Something I wonder about is the question of what will happen to the political/social/cultural/economic structure when we ...at least I mean a larger percentage of "we"...have realized that our old story of reality is not correct.

The one anchored in the material world and showing up on questionaires as "What is your family income?". The one that says our economy only runs when people shop 'til they drop, slaves to buying just one nore bargain.

In that version of reality, I see democracy becoming less a viable force as big conglomerates run things more and more. Here in the town where I live, a big developer has come in and is throwing lots of money around. Even in this town where Volvo and BMW are common cars, we don't have enough revenue to fix streets and such as "should" be done, so the developers do the town a favor...and I believe get favors in return. (but not clear-cut one that could be prosecuted). Where's town rule in this? (an even bigger tragedy if you know the history of the towns around here...settled in the 1600's. One of Abe Lincoln's ancestors or ancestor relatives was a figure in the Revolutionary War). On the national scene, we are left to wonder where the lines between government and big money are as we look at the connections of Cheney and Snow to companies that seem to get special favors.

Personally I'd lke to see a big Belief System Crash in the economy but it needs to be replaced with something else.

So once we realize we exist out of our bodies and that maybe a correlate of that is that we create reality, what kind of systems will we have? Will we be able to free ourselves of this tyranny of monetary power? Of the power of the (un)Golden Rule: He who has the money wins.

What can I do to operate outside of this system and how can I do it today?

I'm not talking about an alternative life style here. Many of us have lived this in some variation on and off for years. What some of us acomplished by not going after high-paying jobs was to marginalize ourselves. I know one can be happy and personally successful living on the fringes. I'm thinking big. How does working with this afterlife stuff change the big picture of the culture (and when does it change it!). How can I have power without having money? Power over my fate so I'm not adversely affected by the developers or thier flunkies in town, or by Haliburton or Dubai Ports World?

OK I'll settle for the developers for starters.

Thoughts anyone?

>>Personally I'd lke to see a big Belief System Crash in the economy but it needs to be replaced with something else. <<
Greetings Lucy,
"Crash" sounds sort of extreme,; how about a turn-around or shift?  ;)  Your question is too hard for me, but to get discussion started...

We could ask Helpers/ Guides their advice on how to live in the 'future';
We could seek a community of others who accept OBE with whom to barter, sing, and assist;
We could learn to make music and share it with our community;
We could ask advice of the British/European OBEers on this board on how their parents and grandparents dealt with times of extreme change in WWII;
We could widen the 'fringes' by encouraging others and ourselves to do more to avoid the conglomorates, to use natural products, remedies, homegrown food plants, etc;
We could live in the faith learned thru OBE that helping others is of paramount importance....

But this is not adequate to your question.  More....?

A life without aims, is a very poor life indeed.

All money is, is a physical possesion which equates to your effort.

Effort got out[money] = Amount of effort put in[time + experience].  

While some people manage to squeeze, more effort out, then they put in. - it's just a general rule which society will live by for many thousands of years to come.

It's actually one of the biggest area's for human growth, you dont like somthing and want to change it? the most basic answer is, put more effort in!. Now not many things in life work in such an easy to fix manner.

Money also teach's us value. It teach's us to value everything from our parents, to new car.

Money motivates people to get out of bed each day, each day is a chance to change your life for the better.

Money, you just gotta love it.

I agree about the 'filthy lucre'/$$ always being needed, but perhaps we could buffer its impact by acknowledging and inventing/imagining even more ways of substituting for it. A self-employed businessman sees it $$ more real perhaps than those of us who see so many billion dollar scams and lay-offs being slid under our noses daily--such waste and diverting--but that's off the issue.

My husband just reminded me that science now recognizes 'critical points' of change. It's not majority any more, it's the intensity/excitement, perhaps the soul-stirring importance, of a phenomena that creates a changed mind-set.
So Lucy's question could inspire us to more intensely engage our souls and others in the implications of retreiving and OBEs. Not to become bleeping missionaries, but to enter this with
a rejoicing that lets other souls, passed and present, know we're so happy to be among them! Perhaps then the souls of our ancestors (like those of Native Americans and some Eastern countries) would be more happy to be involved with us and help us thru these times of intense change.
I've only thanked one soul I met who had passed, and my weak thank you then was more an apology for bothering her so often. Despite the good feelings this board exudes, going to the other side has felt like I was peeking somewhere I didn't belong. Thanks to you, Lucy, now I'm going to tell them how happy I am to be meeting them--and that we can use all the help they would offer!  

