The Psychology Behind
Saving the World with Butterflies

In 1993 I founded the Butterfly Gardeners Association to help stop and reverse the World-Wide decline and extinction of butterfly species that now callsout to all of us. Since that time our organization has inspired many others across the world to look at the butterfly in a new way, as a symbol of a new Earth consciousness that could not only reverse their decline, but could also promote environmental stewardship, bio and cultural diversity, and even world peace. Moved by the visible decline of butterfly populations worldwide, members have created beautiful butterfly gardens in their backyards and communities. They also promote environmental education and action to help regenerate these gorgeous creatures.

When genetically altered crops such as BT corn were shown to kill monarch butterfly caterpillars, it created a World-Wide uproar that stopped the exportation of these transgenic seeds to the European Union and other countries. It was a deep rooted archetypical love of butterflies that raised the consciousness of the world to realize the dangers that these multinationals corporations were threatening us with. Even though bioengineered tinkering with the world's food supply had been debated for years as a threat to human health, it was not until this technology threatened butterflies that the world took action.
I have long said that we, as human beings, are in denial of threats to our own well being, but will respond with more passion when things such as butterflies, dolphins, whales, and ancient forests are threatened. There is a whole new nature oriented psychology that is at work here.
See http://www.ecopsych.com

The butterfly initiative is a wondrous and rare adventure. It is practical, uplifting and inspiring. Butterfly gardening can be a catalyst to a wide range of positive activities. These include projects from environmental education to violence prevention; from beautification of our backyards to habitat preservation in our parks; and from rehabilitation programs for handicapped children to therapy programs for hospitals, hospices, and even prison populations.
Because of their astounding transformation from egg to caterpillar to chrysalis (pupa) to their incredible color spangled elegance, they can be the symbol for mankind's own unfolding into more caring and loving beings.

Can you please spread our message of love and hope to friends and organizations you know. You can also help by writing stories for publication in your local newspaper, magazine, or organizational newsletter and website. Perhaps you can assist with public relations or marketing, doing artwork or graphics, composing music or dance, or working with children doing gardening projects, nature studies, or reading programs. Maybe you have organizing skills, clerical or computer abilities, or grant writing and fundraising expertise. You might helparrange a coffee for one of our speakers. We can even give a more formal butterfly presentation to an organization, like your church, club, or civic group.
We offer practical gardening experience, inspire hope and empowerment, and some of our amazing and miraculous stories will surely fascinate you.

We are currently looking for creative minded people to serve on our advisory committee or board? We hope to form an alliance of a wide range of groups working cooperatively to promote world peace, environmental and social justice, and global consciousness raising. Our goal is world peace by January 1, 2001.
We will support the spirit of the Earth Proclamation, a version of the original Earth Proclamation, the Earth Magna Carta of John McConnell the father of Earth Day, the United Nations Earth Charter, and work to attain personal and planetary transformation as symbolized by the butterfly.

Whatever you decide, your assignment will be perfectly right for you. It may be nothing more than doing what you are already doing, but under a larger butterfly banner. We will surely come to realize that we are all pieces of the same puzzle, playing the best game on Earth. We play by following our bliss, and by weaving ours dreams together with mutual respect, trust, and love, and by seeing our interconnectedness with each other and the entire web of life.

Most importantly, you can get the organizations you know or belong to sign and endorse the ideals of the Earth Proclamation.

When John F. Kennedy set a goal to land men on the moon, he didn't say let's do this sometime. He said we'll do it by the end of the decade. He proclaimed a bold plan and a set definite date. The rest is history.

Thus, the Butterfly Gardeners Association and the Social Action Committee of the Berkeley Unitarian Fellowship planted the first seeds for a planned harvest of world peace with environmental and social justice for all on March 2, 1998 before the Peace and Justice Commission. The Earth Proclamation passed by unanimous consent and was endorsed by the City of Berkeley. Berkeley mayor Shirley Dean declared April 22-30 as Butterfly Berkeley Week during the Earth Day ceremonies. The week ended with a butterfly release at the Willard School when over 250 children released their own school-grown butterflies. The project's first goal will be to get 1000 groups to support the Earth Proclamation by the winter of 1999. Our mission will be to bring business, peace, environmental, and faith organizations together to work in harmony promoting world peace, and defending Mother Earth, with a special focus on preserving California redwood forests at the Headwaters.

A Brief Butterfly History

The recent evolution of the butterfly as a metaphor symbolizing humanity's conscious evolution to a more loving and cooperative state started over twenty-five years. After the first Earth Day, Trina Paulus came out with Hope for the Flowers and used the butterfly to illustrate a better way so that we caterpillars would stop crawling all over each other to get to the "top." What's at the top anyway? Trina got millions of people thinking about transformation in a new way. On June 26, 1997, Trina joined us at the United Nations Earth Summit+5 for a butterfly release and ceremony.

