating force. Through storytelling, we can help people “use the force” practically, in their everyday lives.

Immersion cements the learning further, as well as connecting to more people in even more mediums.

Immersion can be facilitated through games or gamified experiences, art installations, or even whole physical environments.

I felt this deeply during an experience of Meow Wolf which gave rise to the idea “What if we could create a regenerative neighborhood “installation” whose profits went to creating the real thing? And how else can art become reality?

Finally, systems, businesses, and stories facilitate collective action, which will cocreate a new world in a non-linear, decentralized, and interdependent way.

Not everyone will be a system architect or creative, but everyone will have the opportunity to connect with and support the systems they truly believe in.

This will create a tipping point in humanity, where every system we thought was fixed will remake itself using principles like these.

A way forward

Maybe you’re reading this because you always saw the possibility of this new world, but didn’t have all the pieces.

Neither do I. But I have enough that I know it’s time to start collecting and synergizing our pieces.

We get to make the story of this article real, through simply our imagination. Isn’t that amazing?

If this is speaking to you, know that you have a major part to play in all this. Your creativity, your soul, your “crazy thoughts” are your guide.

I’m writing this story right now to activate YOU so that you can share your GENIUS with the world. Together let’s design SYSTEMS and BUSINESSES that serve all life.

Your life has been leading to this moment. Every “random” skill you have. Every “useless” perspective you have. Every dream you’ve had to protect against a harsh and corrupted world.

I “just happened” to go film school. I “just happened” to become a gamification consultant. I just “happened” to work for a shaman who upended my world view. All my life I “just happened” to be beset by visions of a completely different reality- one that has until recently stayed locked in my imagination.

Maybe you’ve got a revolutionary approach to economic systems that is “so crazy” that you dare not share it. Maybe you composed song you created years ago whose lyrics you’ve left in a closet somewhere.

This very article is adapted from something I wrote 4 years ago, and then shared with almost no one - because even now, as I get ready to send it into the world, I am deeply afraid of ridicule or feeling invisible.

But if we let fear stop us - if we don’t write, make art, speak out, build, design, innovate, imagine…

Well, we might forget we already have everything we need to create utopia.

Your invitation

First of all, please reach out and let’s cocreate together and support each other. And, if you’re feeling fired up and want to take some kind of action…

Let’s ground this in the here and now.

In Jane McGonigal’s amazing book about forecasting Imaginable, she talks about the power of journaling from the perspective of the future.

Forecasting is usually seen as a highly left brain enterprise with lots of predictive analysis. But when she ran simulations about possible futures, she would ask participants to write daily journal entries from their life in an imagined future. Years before the pandemic, she ran a simulation about living life in a similar type of pandemic. After writing days in a row about living with that reality, they found they were much more prepared for when it actually happened.

So, amazing beautiful creator - here is your prompt to begin to rewrite our reality.

Imagine you’re in the near future. Globally and locally, things have started to work themselves out in unprecedented ways. You find yourself in a moment of relief. We averted disaster. You realized that your gifts were needed and you started giving them in surprising ways.

What’s a day in a life for you?

I look so forward to reading our collective story.

And if you feel called to, please comment and re-share to activate even more people and amplify the signal even more.