By Carl Teichrib
In April 1997 I attended my first research event, the Global Citizenship 2000 Youth Congress. It was a defining moment in that I came face-to-face with the importance of direct observation — the necessity of first-hand analysis — resulting in many more research trips. Indeed, it profoundly shaped the direction of my work.
For this post I dug-up my long buried report from GC2000, written in April/May 1997, then re-published later that fall by author Gary Kah in his quarterly newsletter, Hope For The World Update. As I re-typed the article (no digital version existed), I was struck by two things:
The relevance: global citizenship education is now pervasive and is a powerful tool for shaping impressionable young minds. It has played a role in shifting an entire generation’s worldview and purpose, creating armies of social activists.
Changes in my writing: I have done little to doctor this article, so what you’re reading is a window into my younger self, and it shows. I was 29 at the time.
Finally, for paid subscribers, there are twelve downloadable reports and articles at the end of this essay — materials from GC2000, and former UN official Robert Muller.
“Welcome… global citizens!”
With these words, Dr. Desmond Berghofer, Chairman of the International Foundation for Learning, officially opened the Global Citizenship 2000 Youth Congress. Between April 4-6, 1997, at the one thousandth day before the year 2000, the colossal Vancouver Public Library in British Columbia, Canada, became the “visioneering” epicenter of the world. We had gathered to make global history.
Friday evening, April 4, educators, community leaders, and approximately 150 children congregated in the Library Concourse to celebrate Global Citizenship. This was no ordinary gathering! Philip Owen, Mayor of Vancouver – unable to attend – passed along his support to the Congress. The children, students from British Columbia’s lower mainland schools, marched in carrying banners with themes of Global Citizenship. And Edith, Wallace, a gifted Canadian performer with a “higher calling,” sang about the fire within and our planetary home. But it wasn’t a Canadian who stole the show. In the words of organizer Dr. Geraldine Schwartz, President of the International Foundation of Learning, the man to inspire and move the Congress was a “planet elder.” Dr. Robert Muller took the spotlight to the roar of applause.
This is what I had come for, to witness the birth of a new era in education; “Education for Global Citizenship.” According to the organizers, this was an historic event, a time of planning and commitment, a time to celebrate the dawning of a New Age.
Global Citizenship 2000 was a marriage of Robert Muller’s World Core Curriculum, the “Visioneering” process of Berghofer and Schwartz, and mainstream education. The purpose:
…to launch a project to encourage our youth to see themselves as global citizens… promoting global education in the curriculum of our schools, and to celebrate the common energy… The central idea of the Congress is that young people be brought together as teams of creative energy, working with their teachers and community leaders to show how and what we all must learn to become global citizens in the 21st century.1
These opening ceremonies created, through Robert Muller, the inspiration and energy necessary for Saturday’s tasks. The next day, we were told, all participants and Global Citizen passport holders would embark on a journey of global visioneering.
Visioneering the Future
To understand what happened in Vancouver, it’s vital to know what visioneering is. Dr. Berghofer’s book, The Visioneers, paints an incredible picture of world transformation. Berghofer’s vision discards national borders, unites religions, and brings peace on Earth through a renewed relationship with the planet. Visioneering is an evolutionary concept elevating humanity beyond the traditional to embrace global citizenship. To do this, one must be a “visioneer.” That is, one must use the mind’s creative energy to elevate attitudes, values and behaviors into proper global frameworks.
Visioneering is “going out of your mind to explore the future and shape it to your liking – to shape it so well that you feel yourself moving comfortably into it.”2 Visioning “embraces faculties of mind little used in the past, but ready to be developed when we choose to do so.”3
This was our task, to use both Muller’s personal inspiration and his World Core Curriculum in developing group visions towards Global Citizenship. Just how far does this go? Berghofer reveals,
The big truth… is that people can choose to become connected through their minds to the energy of universal creative intelligence. If enough do so, they can set in motion a wave of creative initiative to usher in an era of unprecedented harmony and collaboration worldwide.4
Visioneering “energy” was the lifeblood of the Congress. Schwartz and Berghofer referred to this energy often, both on and off the stage.
But visioneering isn’t a new idea. Throughout the Congress and within the writings of Berghofer, a cord of old was shaping the new. Alice A. Bailey, Muller’s inspiration,5 appears to have inspired Berghofer as well.