Then Norie Huddle advanced the transformational theme to usher in what she termed the "Butterfly Era of Global Civilization" in her book, Butterfly, published on Earth Day 1990, and told me Trina's book was an inspiration to her and got her thinking about transformation. In Butterfly she writes:

"The caterpillars new cells are called "imaginal cell." They resonate at a different frequency. They are so totally different from the caterpillar cells that his immune system thinks they are enemies...and gobbles them up--Chomp! Gulp! But these new imaginal cells continue to appear. More and more of them!
Pretty soon, the caterpillar's immune system cannot destroy them fast enough. More and more of the imaginal cells survive. And then an amazing thing happens!
The little tiny lonely imaginal cells start to clump together, into friendly little groups. They all resonate together at the same frequency, passing information from one to another. Then, after a while, another amazing thing happens!
The clumps of imaginal cells start to cluster together!..,A long string of clumping and clustering imaginal cell, all resonating at the same frequency, all passing information from one to another there inside the chrysalis."

"A wave of Good News travels throughout the system-- Lurches and heaves...but not yet a butterfly."

"Then at some point, the entire long string of imaginal cells suddenly realizes all together that it is Something Different from the caterpillar. Something New! Something Wonderfull!....and in that realization is the shout of the birth of the butterfly!"

Happy Birthday Butterfly!!!

"Since the butterfly now "knows" that it is a butterfly, the little tiny imaginal cells no longer have to do all those things individual cells must do. Now they are part of a mult-celled organism-- A FAMILY who can share the work."

"Each new butterfly cell can take on a different job.----There is something for everyone to do. And everyone is important. And each cell begins to do just that very thing it is most drawn to do. And every other cell encourages it to do just that."

"A great way to organize a butterfly!"

And a great way to organize a butterfly movement!

In February of 1998, Barbara Marx Hubbard released her new book, Conscious Evolution, and advanced the butterfly theme to new heights. In her book she writes:

"As people started waking up, they became imaginal disks in the body of society. The environmental movement, the antiwar movement, the Apollo space program, the women's movement, the civil rights and human rights movements, new music, transcendental meditation, yoga, and mind-expanding substances all encouraged a young generation to act as instruments of social change--striving to birth the still-invisible societal butterfly. And often when new leaders did step forward, they were attacked by society's immune system fighting to maintain the old social order of the caterpillar: Witness the assassinations of Ghandi, John F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, Jr."

The latest development that encompasses all the above and explains the butterfly phenomena in detail is in a book written by Joanne Lauck called The Voice of the Infinite in the Small. You will have to read this to believe it. Both Norie and Joanne are butterfly writers.

Ushering in the Butterfly Era of Global Civilization

The Butterfly Gardeners Association was founded on August 5, 1993.
It was intended to be very much like Greenpeace's campaign which focused on saving the whales in the 1970's. Using the whale as a living symbol, Greenpeace launched a campaign that sparked new energy into the environmental movement and brought needed attention to the plight of these wondrous creatures.

Since its inception, one man's vision has been shared by thousands of others across the country who now look at the butterfly in a new way; as a symbol of a new Earth consciousness that can promote environmental stewardship, education, conservation, and even world peace. The goal is to save the Earth's biological and cultural diversity. Since that day the Butterfly Gardeners Association has taken flight nationally, and participated in butterfly releases at the UN Earth Summit, the Hiroshima/Nagasaki Peace Observance, the World Peace Festival with Pete Seeger, and the Woodstock Festival, to name a few. The BGA,operating on a shoestring budget, has galvanized support from a host of sources, including educators, businesses, politicians, children, adults, seniors, faith groups, futurists, authors, and environmental and peace group.

The organization is acheiving its many goals with the support and endless efforts of hundreds of volunteers and gardeners. For this reason we feel that every event is nothing short of a miracle. How could anyone have ever suspected that such a simple, exquisite creature could have touched so many? The butterfly is opening doors as well as hearts. It has motivated people to work together peacefully to save the only home they know, Earth. It is truly a happening birthed in love, a miraculous transformation that has taken flight on the wings of a butterfly. It is now certain that the butterfly will be the symbol for the Millenium, with themes of "personal and planetary transformation" and transformation through forgiveness."

Alan Moore, founder of the Butterfly Gardeners Association, or Bee Gees for short, has invested over four-hundred thousand dollars to make this dream an emerging reality. After giving up his home, business, life savings, and friends in Allentown, Pa, he came to California with nothing more than $800 to do a butterfly release at the Bioneers Conference. The conference theme was " visionary solutions for the Earth's environment" and was held at the Presidio in San Francisco from October 31-November 21, 1998. He stayed in California to attend a millennium organizing meeting of the Earth Rainbow Network in Santa Barbara from December 12-14. He had suggested convening such a meeting to Jean Hudon, founder of the Earth Rainbow Network, who lives in Quebec, Canada. Dedicated ERN members in Santa Barbara and elsewhere did the actual organizing.

