(This weblog creates, for us all, a chance to meet at the interaction of Life and the New Spirituality. It is written by the author of Conversations with God, the worldwide best-selling series of books. The “New Spirituality” is defined by the author as “a new way to experience and express our natural impulse toward the Divine without making others wrong for the way in which they are doing it.”)

HIGHLIGHTS OF TODAY’S BLOG…
* If terrorists can do it, so can we
* The Group of 1000 is born
* The power of exponential increase is virtually unlimited
* Yes, we can change the world

(This is the ninth in a series of blogs on the seemingly unending conflict in our world. The series makes the point that there is a way to avoid the constant conflict and killing upon the earth, and that way is for the earth’s people to adopt a New Spirituality — a new “story” about God, about Life, and about Each Other.)
On Tuesday we ended this blog by saying that the search is on for 1000 people who are willing to commit themselves to doing what it takes to change our world. Let me now explain what that is all about.
Not very long ago in a picturesque town in The Netherlands I stood before an audience of 700 and asked an exciting question: “What would happen if a thousand of us — people just like us, who agree on the basic principles of the new spirituality — got together and decided to change the world? Do you think we could do it?” The answer that flew back at me from the multitude gathered there was a resounding “Yes!”
It was in that moment that the idea…

… for The Group of 1000 was created. I decided that if people could gather in small clusters around the world in what some have labeled “terrorist cells,” then we, too, could gather in similar clusters across the globe in what I shall label “creationist cells.” Our purpose could be to create a new reality on the earth, to create the possibility of a new tomorrow, a tomorrow without violence, without terror, without the use of force as a tool to get what we want and what we think is “right.”
I told the group that night in The Netherlands that this is precisely what I was going to do. I asked anybody in the audience who felt moved to become part of this opportunity to send me an e-mail before the dawn, to get on their computer as soon as they got home and mail it off to me, placing “I’m in” in the subject line so that I would immediately know what the e-mail was about.
I told them to send e-mail to The Group of 1000 at an Internet address that did not even exist. After my talk, I raced back to my hotel room to create the domain name and the Internet e-mail address so that messages from those in the audience would not be marked Return to Sender — Undeliverable.
Many in the audience that night chose to opt in right then and there, without even knowing any of the particulars of what we were going to do, what our objectives were, what goals we might set, and what we might ask of them. It was one of the most exciting moments of my life, for I came to know on that evening that people are ready and willing to do what they can to alter our collective reality, and that all they really want is the tiniest bit of leadership. Paragraph leadership, in my vocabulary, does not mean “follow me.” Leadership means, “I’ll go first.”
And so The Group of 1000 was formed. With a handful of people from The Netherlands it became a living reality. Since those early moments we have crystallized our goals and objectives, becoming very clear on the approach that we will use to do what we know needs to be done for our world to be invited to to move in a new direction, away from its self-destructive beliefs and toward its grandest notion about itself.
As I have said now repeatedly, the problem in the world today is not a political problem, it is not an economic problem, and it is not a military problem. The problem in the world today is a spiritual problem, and it can only be solved by spiritual means. The Group Of 1000 intends to approach the challenge of changing the world conditions with that deep understanding. We intend to do what we can to invites humanity to accept a new set of beliefs, a new doctrine of the spiritual understandings.
I believe that if 1000 people from all over the world join forces together and use the power of exponential increase, the world could be changed forever, and we could launch at last the Thousand Years of Peace which has so often been written about and prophesized.
I hope that this does not sound too grandiose to you. I think we can do it! If terrorists can change the world, so can we! If they can strike terror into the heart of humanity, we can replace it with joy.
Here is how that could work: Each member of The Group of 1000 would commit to supporting an Action Plan to Change Our World that has been devised by those of us who have created this group. The Plan is a three-level approach to creating the space of possibility for the New Spirituality to emerge upon the earth. We want to bring God back into the equation. We want to bring the power of spiritual energy into play in a healing way.
This commitment will take personal sacrifice and personal dedication. It will take deep agreement and unified action. It will require a consistent effort on the part of every member over a long period of time. And consistency will be the watchword here.
In my idea of things, all members of The Group of 1000 would agree to live the Rule of Multifold Return. This cosmic rule says that what you send out to the world comes back to you, folded over and multiplied. The aim of The Group of 1000 is to create peace on earth, goodwill to all humans, at last, on this planet. The Group seeks to do that by assisting humanity in altering its most fundamental — but erroneous and therefore harmful — beliefs about God, about Life, and about each other.
The Group of 1000 shares a deep agreement that, as Conversations with God says, beliefs create behaviors. It agrees, as well, that for hundreds of years humanity has been trying to solve the problems it faces at every level except the level at which the problems exist. The Group has now launched a worldwide Action Plan, a global undertaking to approach the solution to humanity’s problems at the level of Cause, rather than at the level of Effect.
In the next blog of this continuing series, on Monday, I will outline, specifically, what the commitment is that we are inviting every potential member of The Group of 1000 to embrace. On Tuesday I will speak more specifically of the Action Plan itself, for which members of the group will supply the supporting energy. You will know, then and there, whether you are in deep agreement with me, and wish to be a member of this group. It will be (obviously) totally okay if you do not. In fact, I do not expect everyone to agree with me. Yet of those who do, I will ask sacrifice and determination.
Why? Why will I ask this? Because it is as has been said: Of those to whom much is given, much is asked.
(If you do not wish to wait until Monday, you may go now to TheGroupOf1000.com and learn more about this initiative immediately.)