The Scientific and Medical Network

I was in a conference centre in Hampshire last weekend for the annual meeting of the Scientific and Medical Network, and what a stimulating time it proved to be. Aside from the lively AGM, which provoked lots of discussion and ideas, we had a line up of excellent speakers for the theme; Towards an Integral World-View: Inner and Outer.

In addition to the scheduled speakers, one of the sessions at this conference gives members a chance to talk for a short while, half an hour or so, about their own interests, book, research, whatever, within the theme of the event as a whole. And one such member caught my particular attention. Jean Hardy is writing a book, A Wiser Politics, to be published by O Books in due course. In this, her third book, she draws on her own background in political philosophy, psychosynthesis and holistic ecology to explore the need for a wider vision in politics of values and spirituality, in other words beyond the usual pragmatic and managerial issues which seem to dominate political thinking of all three main parties. Where, she asks, is the wider vision. Can we really hope to change our policies to form a better world unless we view our current system from a different and more spiritual perspective?

I have expressed my own hope for more politicians who will not be shy or afraid of letting the world know their own faith -driven or spiritual values. We need such politicians who can reflect those values in policies in a way that still appeals to the electorate and does not antagonize them.
I know Barack Obama has somewhere made a similar observation. We need spiritual politicians
who are compassionate, indeed empathic to the needs of the populace. In fact we need spirituality, compassion, empathy and good old fashioned morality all round, in ourselves as well as in our politicians. And we need changes of heart and mind in us all.

Jean argues in her book "for a way of thinking that links, as many earlier societies have done, Cosmos, with Polis, and also with Psyche." If we are to change the political and world paradigm in which we seem to be stuck, we must understand where myths and stories came from that are established often deep in our psyche, she told us.

If Jean writes with the same easy style she used to talk to us, this book will be a joy to read and I look forward to its publication very much indeed.