In Bailey’s occult classic The Rays and The Initiations: A Treatise on the Seven Rays, she explained that the “Art of Visualisation” will allow expressions of human consciousness to become possible.6 She gives three areas in which this new type of thinking, or “visualisation” will manifest itself:
1) Through the “development of the sense of vision” a new world occult spiritually will “be definitely seen.”
2) “Groups, large wholes and major synthesis will also be visualised, and this will lead to definite expansion of consciousness. Thus the sense of synthesis will be unfolded.”
3) “All creative art will be fostered by this training (visualisation), and the new art of the future… will be rapidly developed as the training proceeds.” According to Bailey, this is a direct result of the unfoldment of visualisation.7
On Saturday, April 5, the Global Citizenship 2000 Youth Congress demonstrated Bailey’s philosophies. Her concept of visualisation fit like a glove.
Indoctrinating Children
About ten schools attended the Congress on Saturday. The children, some as young as six, along with educators and leaders, where given a task of visioneering. Each school constituted a visioneering team with the purpose of deciding what was necessary for Global Citizenship.
Before this task was undertaken, Dr. Schwartz explained the importance of using our minds in a new way, in a way of expanding humanity’s consciousness,
Our minds, our consciousness has got to be equal to the task of the future… This is the most important thing I want you to understand today; that a quality future comes from your mind, from your consciousness, from your heart and from your spirit, from your understanding.
She continued, “We are Global Citizens in a planet that has no true borders and we have to understand the nature and truth of that.”
In keeping with theme of visioneering, Schwartz emphasized the proper vision/value context,
All around the world there are actions that are not right and we have to learn to judge the right action, and when we have decided in our truth, in our heart, that we known what is right, we need to share that with others… when we in community have understood what is right action, then we need to have the most important human quality: the courage to act… and even more than the courage to act in the present, to dream big dreams and to create visions for the future so that we are always visioneering… to plan, to vision, to share what you might do to make a contribution to the great millennium.
Winding down, Schwartz told the students to proudly bare their Global Citizenship 2000 Passports included in the Congress’s information package. Earlier that day, everyone received passports symbolic of their allegiance to Planet Earth. All the basics were covered. Included, once again, in the passports was Robert Muller’s poem “Decide to be a Global Citizen” and the words to the song “This World is Your World.” This poem and song together captured the theme of the conference.
But before our visioneering could commence, Dr. Robert Muller added his foundational philosophies for proper Citizenship.
Muller’s Convincing Emotional Appeal
Introduced as a “planet elder,” Muller related how the Earth was overpopulated, how our present lifestyles and values needed to change, and how it was up to the generation present at the Congress to force the world to embrace “Mother Earth.”
On population, Muller boasted that the United Nations had, as a result of warnings to the world, “prevented the birth of 2 billion, 200 million people.” He also encouraged the Congress to, “try and convince your people to reduce the number of children. This is one of the biggest problems we have on this planet.”
Next, Muller laid out a lengthy scenario of unimaginable environmental destruction. He did this a in a unique way. In talking to the children, he held a hypothetical dialogue between himself and Mother Earth. This had a staggering effect on the participants,
What are you doing to me? How do you think I can continue to have good oxygen for you? How do you think I’m going to have enough water for you? You are killing me! And in certain projections which have been made by scientists now, some of them say that this Earth will become lifeless and uninhabitable within the next fifty years. So do not forget, that if we continue to live and to waste, and to do all the wrong things which we do today, by your age, maybe this planet will be finished. Never forget this, so that the future of the planet is totally in your hands… this is what you have to be taught by your teachers. This is an absolute fundamental knowledge which you must be taught. And remember that when you do something wrong, multiplied by 5.8 billion, this is an incredible quantity of wrong.
Muller continued,
Now this is why you are here sitting in this room, the generation on which the future life on this planet will depend. Either you change your values, or you don’t. If you continue consuming as you do and throwing things away, you will be the responsible generation of having to put an end to all life on this planet. And if you change, if you consider the Earth as being number one, your Mother, then it will change.
This is the new education. On impressionable children, this guilt induced brainwashing had its direct effect. During the question and answer period, one young girl, fighting tears, explained how we humans exterminated animals for our own use.
Children were not the only ones affected. A young mother asked Muller what her family’s optimal size should be. Muller told her two, one to replace yourself, one to replace your partner. After this, a visibly shaken middle-aged mother expressed her gratitude to Muller, “I have brought five children into this world (and at this point she had to fight back tears) and I’m so moved by what you said. I’ve been asleep, my family’s been asleep.”
