Maverick thinkers have warned of the perils of unbridled greed for centuries, yet few were listening. Not until the world turned dark on September 15, 2008 with the perfect financial storm did the rest of society take notice.

That was a day of economic infamy-the day Wall Street investment banking died. Lehman Brothers, one of the most respected and powerful financial institutions in the U.S., came crashing down in an economic shock heard round the world. With its demise, the remaining investment banks went on life support resuscitated only by woeful government rescues.

With the crash of the credit and securities markets in 2008, the relationship between business and the public irrevocably changed. No longer is the old adage, “it’s not personal, it’s business” an acceptable view. The crisis resulting from the misbehavior of bankers at the expense of ordinary folks unequivocally reveals that everything we do in business is indeed personal to someone.

The official theme of this year’s World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland is “Rethink, Redesign, and Rebuild.” The unofficial theme could be called, “Greed is Ugly.” We traveled a long hard road to get here from the Ivan Boesky days of last century. With it, we endured a lot of economic pain. Yet as human beings we rarely change when things are comfortable. It is the advent of crisis, either personal or public, that forces us to reexamine our values and reinvent ourselves.

The Economic Crisis of 2008 has brought forth the Economic Epiphany of 2010. The sentiments last week among the world’s business leaders echoed the urgent need for a moral economic framework. Out of the halls of darkness comes the light. Mercy, mercy, hallelujah.

For all those skeptics out there, the 2010 Davos Forum focus on values signifies an enormous change for the year ahead. People are mad as hell and they don’t want to take it anymore.

Yet these are not ordinary angry mortals, like Joe the Plumber or moose shooting hockey moms. The outraged include the banking and business elite themselves. Members of a once admired fraternity hold errant colleagues responsible for destroying the good business model. Barclays’ President Robert Diamond said, “Those who stayed strong are angry at those who had poor management.”

Trust is your bread and butter in business. Banking is a respectable and honored profession when used to serve the community. Not a roulette wheel spun with the chips of pension-less factory workers, ninety-year-old widows, and the working poor. Where did common good values go?

Deutsche Bank CEO Josef Ackerman complained to the Davos crowd, “We should stop the blame game,” and “start looking forward.” His remarks were directed against the inevitable new taxes and industry regulation favored by those present. Ackerman did not realize that regulating banks is looking forward-toward creating a system that works for all, not just a self-serving few.

The German banking chief acknowledged the importance of public opinion. “If you lose the support of society, you are not going to realize your corporate objectives in the long run.” (A belief that seems not to be shared by some colleagues.)

As WEF’s official theme reveals, the new paradigm is to “rethink and redesign” the global economy to include world interest with self-interest. It is no longer okay to create suffering for others in the savage quest for more. French President Nicolas Sarkozy stated that for “those who create jobs and wealth” to “earn a lot of money is not shocking. But those who contribute to destroying jobs and wealth and also earn a lot of money (it) is morally indefensible.”

Survival-of-the-fittest naysayers have become like dinosaurs on the verge of extinction. The only ones who don’t know that seem to be employed by bailed out banks.

Yet “blame”, as distasteful as that might be on most WEF participant lips, is not altogether fruitless. If the perpetrators of this colossal calamity continue to ignore their personal responsibility, then the world will continue to point fingers and tighten the strings. Call it blame if you must, but the post-crisis behavior of unrestrained banker bonuses looks greedy to those looking on. And greed no longer looks good.

Mexico’s ex-banking chief pointed out that banks have “misjudged the deep feelings of the public.” The Wall Street Journal reported that banks returned to a “culture of high-risk-taking and lavish pay as soon as they were out of intensive care” and brought the anger on themselves.

The President of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Trichet, claimed bankers changed the game by using taxpayer money “to guarantee loans at banks…a gigantic amount” and could no longer dictate the new rules.

Sarkozy summed up the general sentiment of the conference stating that “indecent behavior will no longer be tolerated.” He claimed that capitalism could only be saved “by restoring its moral dimension.”

That morality is being discussed at all in the setting of the formally “greed is good” culture of Davos is extraordinary. Continuing global economic hardship is yielding remarkable changes in profit perspectives. Glimmers of hope are emerging from the depths of despair.