In the interim of six weeks between the two meetings, he began to network and build coalitions with environmental, peace, faith, spiritual, cultural, business, and millennium groups throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. He joined the U-Turn Society in San Francisco founded by Dave Seaborg, son of Glen Seaborg, the discoverer of plutonium. Group participants included Milenio, Earth-Aid, the Star Alliance, Earth Day's Mark Dubois(also of Earth Wise), Rainforest Action, BGA, BAN Waste Coalition, and other Bay area civic, environmental, and peace groups.

In January Alan returned to California and took up residence in Berkeley. Within two weeks he was appointed to the Peace and Justice Commission.

Besides organizing for the millennium, he is researching a book he plans to co-author with Norie Huddle. The book, which may be entitled Butterfly Tales, is about twelve people whose lives have been radically changed by the magical effect butterflies have on people. Some have left their jobs, others have transformed their lives. All are working to better the world, spread love, save the Earth, and promote world peace. Some have already written books on their experiences.
These include The Spirit of Butterflies - Myth, Magic, and Art by Maraleen Manos-Jones (Harry N. Abrams), Black Butterfly by Dr. Richard Moss (Celestrial Arts), The Alchemist and Valkyries by Pablo Coelho (Harper San Francisco), The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby(Alfred
Knopf) which was written with 200,000 blinks of his eye and whose rights were bought by Steven Speilberg, and The Butterfly Rises by Kit Tremaine (Blue Dolphin Publishing).

The rights to The Diving Bell and the Butterfly have been bought by Stephen Speilberg. Moore has spoken to Spielberg's executive secretary and was told to get an agent to submit his story idea. He is now looking for both an agent and someone to write the screenplay. Blue Dolphin publisher Paul Clemens believes Butterfly Tales has the potential to be the most successful work he has ever published.

Alan and Norie, are focusing on how to play what she calls The Best Game on Earth. The cover of "Butterfly" (Huddle Books) states that historian Arnold Toynbee observed that the 21 civilizations he studied all collapsed for the same reason: their inability to adapt to changes taking place either within them or surrounding them. Like Joseph Campbell, Toynbee noted the importance of myth in shaping the future of a civilization. For from the myth springs the vision of new possibilities. Each nation, each culture tells such an overarching story about itself. But when great changes take place, a new myth is required. Butterfly is the myth for our times. It was published on Earth Day 1990 as a tale of great transformation to help usher in the "Butterfly Era" of global civilization. This butterfly theme was featured in the June 2000 edition of Noetic Science Magazine.
Please see www.noetic.org/Ions/publications/butterfly1.htm

Working together we can we can do what no one of us can do alone. We can make the butterfly not only the symbol for the Millennium, but that of the conscious evolution of humanity itself.

Norie is the author of six other books, including Huggles, and Surviving. Surviving (Schocken Books), includes interviews with Bucky Fuller, Russell Means, Dick Gregory, Lester Brown, Ed Teller, Edgar Mitchell, Joanna Macy, and Robert Muller and was on the New York Times best seller list. She has just completed a new book entitled Money, Power, and Purpose. She is Chairwoman of the Board and Executive Director of the Center for New National Security. She has spoken to radio and television audiences of over ten million and to live audiences of up to ten thousand.

Our butterflies are capturing the hearts and minds of people all over the world, including many authors, futurists, environmentalists, and native Americans. These include Jean Houston, Barbara Marx Hubbard, Norie Huddle, Nick Sagan (son of Carl Sagan in his book Idelwild), Linda Grover, Robert Theobald, Elisabet Sahtouris, James Redfield, Lynn Twist, Neile Donald Walsch, Peace Pilgrim II, Michael Cohen, Ken Kalb, Dr. Richard Moss, Trina Paulus, Hopi elder Thomas Banyakya, tree-sitter Julia Butterfly and Corbin Harney.

Moore has coined a new meaning for the word butterfly, which used a verb means to give or teach someone the gift of looking at the world, as with butterfly eyes, and seeing only the beauty, love, harmony and the interconnectedness of all living things in the world around them. If we can reach out and butterfly people all over the world, we may be heralding the dawn of a major paradigm shift and find ourselves living in the Butterfly Era of global civilization that Norie envisioned.

