White River Junction
The annual Deep Change conference, previously known as the “Our Children, Climate, Faith Symposium,” is scheduled for Sept. 16-17 at the in downtown White River Junction. The keynote speakers are spiritual teacher Jeannie Zandi and the Rev. Jon Bliss.
“It’s been a little different every year but the fundamentals of the conversation about inner transformation as the foundation for sustainable culture and positive social change has stayed the same,” Simon Dennis, one of the conference’s organizers and founding director of The Center for Transformational Practice, said in a telephone interview.
“Part of what motivates the conversation is an understanding that the kinds of changes that we need to make in order to respond to the ecological crises that we confront are broad, systemic and comprehensive (and) affect everything from our daily lifestyle to the institutions in which we live.”
The conference centers on four conversation topics: love-based activism, regenerative design, globalization of addiction, and interfaith dialogue. Those conversations are then broken down into multiple workshops during the weekend conference.
Gregory Wilson, one of the organizers, is leading the segment on globalization of addiction.
“The assumption is that the difficult times we are in constitute the need for healing,” Wilson said in an telephone interview. “Part of the conference is attending to that.”
The concept of “globalization of addiction,” Wilson acknowledged, “is kind of new thinking for a lot of people — that the addictive process is going hand in hand with our modern era and we can’t seem to stop it. Profit is more important than life.”
As an example, Wilson pointed to our reliance on fossil fuels despite climate change. “Rather than say climate change is real and we’re going to have to take 50 years and gear down … we speed up the use and go to fracking,” Wilson said. “This is addictive behavior. This is the only way we can understand it.”
For his part, Dennis points to a competitive, growth-oriented economy that promotes levels of consumption that exceed what the planet is capable of supporting. For example, people may be used to certain activities — traveling, eating certain foods — that are unsustainable. “But when we try to bring our lifestyle in balance with the needs of the natural world, we discover enormous inner resistance,” Dennis said.
By thinking about that concept in relation to their own lives, individuals can come up with ways to change themselves first, before presenting that change to a larger audience.
This is where “love-based activism” comes in, which Dennis described as “investigating a new mode of social action which builds collaboration on the basis of common goals, as opposed to emphasizing an us-against-them divide.”
For example, seemingly opposing groups, such as environmentalists and the fossil fuel industry, both share the same planet — and the same destiny.
“But the way the conversation has been played often pits these groups against one another in a way that short-circuits the way to collaboration,” Dennis said. Some workshops “will teach people strategies for effective social action,” Dennis said. “It is nourishing to the activist (and) it opens conversation and connection with people who might need to alter their approach or direction.”
Most of those who come to the conference — 120 attended last year — are willing to share their deeply held beliefs within the supportive environment, the organizers said.
“We’re sort of a sanctuary, a safe space, where we can step out of the story, a story that’s diminishing the life systems of the planet,” Wilson said.
“We’re trying to step into that river and say let’s go another way,” he said. “A pretty tall task, but we’re working on it.”
Editor’s note: The conference is open to people of all ages and there is programming for children. It costs $80 to attend ($40 for students; $50 for under age 12). Financial aid and scholarships are available. For more information, email info@deep-change.org, call 802-471-0050 or visit deep-change.org. Liz Sauchelli can be reached at esauchelli@vnews.com or 603-727-3221.