New economic thought has shifted to a world that cares for the poor, voiceless, and forgotten. The official message of the conference proclaims, “Now is the moment to rethink values as we rebuild prosperity. The interrelated fights against unemployment, global poverty and climate change are not just noble struggles: they are essential for long-term recovery and avoidance of future crises.”

It was not good to be a banker at the World Economic Forum this year. The chairman of Morgan Stanley Europe compared their social status to that of “terrorists.” The comparison is humorous until one thinks about the havoc reeked by what economist Joseph Stiglitz calls “negative value”. Traders, underwriters, lenders, analysts, salesmen bought and sold securities, loan products, and swaps that were based on mortgages that could/would never be repaid.

American Heritage Dictionary defines terrorism as a “state of fear and submission.” Considering the submission of millions of families to banks who took their homes and millions more who lost their incomes through no fault of their own, the fear gripping those facing foreclosure and unemployment, and the millions of investors who face uncertain retirement, the subprime mortgage debacle could undoubtedly be viewed as economic terrorism.

As we begin the second month of the year 2010, it seems clear that greed, defined as the accumulation of wealth and profit at the expense of others, is no longer ”good” to most of those observing. That is a great relief.

The outrage expressed by pillars of the global economy in Davos, as well as the general public, reflects that the new “good” is as much about serving the common good as anything else.  I would call that an epiphany!

About the Author:

Monika Mitchell is the Executive Director and Editor-in-chief of Good Business International, Inc. (GoodB). She founded GoodB in response to the growing need to unify and support the global good business community.

The Nepal Blog, submitted by our new blog contributor Ethan Steinberg, an 18 year old student at Miami University (Ohio),  is an enlightening array of  lessons and discoveries from a trip he took to Nepal this summer.

But…before you indulge into his wisdom…a few words from Ethan about who he is and why being a part of PlanetChange2012 is important to him:

As an activist and global citizen I believe that Planet Change has hit on something very important: positive change and active dialogue, and I am also eager to make positive change a functioning reality.  As a blogger, I find that we can better understand each other through discourse, the essence on which this blog is based.  Through discussion the world becomes a better place as we choose to search for peace through understanding.  I work to get all the details and as many perspectives as possible when approaching a situation, which I feel is reflected in my writing.  The Nepal blog entries were written to act as an update for my family and friends as I traveled.  The implications of my trip and its lessons have become a helping hand for many and I hope they continue to inspire.  Moreover, I want my writing to inspire as well.

To read the full nepal blog entry pleae click here:  Nepal blog entry

Really what difference does it make why? The real questions are, is it the right thing and will it diminish public criticism? After all, according to one CEO, these firms are doing “God’s Work.”

Employees at the big bailout firms stand to make even bigger gains for last year’s debacle than previously imagined. With the help of friends in high places, the “too-big-to-fail” banks have roared back to the top of the charts and execs expect to be paid for it. Bonuses are to be announced in late January and early February and are guaranteed to stir up ire among the long-suffering public. Some of Goldman’s efforts to soothe public resentments have included earmarking $500m for “small business education in community colleges” and $61m more to build urban affordable housing. Global investment banks are considering making employee tithing an official part of their business model.

Wall Street firms, including the greed-is-good 1980s Solomon Brothers, have long given back to the community. Junk Bond King Michael Milken has been one of the financial industries largest philanthropists since his release from prison in 1993. George Soros who “broke the Bank of England” has been an unceasing benefactor for many of the world’s neediest for decades.

Financial firms have built schools, underwritten libraries, created poverty programs, fought deadly diseases, and supported environmental sustainability and social entrepreneurship – all in an effort to balance the scales of prosperity.

Three of the biggest contributors to the fallen firefighters’ widows and children funds after the September 11 attacks were Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, and Goldman Sachs. All the big Street firms gave hundreds of millions of dollars to rebuild the city and honor its fallen heroes. No one in New York ever forgot that.

So what is different now? Isn’t this what capitalism is all about? Making a profit and circulating it back to the people? Of course. Yet any firm that used bailout funds to get back on its feet is no longer viewed as a pure capitalistic venture. With the official label of “too-big-to-fail,” the public sees these firms as government-backed. Therefore the old rules of capitalism no longer apply. Giving a portion of profits to personal charities does little for those losing their homes or the millions of middle-class jobless who took the fall for others.

