Gonna Lay Down My Sword and Shield：A Complexity Perspective on Human Evolution from a Violent Past to a Compassionate Future(POD)

　　Gonna Lay Down My Sword and Shield suggests how we can create a better world.“This book is a part of my spiritual quest to understand the nature of being human. I saw our use of violence as the biggest impediment to our spiritual development and many simple unrealistic answers as to how to get past violence,” says author Victor R.D. MacGill. “What I offer is only a very small part of the jigsaw puzzle that will help us move into the future.”“Gonna Lay Down My Sword and Shield is a clarion call to all people weary of warring ways and seeking broader, more humane and compassionate comprehension of the world. With poetic insight and scientific understanding, MacGill provides an accessible entrée for the thinking and caring person wishing to make sense of an increasingly complex and apparently chaotic world. MacGill provides perspective and example to illuminate the emerging realities of our times, ones which call for our highest potential to transcend the myths of struggle and strife by reaching for ones that elevate the human spirit and celebrate the human being. This is a book for the evolutionary human, the one who wishes to take on the mantle of evolutionary co-creator with all of life on Earth, and as such, is essential reading for our times.”-Alexander Laszlo, Ph.D., President of the International Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS)

作者簡介

　　Victor MacGill’s mother was a Theosophist and his father a Buddhist, but he was brought up in Nelson, New Zealand, by foster parents as an Anglican. On shifting to Christchurch, New Zealand, to attend university, he completed a BA in psychology and Maori studies. Through his interest in the indigenous culture of the Maori, his mind was opened to a different spiritual vision of life, and he began a lifelong journey of spirit. His interest in Maori mythology spread to examining the myths and legends of different cultures, allowing him to gain an understanding of the underlying principles expressed through all the world’s myths. In 1995, he published When the Dragon Stirs: Healing Our Wounded Lives through Fairy Stories, Myths, and Legends.He also began exploring other spiritual traditions, particularly including Buddhism, New Age, Spiritualism, and Theosophy. Victor became a deacon in the Maori Anglican Church, and then the president of the Theosophical Society in Dunedin, New Zealand.In the 1990s, the death of his father in a car accident and the loss of his wife to cancer led to a reassessment of his beliefs and values. During this time, he came across Chaos Theory, Complexity Theory, and the works of Ken Wilber. Victor studied complexity, completing an MA through the University of Western Sydney in 2003, and has regularly attended complexity and systems conferences in New Zealand, Australia, USA and Canada. In 2011 he began a PhD using complex systems to research a community group in New Zealand. He now lives back in Nelson. This book has been 17 years in the making.