Butterfly Reading Resources

Butterfly related nonfiction books include
House Calls - How We can All Heal the World One Visit at a Time by Patch Adams (Robert D. Reed Publishers),
Gesundheit! by Patch Adams (Healings Arts Press),
The Choice-Evolution or Extinction by Ervin Laszlo,
Conscious Evolution by Barbara Marx Hubbard (New World Library),
A Mthic Life by Jean Houston(Harper Collins),
The Chalice and the Blade by Riane Eisler (Harper & Row),
The Healing of America by Marriane Williamson (Harper),
The Voice of the Infinite in the Small by Joanne Lauck(Swan-Raven & Company),
Hello from Heaven by Judy Guggenheim(Bantam),
From Erin with Love by Helen Fisher(Swallowtail Publishing),
Visions of the Bereaved by Witmer Woods,
The Web of Life and the Tao of Physics by Fritjof Capra (Anchor Books/Doubleday),
Thinking Like a Mountain- Towards a Council of All Beings by Joanne Macy and Johnny Seed,
Cultures of Habitat by Gary Paul Nabhan (Counterpoint),
Prescriptions For Living by Bernard Siegel,
The Chymical Cook by Jay Bremyer (Station Hill Openings),
Maka Wicahpi Wicohan by Standing Elk
and Rainbow Medicine-A Visionary Guide to Native American Shamanism by Wolf Moondance(Sterling Publishing).

Other nonfiction books written by authors involved in this project include
Wisdom Circles by Cindy Spring &
Charles Garfield, Reworking Success-New Communities at the Millennium by Robert Theobald (New Society Publishers),
Peace Pilgrim II by Peace Pilgrim II,
The Way It Is by Corbin Harney,
The Grand Catharsis and Lightshift 2000 by Ken Kalb (Lucky Star Research Institute),
and Reconnecting with Nature by Michael Cohen (Ecopress).

In the fiction category are Tree Island by Linda Grover,
The Coming of a New Millennium by Heidi Neale and Nick Manolukas (Labrys),
Vision of the Grail by Kathleen Jacoby,
The Sai Prophecy by Barbara Gardner,
Day of Destiny by John Mini,
and Heartlight by T.A. Barron (Philomel Books).

Children's books include Hope for the Flowers by Trina Paulus,
The Butterfly Boy by Laurence Yep (Farrar Straus Giroux),
Both Sides Now by Joni Mitchell(Scholastic),
I Monty by Marcus Bach (A.R.E Press-I have the last copies in print), and On the Wings of a Butterfly-A story about Life and Death by MarilynMaple, Ph.D. (Parenting Press).

Moore has coined a new meaning for the word butterfly, which as a verb means to give or teach someone the gift of looking at the world, as with butterfly eyes, and seeing only beauty, love, and harmony in the world around them. If we can reach out and butterfly people all over the world, we may be heralding the dawn of a major paradigm shift and find ourselves living in the Butterfly Era of Global Civilization that Norie envisioned

SOME LETTERS

Dear Alan:

I wish I could join you on the tour, but unfortunately, I already have many engagements. My new book,Conscious Evolution: Awakening the Power of Our social Potential, is dedicated to "imaginal cells," those cells in the body of a butterfly which hold the picture and pattern of the butterfly in the body of the caterpillar. We are definitely on the same wavelength. Thanks so much for your wonderful work.

Thanks for your work. Barbara Marx Hubbard 7-28-97

Subject: ern was present at world peace festival
From: PforPEACE@aol.com
Date: Wed, 20 Aug 1997 08:40:55 -0800

Hi Alan,

My family and I had a wonderful time at the World Peace Festival in Amenia, NY. Several thousand people attended. It was really wonderful, despite the downpour towards the end. Some of the wonderful highlights were the World Peace Prayer Society's wonderful Flag Ceremony in which the flags of the world are presented by children one by one, and the crowd joins in May Peace Prevail in ...Canada, etc., and May Peace Prevail on Earth ... It was a very beautiful and moving experience, which ended with everyone putting their ear to Mother Earth and feeling the life bond that joins us all ... Pete Seeger made a guest appearance, inspiring the crowds with some of his peace songs.

Our friend Alan Moore was there, too, and my 8 year old daughter was thrilled at being able to let a butterfly fly up into the rainy skies. The crowd that gathered around was visibly moved and inspired as Alan recited the EARTH PROCLAMATION and spoke about the efforts of the Earth Rainbow Network and the huge movement that is arising from every direction to utilize the year 2000 as an opportunity to transform our global community.

Although we're planning for events to take place 864 days from now, let's remember it's the journey that is most important -- let's keep our eyes, and hearts open to the gatherings and get-togethers that take place throughout the year, all around the world, where people get together to celebrate our desire for peace on earth -- a better world where peace, justice and a sustainable planet are the primary aims and focuses individually and as a global community.

Love to you all - Bob Silverstein

May Peace Prevail on Earth!

Alan D. Moore