Since the days of Andrew Carnegie, people have confused good business with philanthropy. The titans of yesteryear, like Carnegie and Rockefeller, established the big business standard of supporting the arts and other non-profits. These men forced people to work at subsistence level wages in subhuman conditions, and then built libraries and schools for the same folks. In the 19^th century selective philanthropy balanced the scales, in the 21^st century it does not.

Business has an obligation to give back to the community that supports it. Therefore, charitable giving is a basic reality for any profitable company. However, in the past year it has become unmistakably clear that business also has an obligation not to profit by exploiting that community.

A great example of this model is the former investment bank Bear Stearns. The Bear was one of the most reckless subprime mortgage securities houses leading to the financial crisis. In the 2000’s, Bear Stearns also set the trend for “giving” by requiring top executives to contribute 4% of their income to charity. Levered at over 40 to one, Bear’s flimsy underwriting standards and outsized trading risk brought the behemoth firm down. Following in its footsteps were Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers, both high flying mortgage market makers and generous patrons. The loss of Lehman and Bear to the greater New York not-for-profit community has been heart-breaking.

Yet charitable giving by these firms has not made up for the financial devastation left behind in their wake. Donating 4% to a favorite charity while crushing the working and middle classes has not satisfied stressed taxpayers. The same people who lost their incomes and perhaps their homes directly due to market mayhem are asked to accept charitable donations to quell their rage. Hardly a reasonable offering.

While firms cannot earmark 10% of profits for philanthropy without enraging shareholders, they can invoke the “charity clause.” Setting aside 5-10% of earnings for top producers to support a special community fund might establish better relations with the public after all – if that fund is funneled into a program that supports those affected directly.

For example, Goldman has set aside $16bn in a 2009 bonus pool. What if $1.6bn of this executive fund was used to finance small business loans at zero percent, refinance at-risk homeowners, pay a portion of monthly mortgage payments for unemployed homeowners, or seed money to social entrepreneurship start-ups who guarantee they will hire U.S. workers? These may be highly unusual solutions for profit-seeking Wall Street, but these extraordinary times require extraordinary measures.

This week, the top banking chiefs expressed mia culpa for the industry’s part in the economic crisis. Apologies are due, but actions are imperative. Earmarking a portion of bonus checks to plaster your name above the public library door isn’t going to relieve suffering or reduce anger. Real and effective solutions to current economic dilemmas are expected from both the government and financial industry.

To calm the ire of the seething public, firms do need to acknowledge their part in the nation’s misery, but not by following the path of Gilded Age robber barons. The way to rectify ongoing economic fallout is not through subjective “charitable giving,” but through genuine proactive restitution and reform.

About the Author:

Monika Mitchell is the Executive Director and Editor-in-chief of Good Business International, Inc. (GoodB). She founded GoodB in response to the growing need to unify and support the global good business community.

Europe Saves the Planet

You know all those extra cell phone chargers that you don’t know what to do with? Now these useless gadgets can go to the great charger resting place in the sky aka: the dump. Unfortunately, they are not recyclable or biodegradable. Not to mention how costly they become every time we “upgrade” our phones. A waste of money, waste of plastic, and just plain waste!

Well, the environmentally savvy European Union has done it again and come to the rescue! Europe saves dollars and our planet on the plan for a universal cell phone charger. Apple, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson, and five other companies struck a deal with the European Union (EU) this year. Read More

The Gold Standard

French-based luxury jeweler Cartier has vowed to buy only “sustainable gold” for their gems. Similar to Fair Trade coffee, Cartier is working with the non-profit PACT to buy gold from smaller miners to improve their economic conditions. Pact’s stated mission is to help poorer nations “build empowered communities.”

Additionally, Cartier has joined ranks with a consortium of civic-minded gem companies, the Responsible Jewellery Council (RSJ), to promote “responsible ethical, human rights, social and environmental practices in a transparent and accountable manner throughout the industry from mine to retail.” Read More

The Holy Grail of Free Markets: Competition

Antitrust laws in Europe and the U.S. are very clear that competition in the marketplace is a fundamental value of modern business. Much of the criticism surrounding global banking and official bailouts has been centered on the interference with free market competition in the wake of government aid.

