Why FreiRaum as an answer to the existential threats of our time?
Why do we need FreiRaum right now?
What do authentic needs have to do with the crisis of meaning?
And how do we address the deepest causes, the generator functions, of the various interlocking crises that threaten humanity and our humanity?
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Do you want to know more about what we mean when we say FreiRaum? Then please click here:
If you are interested in a description of the individual concrete offers, please click here:
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*The below is an automatic translation with the help of deepl.com. I haven't checked it yet but will do so soon.*
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The term “FreiRaum” also refers, among other things, to the space of freedom that arises when we are no longer in the zero-sum games of existing systems with their win-lose logic. In this logic, which runs through all our systems (economic, financial, and even the way in which our democracy works (or not)), you can only win if someone else loses; and our economy only works if we constantly create new (pseudo) needs and sell the products that fulfill these created needs through more or less aggressive, manipulative advertising.
In other words, we are systematically enticed to buy things we wouldn't need if it weren't for cheap psychological marketing tricks. And this “advertising” is becoming ever more clever and specific, not only following us everywhere, but also collecting more and more data about us in order to entice us in very specific ways.
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In fact, all representatives of a free market economy should be advocating for such advertising to be banned and replaced with real product information that helps me as a customer to make an informed decision about which product best meets my specific needs. But we are currently still a long way from that.​
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Here I try to express this somewhat provocatively in a short (German) video:
The whole system of manipulation, of course, only works as long as our real authentic needs are not met.
Our genuine intrinsic needs are not only our survival needs, but our need for everything that is truly intrinsically valuable. These are, for example, our needs for:
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real pleasure (and by that I don't mean superficial “fun”, and pleasure doesn't stop at sensual pleasure, but includes all the other needs here)
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deep, authentic contact with others
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a deeply meaningful life (including contributing to a world that works for everyone)
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one's own creativity and the opportunity to express it, also together with others
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our own vitality and inner strength
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inner growth and transformation (being more instead of having more – transformation instead of external growth)
If these basic needs (for intrinsic value) are met, then WE are fulfilled, and most of our bad habits and addictions (for more and more consumption, hyperstimuli (such as sugar, drugs or social media), for more and more novelties (instead of discovering something new in what already exists) and for constant ego confirmation (instead of being seen and needed) dissolve. As a result, we become less and less manipulable.
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By no longer striving for more and more on the outside, but for inner fulfillment, our environment can gradually recover, just like we ourselves. This planet provides enough for our authentic needs, but not for our greed and addiction to more.
Together we can find new solutions for our manifold crises. Finding creative solutions truly requires all of us – each and every one of us in our uniqueness and at the same time in our deep interconnectedness – with all our gifts and abilities. And for this we need spaces for encounter, collaboration and social engagement.
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At the American Center for World Philosophy and Religion, we are working on a new story for humanity as a context for our diversity, which we disseminate in the form of books, essays, podcasts, films, etc.
Here is a short excerpt from the introduction to David J. Temple's book First Principles & First Values:
Imagine that civilization is a complex stack of the following layered but interrelated elements:
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Superstructure includes the set of worldviews, grammars, ideas, philosophies, realizations, stories, wisdom, principles, and values that animate a society.
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Social structure includes the agreements, legal systems, contracts, business models, and governance structures of society.
Infrastructure includes the physical built environments and technologies that provide for the material needs required by the social structure and superstructure.
This model animates the strategic drive of our writings on CosmoErotic Humanism, which are an attempt to help lay a new superstructure for society. CosmoErotic Humanism is a philosophy that offers a new Story of Value capable of reorienting our faltering civilization. We are seeking to spark and inspire a broader movement of culture, much like Existentialism or Romanticism in their day. We add our voice to those co-operating to steward humanity’s cultures through what will be our most perilous times.
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We naturally recognize that superstructure, social structure, and infrastructure are mutually interdependent and continually co-arising. At the same time, it is our view that superstructure—the story we tell about the Universe, how we make our identities and communities meaningful—must be understood as the root cause of society’s formation. This means that if one desires to change the trajectory of society to avoid suffering and to realize the greater good, the most effective way to achieve that goal must be to evolve the story that animates society.
To evolve the story is to evolve the source code that works through all three layers. Therefore, we have focused our work on the evolution of a superstructure necessary to generate a new cultural “enlightenment”—specifically based on a new, emergent order of shared value. This is necessary to effectively respond to what is perhaps the most consequential and rapid period of change in history.
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*David J. Temple is a pseudonym created for enabling ongoing collaborative authorship at the Center for World Philosophy and Religion. The two primary authors behind David J. Temple are Marc Gafni and Zak Stein. For different projects specific writers will be named as part of the collaboration. In this volume Ken Wilber joins Dr. Gafni and Dr. Stein.
Read the whole Introduction here:
While, at the Center, we are working on the formulation of the most fundamental values and principles of the Cosmos and looking at how we, as humans, can express and further develop these values and principles, FreiRaum is also about applying them in new infrastructures and social structures, or simply in our interactions with each other, and making them tangible.
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We want to make visible and connect existing approaches that are in line with these fundamental values.
We want to create opportunities for people to get involved in existing initiatives or start new ones themselves.
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We want to create a FreiRaum in which we can study and practice and develop, individually and collectively, so that we can contribute our most comprehensive perspectives, our entire, highest, or most comprehensive self, and our most developed skill sets to respond, together and powerfully, to the pressing existential threats of our time.
While we are already launching the first projects in the KreativQuartier, we are currently still looking for an actual place that we can really shape together. If you know of such a place, please get in touch with us. And if you want to find and design this place together with us, please also get in touch. We look forward to meeting you.
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Kerstin and co-creators