If you can dream it, you can do it,” is a famous quote attributed to Walt Disney or one of his staff.
As I wrote in my book The World Is As You Dream It, this concept is also expressed by Indigenous shamans around the world.
One of the themes in my new book Touching the Jaguar: Transforming Fear into Action to Change Your Life and the World is that our perceptions mold reality. There are no religions, cultures, countries, corporations etc. until people perceive the idea of these, accept certain values that define behavior supporting that idea, and then take actions to manifest it. When enough of us accept a perception or codify it into law, it changes reality.
An audience member at one of my talks objected to this, saying, “the dream of a prisoner for early release does not necessarily come true.”
“That’s where actions come in,” I replied. “The prisoner starts with the dream, but then has to set in motion actions that will facilitate his early release (for example, perceiving ways to convince authorities that he should be freed ‘for good behavior’ or perceiving methods to obtain new evidence of his innocence). But you raise an important point,” I continued. “The dream does not change reality; rather, it inspires the dreamer to do things that will change reality. When we ‘touch the jaguar,’ we confront our fears – the obstacles that have convinced us that we can’t change – and use them to energize and empower us to take actions that will alter reality.”
History informs us that every major event that altered human societies, every revolution, started with a change in perception – a dream for doing things differently. The dream had to be followed by actions. When resistance occurred, as it almost always did, it stirred the juices of the revolutionaries to try harder, to adopt new strategies, to be more creative.
We all know that we are living at a critical time in human history. Our way of life – the reality we’ve created around material success, short-term profits, and personal benefits at the expense of the common good – are resulting in climate change, species extinctions, and the many other catastrophic events that overwhelm us every time we hear or read the latest news.
People who advocate for and act to create change are today’s revolutionaries. Ours is a Consciousness Revolution. As expected, we are meeting strong resistance. Political and economic elites are fighting back, trying to downplay the catastrophic events, defending the destructive status quo. History supports our efforts. It tells us that their reactions should give us strength, stir our juices to try harder, adopt new strategies, be more creative – and to know that we are winning.
As we enter this new year and say good-bye to the 20-teens, let’s remember that perceptions mold reality. Let’s commit to moving from perceptions that emphasize short-term materialistic gains to ones that honor an environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling, socially just human presence on this amazing planet that is our home. The Consciousness Revolution is rising to new levels.
John Perkins is a founder and board member of Dream Change & The Pachamama Alliance, non-profit organizations devoted to establishing a world future generations will want to inherit & the author of the NY Times bestseller, Confessions Of An Economic Hitman.