Concerning Lucy's wondering, I see in the far future the breakdown of that global money structures. If people become more aware what counts really for them with the background of a wider perspective of how big everyone already is due to the advanced insight in everyones connectedness and identity with something greater than many people today believe now, they will just turn their back on silly offerings of consumption and politics. This will scatter societies on the one hand, as simple one-sentence-truth mass groups will die out and smaller groups based on more personal interests will increase, on the other hand a quiet, undeclared world community will settle. The life standard, measured with the high-tech cheap mass production products consumption, will decrease. Life will get harder in some regards, but nevertheless more comfortable and enjoyable.

IF Lucy's assumptions will take place.

Betson wrote:
>>>We could ask advice of the British/European OBEers on this board on how their parents and grandparents dealt with times of extreme change in WWII<<<
In Germany after WWII firstly people tried to simply survive. Then, they worked hard to get some material and society-status benefit. They DIDN'T TALK about what has happened, until the middle sixties. Until that time, the society was frozen. Then, slowly, all what happened came into speech, in small pieces. This process is still enduring. My personal impression is, the main thing is in most people's minds, not to let the extremes and aggressives take over government. But, very much more isn't learnt from that terrible madness. It was such negative, and one can learn "never again!" from it, but it goes not far beyond it. Desasters caused by negative destructive hateful minds are very much different to constructive individualistic movements concerning the things to learn from it and the future results of it I think. There are still wounds and questions, ponderings, nightmares and shadows upon families coming from the Nazi episode and the war, which are partly unaware but still powerful. So, it's not very clear which are the effects of this, cause this process of dealing whith this past is such slow.

Spooky

Yes.  What spooky said.
And the dealing with these big changes is why we need to tap into the energies of our ancestors, Helpers, and Guides. We personalize these energy trails but we know they are more than personalities because they operate without time or space, dimensions that help construct who we mortals are. They must know about  'future' events/trends. Working with them would add important energies to the qualities we live and seek to instill in life here, as alternatives to previous calamities.
(The US War between the States still has repercussions here too, so there must be many stages/ripples from calamitous events.)  

I guess I lumped several issues together.

Nice questions, betson. I guess the unseen have as big a stake in this whole venture as we do; why not ask for some advice? I'm not sure how to talk to my guides; if i have any, they are probably hoarse from shouting at me. But sometimes when I have alot of ideas, I feel like I'm in some kind of conversation....perhaps they initiated my questions.

I would like to have a plan for making choices based on knowing my choices weren't binding me to the status quo, as does most money activity. I would like to have power without having to have money.

spooky2  is right better slow and easy. Some people still talk about changes in the next 5 years. That might not be slow and easy but it also might not be.

I just feel all these vectors pulling me different ways and I don't know how to be in the thick of society and not be at the whim of these forces, mucyh less how my guides might suggest they be changed. A violent revolution might not be the answer, but why are so many still hooked in to the system?

The retail store where i work part time has a policy whereby everyone is supposed to get credit apps. That means  am supposed to get people to sign up for the store credit card, so you will com ein to the store and fill up your cart with "high-tech cheap mass production products (of) consumption" and charge them on their card rather than MC or Visa. The new thing is to keep a list of all employess and put checks by their names. red for a day they get no credit apps and green if they do. I've got all red, including for days I don't even work! Maybe the absurdity of the greedy guts money-hungry machine will finally wake some people up. BTEW, this isn't my main job, but lots of people work in places with this kind of mentality.

So is that kind of thinking just sopposed to suddenly disappear in 5 years? Would it be a violent transition if it did suddenly disappear?

So what's gong to be in its place when the global money structure does break down? Maybe we don't appreciate our personal powers well enought to understand how to answer that one. We are so far from the world Monroe described when he thought bodies would be stored and put on only from time to time.

Yet I wonder, sometimes, if there is a plan for this. Look at how our communication networks increasingly enable us to communicate in less time...almost as if we are working towards accepting mental telepathy.

maybe we have to make some changes first. but maybe it is happening.

I read an article (after I started this thread) about how people are starting to generate their own electricity and are going "off the grid" and even selling extra to the grid. Maybe this is a start.

But obviously what comes first is a desire to be off the grid....