Later that evening I had a chance to talk to a high school student who was obviously bored during the day. Her parents had dropped her off in the morning, and she didn’t want to be there. We had coffee in the Library Concourse where she explained her belief that the Congress represented “brainwashing.” Twenty minutes later her parents showed up and asked if she wanted to stay for the rest of the evening. Her comments to her parents revealed that she, too, understood the message this mother of five, and the Congress, were conveying: “I want to leave before they convince me not have my five children!” She understood what was going on.
Muller’s last comments before our time of group visioneering revealed the heart of the man. He explained to the Congress how fundamental religions, those religions which “have the total truth,” missed the real point of Jesus and other religious “emissaries.” Muller explained,
…the truth that was given by Jesus, by Muhammad, by these emissaries from outer space, they were really basic truths. And they were so great that the cosmos almost incarnated itself. This is why Jesus said, ‘I am the incarnation of the divine.’ And the Indigenous people, they call it ‘Great Spirit.’ So there was always this fighting to get the message from the outer universe to give us confidence and to tell us how to behave. This is why practically the religions have a great contribution to make to the mystery of life… The only trouble is that their followers, the disciples, they created around these spiritual messages a religion.
Explaining further, he revealed how, through his inspiration, a new organization was taking shape: the United Religions – a blend of Earth-centered “basic truths.” What basic truths does Muller ascribe to? He told these Canadian school children,
…behave correctly towards the Earth… You are not children of Canada, you are really living units of the cosmos because the Earth is a cosmic phenomena… we are all cosmic units. This is why religions tell you, you are divine. We are divine energy… it is in your hands whether evolution on this planet continues or not.
Detailing the plans for United Religions, Muller continued by expanding his vision of the United World. He told us that the United Nations needed to be “tremendously strengthened” or that a “United States of the World” should be modeled after the European Union. Among the ideas Muller presented for a United World included his support for the World Federalists, world regionalism and continental units blending into World Union, and “organizing this planet according to biology.” And if you’ve ever wondered about NAFTA, Muller confirmed that this is merely a development towards regional World Union.
All of this was told to the Congress in order to prepare these children for proper visioneering.
Mind Mapping
After Dr. Muller’s “inspiring message,” every school group was given an assigned space to “mind map” and develop “Millennium Projects.” This was the theory and practice of visioneering, and the entire Saturday afternoon was devoted to it.
Mind mapping is a technique developed for group learning. The idea is to use mind mapping as a predetermined group thinking method to establish consensus of thought. No criticizing the main idea; rather, you must overcome as a group any “valid concerns” and continue on towards the central goal. The goal for each group: to visioneer as a team of creative energy in shaping what you want for the future of Earth – Global Citizenship was the aim.
Towards the end of the afternoon, each team reported their visioneering to the Congress. These visions were to be the school’s plans, or Millennium Projects. Some were elaborate and required global lobbying. For example, the Vancouver Learning Centre proposed a kids United Nations; a Global Citizenship theme park where people would be taught about environmental destruction through imagination; developing and lobbying for a cashless monetary system. Your environmental stewardship would be the basis for your economic security.
Other ideas were as simple as global pen pals. One school committed itself to starting a school “Inter-faith Council.” The team from the Earl Marriott Secondary School presented a drama displaying the philosophy of Global Citizenship. In this drama, a young female student sat on top of a desk, held pine boughs and proclaimed herself “Mother Earth.” Encircling her, other female students took turns laying hands on Mother Earth and individually confessed their environmental sins. In turn, Mother Earth would forgive each student as the girls committed themselves to change their destructive behavior.
The predominant Millennium Projects were school-formed Global Citizenship clubs. Other schools with existing clubs declared their continued service to Earth through deeper global education and community leadership.
World Core Curriculum
Because I came as an independent observer, Dr. Schwartz placed me with the Simon Fraser University Student Teachers. Simon Fraser University (SFU) is a leading university in the lower mainland region of British Columbia. The Millennium Project which Simon Fraser committed to was implementing World Core Curriculum philosophies in current education materials and teachings. Some of the student teachers admitted this wasn’t learning in the traditional sense, but rather values and behavior modification. It was education for creating environmental activists. Understand, this was viewed as positive education.
