Indra Adnan (Part 1) - Reimagining Power, Politics, and Possibilities: An Alternative Vision

Ep. 31 (Part 1 of 2) | Socio-psychotherapist and political consultant Indra Adnan brings forth a compelling, fresh, and powerfully practical alternative vision for our politics and our world, based on bringing people and communities together in relationship to effect real planetary transformation. Indra states that the solutions to our problems exist; we just need to be able to access them, and it is at the cosmo-local community agency networks (CANs) level that we can develop responses to current crises like climate and social justice most effectively. Indra discusses how the internet has dissolved the line between the private and the public space, especially for women and the underprivileged, and asks us to imagine what the public space would look like if all our voices were heard. Rather than focusing on our disconnectedness, Indra suggests we focus on the miracle of our connectedness in this moment and drop the dividing lines that keep us stuck in disadvantageous, unempowered lives. In this conversation, the possibilities of putting Indra’s alternative vision into effect are palpable—this is a remarkable reimagining of how things could be where political agency works from the bottom up to effect systemic transformation for the benefit of all. Recorded May 18, 2022.

“Let’s drop the boundaries that we have created for ourselves! Let’s drop the things that divide us from others.”

(For Apple Podcast users, click here to view the complete show notes on the episode page.)

Topics & Time Stamps - Part 1

• Introducing Indra Adnan: political innovator, socio-psychotherapist, writer, and consultant on “soft power” to clients such as NATO, the World Economic Forum, and the Brazilian and Danish governments, initiator of an alternative vision for creating systemic transformation (01:16)
• How Indra’s contemplative practice began, creating her own spiritual beliefs, and asking, Where is my power? What control do I have over my life? (4:11)
• Meeting Nichiren Buddhism in Indonesia (06:49)
• The phenomenon of empowerment in action: Look again. Re-imagine. Something else is possible. (07:57)
• What is it we are settling for now? Crises on every side and dependency on politicians in a two-party, competitive system, where the two parties are invested in each other’s failure (11:45)
• The solutions to our problems are already available (so why do we not have access to them?), and how community agency networks (CANs) are taking shape as responses to climate and social justice crises (13:38)
• Cosmo-local CANs can be the new system, providing a new way for the people’s voice to hear itself and be heard (15:20)
• Concept of the 3 realms: the I, the We, and the World—we can all be all 3 of these things, which is essential to understanding how we can have political agency by taking down the barriers between these 3 ways of being (16:13)
• The politics of waking up: there is waking up to the oneness, to engi, but in her book, Indra is talking about a different waking up: waking up to our capacity for connecting, for mobilizing, #softpower (18:33)
• The new space created by the internet and modern technology has created a radical shift of agency, the woke phenomenon (21:42)
• The way women see the possibilities and the future is becoming more and more distinct, i.e. the relational way of being women have always depended on is finding its way into the public space, into community, into politics (23:34)
• How Roger sees the possibilities of this age: a collaborative birthing that will turn out as a function of how we approach it (31:56)
• What can men do? Men have to make space for women to show up. This can mean giving up their place, their seat, their moment in the spotlight (34:06)
• It may be time for men to step into the yin and look at themselves and their relations (37:18)

Resources & References - Part 1

• Indra Adnan, The Politics of Waking Up: Power and Possibility in the Fractal Age*
• Indra Adnan, founder of The Alternative Global, a socio-political platform serving systemic transformation
• Nichiren Buddhism
• What is cosmo-localism?
• Engi, or Pratītyasamutpāda in Sanskrit
• Karen O’Brien, You Matter More Than You Think: Quantum Social Change for a Thriving World*
• Marilyn French, Beyond Power: On Women, Men and Morals*

* As an Amazon Associate, Deep Transformation earns from qualifying purchases.

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Indra Adnan is founder and co-initiator of The Alternative Global, a socio-political platform serving systemic transformation. AltGlobal publishes a Daily Alternative news blog, develops cosmo-local agency networks (CANs) and connects planetary regeneration projects. Indra is concurrently a socio-psychotherapist, writer, and consultant on soft power. Clients have included the Danish and Brazilian governments, World Economic Forum, and NATO. Her book The Politics of Waking Up: Power and Possibility in the Fractal Age was a Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year in 2021.

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Podcast produced by Vanessa Santos and Show Notes by Heidi Mitchell