Competition is held so sacred that Microsoft was aggressively litigated in the U.S. and Europe for anti-trust infringement. The tech company was forced to pay hundreds of millions in penalties to the EU and the U.S. Simon Johnson, former IMF economist and MIT professor, expressed a persuasive view in The “Quiet Coup” that financial institutions, particularly in the U.S., are monopolies.

A one day annual conference, European Competition Day, was held in early October in Stockholm to encourage European countries and the EU to keep market competition open.

Read More

(Good Business International, Inc.)

What determines a hero? Some noble act that compels a person to become greater than they imagined they could be –to go beyond the ordinary to become extraordinary.

Plato wrote, “A hero is born among a hundred, a wise man is found among a thousand, but an accomplished one might not be found even among a hundred thousand men.”

If you looked at a crowd of 100 firefighters, you might find many heroes. If you examined a large investment bank of 30,000 employees, you might find few or none.

Typically heroes go into heroic trades. Wall Street is not one of these. There are far too few heroes in the world of high finance. The industry is full of people who want to make the big bucks, the fast bucks—at any cost. But are there any heroes on Wall Street?…

Perhaps surprisingly, there are a few. Maybe not heroes like a firefighter or medic on a battlefield, perhaps just persons of quality and courage.

Over the past decade leading to our financial system’s collapse, a few errant professionals stand out—“errant” meaning off the beaten track.

A top managing director, “Joe,” at a major firm consistently stood up at every mortgage division meeting and voiced his objections to risky subprime. At the expense of his own compensation, he insisted, “We shouldn’t be securitizing these loans; the default rates will be high.” “Sit down.” they told him at every meeting and each time he stood up. After the collapse of his firm, he was tapped by another firm to head their securities division.

There was the Lehman commercial real-estate manager who warned that firm was growing too large, too fast. “We used to know each other’s families when I started here. Now there is a sea of strangers all posting profits for their immediate gain.” Referring to executive compensation, he famously remarked, “Isn’t $3m enough? Do we really need $6m?”

There was another Lehman analyst who warned that top execs didn’t understand the dangerous risks of derivatives. He encouraged management to school themselves and was fired for his effort.

The structured finance guy “Jason,” who shocked his team by taking a bad trade off the books. A bond quickly soured causing his pension fund client to suffer huge losses. When the client called him to complain about his perceived dishonesty, he said, “You son of a bitch, you f***ed me.” The bond salesman responded, “Tear up the ticket.” “What?” asked the incredulous investor. “You heard me. Tear up the ticket. I don’t want to make money this way.”

The senior manager at another major firm routinely used responsible risk measures to underwrite loans and credit. He was replaced for his caution by ex-Lehman cowboys after the financial system collapsed.

The Ivy League analyst who warned the head mortgage trader that the loans he was trading were faulty. He was repeatedly ignored and left to go to another firm that might value his view more. The new firm did value his view and substantially diminished their future losses.

A PhD quant at Wachovia questioned the bank’s most costly deals. Before the purchase of the soon-to-fail bucket shop lender Golden West, Wachovia asked the quant to finagle the ”numbers” so the deal would go through.  The analyst refused saying the company was loaded with faulty loans and not worth the purchase price. Wachovia managers ignored his counsel and went ahead with the doomed acquisition. The analyst left the firm citing untenable ethics violations as Wachovia crumbled under the weight of the new merger.

The Merrill Lynch top equity manager that believed people were more important than profits.  When asked why he trusted his people so much he said, “I hire guys that hate to lose, but don’t need to win.” Unfortunately for him, his counterparts in fixed income didn’t feel the same way.

The star distressed debt manager who promised that no matter what, he would never “screw” a client. He was often met with great opposition from upper management for his integrity, but continued to stand his ground.

Then there are those individuals of some conscience who can’t quite find the courage to stand up. Glen, a CDO trader at one of the big commercial banks, was told by his employers to ramp up securitizing bad loans. When he objected, his superiors said, “Either you do it or we get someone else.” The father of four opted to stick it out and continued flooding the market with toxic debt. Glen complained of many dark nights of the soul. “I haven’t slept in months,” he said in the weeks prior to his firm’s collapse. He is most likely “sleeping fine” these days since his income has been securitized by the U.S. government.

