EP 133: Reframing in the House of our Mind - Eric Meade
Apr 10, 2022
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The podcast explores Eric Mead's journey into futurism and his experiences in reframing poverty, the home mind, and creating safe spaces for conversations about the future. It also highlights the importance of reframing issues for creative solutions and discusses Eric's upcoming trip to Australia and his interest in future discussions.
Building a supportive community is crucial for personal growth in the futures and foresight field.
Whole Mind Facilitation integrates thought, emotion, and intuition to generate insights and strategies for positive change.
Deep dives
The Eric Mead Story: From Redemption to a Futurist
Eric Mead describes his personal journey as a redemption story, recognizing that life is a work in progress. He found his way into the futures and foresight community through a serendipitous encounter and attending a conference. The field appealed to his inclination for creative thinking and exploring new perspectives. Eric emphasizes the importance of finding like-minded individuals who share the same inclination, creating a supportive community. His entry into the field was marked by the generosity and openness of the futurist community, which inspired him to embrace his authentic self and be open to different perspectives.
Whole Mind Facilitation: Creating Space for New Thinking
Eric Mead's approach to his work as a futurist revolves around a concept he calls Whole Mind Facilitation. This approach recognizes the three domains of the human mind: thought, emotion, and intuition. By envisioning these domains as a house, with thought and intuition on the first floor and emotion in the basement, Eric emphasizes the importance of navigating the emotional space to bridge the gap between thought and intuition. Whole Mind Facilitation aims to create a safe and open space for participants to explore new ideas, challenge existing thinking patterns, and make connections between different domains of the mind. By integrating thought, emotion, and intuition, Eric helps individuals and groups generate insights and develop strategies for positive change.
Reframing Poverty: A New Perspective on an Age-old Issue
Eric Mead's book, 'Reframing Poverty,' offers a fresh approach to understanding and addressing the issue of poverty. Rather than providing a how-to guide for solving poverty, Mead focuses on challenging prevailing views and reframing the conversation. He examines the four prevailing views of poverty over the past 500 years and argues that all views have some validity. Mead suggests that instead of arguing or dismissing different perspectives, it is important to integrate and learn from them. Using concepts from development psychology and complexity theory, Mead encourages a long-term perspective on poverty and emphasizes the interconnectedness of all individuals in society when considering poverty alleviation.
The Emergence of Multiple Futures: Progress, Extinction, and Acceptance
Eric Mead's exploration of the emerging futures is influenced by his personal experiences and reflections on global challenges. He identifies three distinct views of the future: progress, extinction, and acceptance. The progress view retains optimism, recognizing the potential for a transformative future that requires perseverance through difficult times. The extinction view acknowledges the pressing challenges of issues like nuclear weapons and climate change, contemplating how humanity can confront the prospect of extinction with dignity. The acceptance view embraces the present as messy and imperfect while recognizing the patterns of history and the ongoing individual and collective journeys. Mead suggests that holding all three views simultaneously can lead to a more nuanced and balanced approach to navigating the future.
