Episode Description:“For human evolution to continue, the conversation must deepen.” – Margaret Mead This is the first in a seven-part series of dialogues forming part of and leading up to a Conference Gathering in Fort Collins, Colorado on May 29-30, 2009, entitled “2012 NOW – Empowering the Transformation”, for which I am serving as the Master of Ceremonies and opening presenter. Future Living Dialogues in this series will include other Conference presenters John Major Jenkins, Sobonfu Some, William Henry, Stansilav Grof, Christine Page, and Richard Tarnas. Details and registration information available at www.unveiling2012.org. The meaning of the Greek word “Apocalypse” is “lifting the veil” or “revelation”. Here are excerpts from the first “shared stories” on this pilgrimage Road to 2012 NOW.Robert Sitler: “I’m Robert Sitler and in the conversation that I just shared with Duncan, I really sense the listeners who will be participating potentially in this conference and who will be listening to the dialogues that you’ll be hearing in the coming weeks, and I feel that they have been charged through Duncan’s work with the potential to bring about inner transformation and I look forward to participating in the process with you.”Duncan Campbell: We really have an auspicious moment here, Robert, because you and I are inaugurating in this dialogue, the first of the series of seven dialogues that will be consciously leading up to an event on May 29 and 30 in Fort Collins, Colorado, a gathering entitled “2012 Now, Empowering the Transformation.” And so as we go forward, we have really consciously understood that these series of seven dialogues between myself, who will also be serving as the opening presenter and Master of Ceremonies, and yourself is the inauguration in a sense of a kind of pilgrimage -- that these seven dialogues are milestones as we are preparing ourselves and our consciousness to gradually focus in on this event at the end of May, which will be not just simply a transmission of information from various sources but an integral initiation and experiential transformation very much in the Initiatic Tradition of the Mayan people themselves and of all cultures throughout history in their embodiment of the Perennial Philosophy, sometimes also called the Primordial Tradition. This is part of our changing world. And as the world changes so to -- we must change. So there is that immediacy of transformation happening and the growing sense of a planetary culture that is not limited by either time -- in terms of bringing indigenous and modern cultures together and mutual gifting -- and it’s not limited in terms of space. We have a common humanity that we’re feeling. We’re seeing and feeling the possibility of transcending old tribalisms, old conflicts, old religious warfare, and at the same time beautifully fully appreciating our own person, our own family, our own geographical location and that is I think the true “unveiling” (or apocalypse) --Robert Sitler: Um-hmm.Duncan Campbell: --- that we are looking forward to amplifying together as we come together at the end of May. And I want to thank you Robert for all of your lifelong work, your thirty years of regular visits to the Maya world, your teaching, your articles and your upcoming manuscript in which you so brilliantly share your experience of grounding the entire fascination of the modern world with 2012 in the depth and wonder and mystery of daily life as experienced by the Maya people over the generations. You are another wonderful bridge person connecting our indigenous and modern minds and I very much look forward to continuing to travel this path, this Road, together as we all move forward in this great evolutionary moment that we’re sharing as a species on the planet.Robert Sitler: It’s exciting.Duncan Campbell: Well, Robert, it is very exciting and it’s been just great having this conversation with you.Robert Sitler: Likewise it’s a pleasure for me, you know, a real treat for me to speak to the listeners of Living Dialogues and I look forward first of all to meeting many of you but also to this conference, which I think has the possibility of producing genuine change in our heart and truly preparing us for a future in which we all feel more integrated with Mother Earth.Duncan Campbell: Well, at this point, we’re about to take the next step on our journey together. This week we’ve talked with Robert Sitler, one of the presenters at our conference coming up on May 29 and 30, whose deep experience and knowledge of the Mayan culture will be one of the gifts he will be sharing with us. And next week, I’ll be dialoguing with John Major Jenkins, who will share his decades of research into the Mayan culture and how it fits into the larger perennial wisdom, sometimes called the Primordial Tradition.And we invite you and look forward to seeing you at the conference on May 29 and 30, 2009 in the natural beauty of Fort Collins, Colorado, entitled “2012 NOW - Empowering the Transformation”. For further information and registration you can go to www.unveiling2012.org.“We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth…. and we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself....For the world has changed, and we must change with it…why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration…" -- Barack Obama Inaugural Address, January 20, 2009 And as we say on Living Dialogues: “Dialogue is the Language of Evolutionary Transformation”™.Contact me if you like at www.livingdialogues.com. Visit my blog at Duncan.personallifemedia.com. ”. (For more, including information on the Engaged Elder Wisdom Dialogue Series on my website www.livingdialogues.com, click on Episode Detail to the left above and go to Transcript section.)Among other heartful visionary conversations you will find of particular interest on these themes are my Dialogues on this site with Richard Tarnas, John O’Donohue, Michael Meade, Eckhart Tolle, Ted Sorensen, Frances Moore Lappe, Stanislav Grof, Angeles Arrien, Sobonfu Some, Matthew Fox, David Mendell, Deborah Tannen, Gangaji, Michael Dowd, Duane Elgin, and Joseph Ellis, among others [click on their name(s) in green on right hand column of the Living Dialogues Home Page on this site]. After you listen to this Dialogue, I invite you to both explore and make possible further interesting material on Living Dialogues by taking less than 5 minutes to click on and fill out the Listener Survey. My thanks and appreciation for your participation.