Unfortunately, for insiders and outsiders, there are many more “Glens” and far less “Joes and Jasons” to be found in the financial industry. The Courage to Stand Up is left for the rare few. The important thing however, is they do exist.

The rest of the mere mortals, those with a conscience but without the conviction to follow through on their beliefs like Glen, find that fighting the tide of unethical behavior in the financial industry is an impossible task. There is virtually no support for it. Quite the contrary. More often than not there is aggressive opposition to it.

Ethics on Wall Street often amounts to a ten minute survey, once a quarter, over a computer screen. Too little, too late, too shocking. There are no real ethics endemic to Wall Street that any normal working person would recognize. The industry is predicated upon getting over and getting even.

Yet there are thousands (really) of individuals who are otherwise honorable in their personal lives; they are decent friends and spouses, dedicated philanthropists, and pillars of their community. They secretly yearn for the business of money to be founded on more honor and less scam. One former head of a now defunct investment bank said, “85% of the business would work for less if they knew that the industry and senior management supported them in ethical practices.” But they don’t. Top Brass at big and small firms not only don’t support it, they don’t care to. Are they all without character? Or is it simply that in the words of one disheartened hedge fund partner, “the game is fixed. We can’t change it even if we wanted to.” (He wants to.)

Managers are concerned with being outmaneuvered by rivals. They can’t chance ignoring the rules of an entire industry and be left in the dust. It would take a brave firm indeed to be the first to step up and out and say, “We are changing the rules of finance and producing value, not fluff. “

If senior management doesn’t set new boundaries, how can we expect the supporting troops to do so? In war, you are only as brave as your commander. It is up to the generals to improve the battlefield conditions and to establish the rules of the game.

So what do we do to change a system that is believed to be “fixed?” The Big Boys at the top of the firms must find the courage (or simple savvy) to stand up and do things differently. They have to take matters in their own hands and bring back prestige and honor to the business of finance. Waiting for Congress to find its Cahungas could take years or even decades.

Yet our lawmakers should not be allowed to continue to put their heads in the sand. It is up to our lawmakers to stem the tide of outsized corruption and begin to make laws in the bond markets that mirror those in the equity markets. The culture of excess and deceit is flourishing again in the financial industry for want of a sound replacement. In order for any constructive change to take place in the financial industry, an environment of ethical business must be created to support it.

Who will take the first plunge to right the wrongs of the past? Who will be the first maverick firm to bring “real ethics” (not perfunctory “best practice” surveys) to the industry?

Those questions are unanswered as we review the landscape of national and global economic destruction and read the headlines of record bonuses earmarked for the most flagrant ethics violators.

One person stands out among the fray. He is attempting to civilize an industry that does not wish to be civilized. He is bringing “ethics” to an industry that often mistakes pushing the edge of the law for “best practices.” He believes he can bring back in vogue the once Holy Grail of “My Word is My Bond.”

He believes it is possible to create a kinder, gentler Wall Street, because he claims, “There are a lot of good ‘guys’ in the business.” I don’t know–maybe there are. I remain as skeptical as the rest of America.

That one person is Peter Ressler, the Sage of Wall Street and one of the co-founders of Good Business International, Inc. He is a business ethics expert. Peter writes a column for GoodB called, “Ressler on the Street.”

Peter has created an innovative Ethics Program specifically geared to financial institutions. The program is unlike anything else out there- not software, not surveys, not “best practices,” not leadership coaching. The program addresses real ethical challenges faced by thousands of industry professionals and provides solutions for bridging the gap between ethics and profits.

Ironically, Peter is both a volunteer firefighter and a 30 year Wall Street veteran. He is that one in a hundred, and perhaps that one in one hundred thousand. If we don’t have many heroes in the financial industry, at least we have a few. If we don’t have a few, at the very least we have one.

A hero, according to mythologist Joseph Campbell, is one who gives his or her life over “to something bigger than oneself.”  Perhaps, we can’t all be heroes. Yet each of us can find the courage somewhere deep in our souls to stand up when we see a wrong we can right. Especially since we now understand the high cost of turning the other way.