One SFU student teacher proclaimed, “With us being here, they are planting the seed in us.” Another student teacher explained that Muller’s World Core Curriculum is “what we’re trying to get to.”
A very interesting dialogue between two student teachers showed how warped this thinking is. One of the team members asked, “How do we deal with parental pessimism?” It was explained that if a child’s values could be altered, eventually parental persuasion could be shifted.
The basic idea of SFU student teachers was to push for compulsory World Core Curriculum education with the focus being sustaining the “creative energy” of Global Citizenship. As one SFU team member commented, “Make it a virus – no inoculation – infect everyone.”
Pantheism 101
The Congress ended on Saturday evening with a grand “Festival of Lights.” Students were given flashlights and led at the appropriate time into the darkened Library Concourse to a rousing marching tune. Berghofer explained this was symbolic “because light is the primary energy of the universe.” He went on, “we are dedicating ourselves to act, to use the energy of our historic 1000 days to further our cooperation and visioneering work…”
In thanks to Robert Muller and the other organizers of the event, Dr. Geraldine Schwartz presented solid marble “spirit birds” to those who helped make the Congress a reality. Each spirit bird was carved out of a single slab of “the finest marble in the world,” from “the very same place that Michelangelo got his stone to make David.” We were told the birds represented the freedom to act in and serve as “partners of light, partners of celebration.”
Before midnight, the beginning of the one thousandth day, a drama was presented in which the elephant headed, six armed Hindu god Ganesa made an appearance. The Cultural Metaphors Theatre Workshop professionally dressed a young woman in a Ganesa costume and explained to the children the power of Ganesa,
I have been around for thousands and thousands of years. And you can call on me anytime to remove your thoughts of any obstacles. If you should every worry or anguish… or if life gets you down… whisper and ‘AUM’8… call on loving Ganesa who always is there, for Ganesa is none other than you.
Gaining Public Support
At this point you may be tempted to say that this Congress was only an obscure event, with little or no significance. On the contrary, according to Schwartz, this was a historic event, a first of many more like minded events to usher in the new era. Dr. Robert Muller backed this up,
I do not know if you realize that you’re doing something here which is probably being done for the first time in the entire human history… I am very glad the initiative to do it was taken, because that is exactly what we must do.
If you’re wondering about any outcry from the public sector, there was none. In fact, the Canadian Federal Government through the Minister of Environment generously helped in funding the Congress. For any team wishing to receive money for their Millennium Projects, Environment Canada had a booth set up with Federal application forms to fund the projects.
But by far the most disturbing outcome was revealed by Muller on Saturday afternoon. In a speech to the Congress, Muller proposed to Berghofer and Schwartz that a copy of the Congress’s work should be sent,
…to the mayor of your city, to the Minister of Environment in Canada, to the World Environment Program in Nairobi, to your parliamentarians who represent you in parliament so that they will get an example of what young people are thinking and what they are ready to do. I have a whole list which I will give to Desmond. For example, yes I have UNICEF… the Secretary General of the United Nations, the UN Earth Council in Costa Rica, so that in order to create a movement that other schools will do what you have begun to do here… very practical purposes… communicate them to other authorities, to other schools, to UNESCO… a world program of asking other schools around to do this thinking: ‘What do you propose to save the environment and this world?’ And you will be the first example given by UNESCO of how to (do it). So this is very, very important what you have done today.
Global Citizenship 2000 was the first, and, according to Muller, it won’t be the last. Serving as a UNESCO model of proper global citizenship, the Vancouver Congress has opened the doors for many similar events across North America. Indeed, this was the hope of its organizers.
Without a solid Biblical understanding, our families will have an overwhelming struggle as parents try to raise their children with traditional values and beliefs. Along with knowing the Bible, parents actively need to take a firm stand in education. Parents and students must become fully aware of the plans of the social engineers and world educators.
If what went on in Vancouver can happen openly, without any fear of rebuttal, then our nation has truly slid into an Earth centered pagan culture. Please stand firm in your Christian convictions as the occult “energy” builds in our schools and in our modern culture.
Now is the time to be strong in the Lord!
Twelve downloadable documents are beyond the paywall for full subscribers, including the WCC, the GC2000 Passport and Programme, project ideas from participating schools, transcribed selections from Muller’s GC2000 speeches, select articles on global citizenship education, and documents from the pen of Muller on global education and Earth government.
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