Ethics on Wall Street should not be an oxymoron. It is up to all of us, within the industry and without, to answer the call of a more honorable and just financial system. Let the process begin…

In America in the 1930s, a chicken in every pot was the social goal. People in the Great Depression were literally starving.  Anyone with parents or grandparents who lived through those times is familiar with stories of struggle and strife. In the 1940s, defending our freedom was the call of duty for every citizen. War brides dreaded the sight of uniformed men at the door and mothers prayed for their sons to return home alive.  Honor and freedom were the goals citizen’s strove for on both sides of the Atlantic. In the 1950s, a safe and secure life climbing up the corporate ladder was all any family could want. Moms stayed at home baking apple pie and dads worked to put two cars in the garage. Fathers Knew Best, kids were respectful, and a common morality ruled.

In the 1960s, things got a bit more real again. A throwback to the 1940s, principles of right and wrong, justice and injustice threw the nation into a state of turmoil. We didn’t always believe the same thing, but at least we had beliefs. The 1970s brought with it a new restlessness in post-war America. There was no cause to fight for anymore. The apathy led to the Culture of Greed.

Oliver Stone made a movie ironically intended to expose the superficiality of the world of finance. Instead the Hollywood version of the money machine made Greed a Star. Gordon Gekko became an American idol and profit at any cost became glamorous.

It didn’t matter how you made money anymore, just that you made it. You could beg, borrow, and steal to get to the top and it was all acceptable. It was simply “good” business…

Now a new kind of good business is breaking through to the other side. No longer a fringe idea for those outside of society, the Business of Good is one of the biggest industries in the New Economy.

The Wall Street Journal, one of the Greed culture’s loudest voices, reported this week on the move of talented college grads out of finance and into “doing good” professions. A MIT graduate student who originally intended to go to Lehman Brothers switched his plan to engineering and solar-power technology. New grads are flocking in droves to social entrepreneurship careers, social advocacy start-ups, better world businesses, and environmentally sound green business endeavors.

Phew! More proof that there is silver lining in every dark cloud.  And it only took a major economic catastrophe to do it!

Monika Mitchell,  New Economics

GoodB, Inc. Executive Director, www.goodb.net

Friday, September 4, 2009

The Twelve: An Awesome Novel, If You Ask Me

The Twelve By William Gladstone

“A short while ago I wrote a post called, “2012: The End of the World as We Know It?” I’m SO glad I did because soon after that I was contacted about this new book, The Twelve (by William Gladstone), that will be available on September 9.

I’m not a huge fan of doing book reviews, but I LOVED this book! I could NOT put it down. I even read it in the car, during the road trip, risking major car-sickness… it was well worth it. I LOVED this book (did I already say that?). It’s kinda hard for me to review it objectively because I enjoyed it so much…”

Click here to read the rest and to find out why this blogger loved THE TWELVE so much!

Check out one of his messages here, or watch it below. And be sure to search for his other videos on Youtube for other recent important messages and inspiration…

(Thanks to Gayle for this post.)

Children of the New Dream
Interview with Drunvalo Melchizedek By Diane Cooper

Diane: So Drunvalo…who are these “Children of the New Dream” that you are so excited about?

Drunvalo: Well there are 3 different kinds of children emerging in the world today that I have been able to identify. The first are called the “Super Psychic Children of China.” The second are called the “Indigo Children” and the third are called the “Children of AIDS.”

….It is the third group that I am most interested in–the “Children of AIDS.” About 10 or 11 years ago in the US, there was a baby born with AIDS. They tested him at birth and at 6 months and he tested positive for AIDS. They tested him a year later and he still tested positive. Then they didn’t test him again until he was 6, and what was amazing is that this test showed that he was completely AIDS free! In fact, there was no trace that he ever had AIDS or HIV whatsoever! He was taken to UCLA to see what was going on and those tests showed that he didn’t have normal human DNA.

In the human DNA we have 4 nucleic acids that combine in sets of 3 producing 64 different patterns that are called codons. Human DNA all over the world always has 20 of these codons turned on and the rest of them are turned off, except for 3 which are the stop and start codes, much like a computer. Science always assumed that the ones that were turned off were old programs from our past. I’ve always seen them like application programs in a computer. Anyway…this boy had 24 codons turned on — 4 more than any other human being. Then they tested this kids to see how strong his immune system was. They took a very lethal dose of AIDS in a petri dish and mixed it with some of his cells and his cells remained completely unaffected. They kept raising the lethalness of the composition and finally went up to 3,000 times more than what was necessary to infect a human being and his cells stayed completely disease free.

Then they started testing his blood with other things like cancer and discovered that this kid was immune to everything! Then they found another kid with these codons turned on–then another one then another one–then 10,000, then 100,000, then a million of them and at this point, UCLA, by watching world-wide DNA testing, estimates that 1% of the world has this new DNA. That breaks down to approximately 60 million people who are not human by the old criteria.

Diane: Is this new codon activation found only in newborn children?

Drunvalo: Well, it’s mostly children, but now they are finding adults with it too–just like the hundredth monkey theory. Now all kinds of people are being affected by it and its spreading fast.

Remember, it started just 5 years ago with almost no one and now it’s spreading–just like a disease. It’s like an outbreak and this is only the beginning.

The other part of this concerns the new book entitled “Cracking the Bible Code”–which has to do with running the Hebrew Books of the Bible through a specialized computer program. If you go to page 164 of this book, it shows where these researchers put the word AIDS into the program to see what would happen. When they did, the program translation provided words like “HIV,” “in the blood,” “the immune system,” “death” — all the things you would think youd s’ee around the word AIDS, but down in the corner was this sentence that they didn’t understand and it said — “the end of disease,” and that is what I believe is happening here.

“Science has stated that there are so many people showing up with this new alien DNA that they now believe that a new human race is being born on the earth today and apparently they can’t get sick.”

Now what is really incredible — they believe that it is a very specific emotional, mental body response — a waveform coming off the body that is causing the DNA to mutate in a certain way. I’ve sat with Gregg Braden who was one of the first persons to write about this and what we believe is that there are 3 parts to this phenomenon.

“The first part is the mind that sees Unity.” It sees the Flower of Life. It sees everything interconnected in all ways. It doesn’t see anything as separate. And the “second part is being centered in the heart–to be Loving.” And the “third thing is to step out of polarity–to no longer judge the world.” As long as we are judging the world as good or bad, then we are inside polarity and remain in the fallen state. I believe these people (with the new DNA) have somehow stepped out of judging and are in a state where they see everything as one and feeling Love. Whatever they are doing within themselves is producing a waveform that when seen on computer screens looks almost identical to the DNA molecule. So the researchers think that by the very expression of their life that these people are mapping with the DNA — resonating it — and are changing these 4 codons and in so doing become immune to the disease. What they don’t know and this is where a lot of research gets to happen is so maybe they are immune, but is there anything else? They might be immortal, who knows. Maybe there are other characteristics that we haven’t even dreamed of. I often wonder if they are all linked together? Is there some form of telepathic connection that goes on?

Diane: Have you met any of these people? Are they accessible?

Drunvalo: Well, I’ve known about this for over two years and I have personally followed this path and I think I’ve moved into what they are doing. I have gone into the merkabah and asked my subconscious mind to change my codons in the same way and ever since I began to do this over two years ago, I haven’t been able to get sick. I don’t know if I’ve been able to change them or not. I guess the only way I’d know is with a DNA test. However, Iv’e been exposed to all kinds of things and when someone gets sick I purposely get close to them and try to get it. I’ve been trying to get sick — and I can’t feel something come on — it will last maybe an hour and then it’s gone. What is interesting is that hardly any of this new DNA is found in the Super Psychic Children of China — almost zero. It is, however, being found in Russia and the U.S. There seems to be pockets of it and if what we are thinking is right — it has to do with a very specific response which is where most people in the New Age are headed for.

Diane: Do you think these people are creating the DNA changes
unconsciously?

Drunvalo: I think someone has made the path — one child did it
somewhere. Then he put it into the grids and it is now in the subconscious of the earth and is accessible to anyone. Once that happened I think somehow or another other people have connected to this on a subconscious level in deep meditation and prayer and made the change. A new race is being born and it is one of the most remarkable phenomenon that has happened on the planet! It’s incredible that no one seems to know about this until now!

Diane: Well, you are the only one I’ve ever heard speak about this.

Drunvalo: Well, I’ve been tracking this for about 2 years and I’ve waited to say anything because I wanted to make sure it was real. In the book called “The Indigo Children” there has been extensive research on these children. There are websites you can go to if you’re a parent where they begin to interview you about exactly what’s going on with your child. Like I said earlier, these kids know exactly what you’re feeling and what you’re thinking. You can’t hide anything from them. It’s really amazing! I see it as a phenomenon like the ETs except they aren’t coming here in spaceship form–they are coming here in spirit form making it personal by coming into the earth’s evolutionary cycle and joining with us. I’ve often thought that when spirits come in on the right side of the planet–Japan, China, and Tibet for instance, the incarnating being takes on the psychic characteristics (of those people), and if they come in on the western side–the logical side (i.e., physical characteristics)–then the DNA comes in changed. But that’s just speculation on my part. I’m just looking at this and trying to understand what is occurring. At the workshops I’m going to do, I’m going to bring everything I’ve learned together and teach people to actually access this and make the change. I think I know–or I’m very close.

Diane: And that has to do with putting yourself in a certain state of consciousness?

Drunvalo: Yes, a very specific state of consciousness produces a change in your DNA–and I think it’s just the beginning of much more than that. The fact that it could be the end of disease is just a tiny bit of the total picture.

Diane: How would this particular kind of work and discovery affect the DNA activation work that seems to be popping up all over?

Drunvalo: Well, if you know your light body and you know how psychic energy works and if you understand the connection of the subconscious to all life on this planet, then you can go in and ask your subconscious. “Your subconscious knows exactly which codons those kids have changed and if you ask for those things to happen through your light body and in the presence of God,” it should occur. “[/b]It also requires dropping polarity–no longer thinking in terms of good or bad but seeing the wholeness and completion and perfection of life.” It is a very definite mind, emotional and body response. The body response is the one where your body simply does not acknowledge good or bad but sees that there is a higher purpose behind it all. We all know this stuff–everyone from Jesus to Krishna to Sai Baba has been talking about this for a long time, but this is the first I’m aware of where something actually is changing in the outer environment. People’s DNA is really changing. There have been many of us who have talked about this–but none of this had been seen by science. Now it has been seen, and it has been documented.

Diane: So, if that’s the case, then what significance does that have on our lives today?

Drunvalo: I believe that all of us have the choice to follow this particular pattern that the children have set up or not. It is said that “the children will lead the way.” If we wish to and we trust these children, as I do, one of the side effects is the immunity to disease.

Diane: There are a lot of us who are choosing immortality. However, some people would say that to be immune to disease is also to upset the life/death cycle which has supposedly helped to keep the planet in balance. How would you answer that?

Drunvalo: Well, I just don’t judge it. This is happening and if it is going to upset the cycle and it probably will in some way–everything that is occurring in life has a reason and purpose for it. Perhaps these people who don’t get sick anymoreerhaps they won’t even die anymore and maybe their consciousness is so aligned with the original purpose of earth that ultimately it would mean an earth that is whole and complete and not one that is polluted and deadly and overtaxed. We could easily live with 6 billion people or 20 billion…if…we live differently. There is plenty of space, and it’s just that we are using our resources in ways that are killing the planet. If we were to choose to live in different ways, that might change. Maybe through these people the answers might become apparent. For someone to move into a state where they are immune to disease is a very powerful indication that they are definitely in harmony with life somehow. We can equate this process with the mutation of bacteria and viruses. We attack their systems with pollutants such as penicillin for instance, and it kills them all except for a few. Those few get stronger. Now what’s happening is that these bacteria are getting to the place where they are immune to the poisons we are giving them. And have we not done the same thing? We are mutating to a point where we are not affected by pollution or viruses or by disease. And you know, there is another thing that happened last year — AIDS dropped something like 47% — the largest drop of a single disease in the history of the world. I believe that it had a lot to do with this very thing we are talking about.

Diane: That’s exciting!

Drunvalo: Yes, it is. I just let the earth prompt me where to go. Of course, it is important to know our light bodies and how to use them, but the children are very carefully saying–come this way–and see where this leads.