Introduction

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life«

»The economy behaved completely contrary to nature. Therefore we had to reverse economic practice and bring it into line with nature. This realisation was the key to worldwide prosperity.«

– Joytopia

 

Dear Reader,

If you are starting to read this book, there is certainly a precise reason for it. And you are that reason! You have just decided to open yourself up to the idea that prosperity and peace are possible for everyone – in harmony with nature. Had you not believed this idea to be possible, this book would have ended up in your waste-paper basket, either in your computer’s recycle bin or in an actual waste bin.

This book has the potential to change the whole of life as you know it in a positive direction. By this I do not only mean your private life. This book does not train you to be successful after the pattern of »Ponder and become rich«. It is not another book about positive thinking, revealing the secret of becoming a millionaire for the umpteenth time. Neither is it about evil forces which have conspired to change our beautiful earth into a prison. On the contrary, it is a set of instructions that we have copied from nature for you. These instructions show us how together we can get back to the natural state of abundance which we once lost through conscious or unconscious wrong behaviour.

Thus, you will not read about esotericism or lofty matters but about natural science in the best sense. The method of transferring inventions from living nature to technology is known as bionics. Every aircraft engineer has to study bird flight before he constructs his »sheet-metal birds«. What is now common practice in technology has been shamefully neglected in economic sciences to date. So it is no wonder that today humankind is more than ever before exposed to an array of life-threatening dangers, such as economic and financial crises, inflation, monetary crash, destruction of the environment, poverty, hunger, disease, wars and natural disasters.

In the solution presented here you will learn the results of the economic bionics research we have been conducting intensively at the Gradido Academy for more than ten years. And this for a good reason, for nature is the marvel of the most brilliant inventor of all times – our creator! Creation stories are to be found in all cultures. They differ slightly from each other depending on the culture. But this primeval knowledge has one thing in common: there is a brilliant creator who has accomplished this marvel. The Bible  says, »God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him« (Genesis 1:27).

If it is true that we were created in God’s image, we humans also have creative power within ourselves and our task consists of using it – for the good of the individual, the good of the community and the good of the big scheme of things. You will often meet with the term threefold good in this book. For only decisions and actions which meet these three criteria are worthy of being considered in the Natural Economy of Life.

What awaits you in this book

In the first chapter you will read about things that are going wrong on our earth at present. You will learn something about why the situation is still as it is today and why it is guaranteed that it cannot continue in this way. In this we will refrain from blaming anyone. We have all played the game. True, we have played different roles in the theatre of life but we have played in it. Our greatest appreciation and recognition go to all players.

In the second chapter a very good friend transports you to the planet »Freegaia« on the edge of the galaxy, where the Natural Economy of Life has already been introduced and brings the inhabitants worldwide prosperity in harmony with nature. In this entertaining, visionary short story you learn what the world used to be like, how the new economic model works and how the peaceful transition took place. Look forward to reading the story of »Joytopia«!

In the third chapter you learn something about the way in which you can consciously free yourself of old thought patterns and establish new ones. After that we will together analyse the statements in the Joytopia story, supplement them and assemble them into an economic model. This is not difficult at all, for the basic idea of anything brilliant is simple. And nature is brilliant, believe me!

In the fourth chapter you get to know the 100 most important benefits of the Natural Economy of Life. One advantage often results from the previous one. In this way ascending spirals of possibilities are created, which carry you further upwards with each rotation. Once you have learnt to think in positive possibility spirals you can change your personal life and your whole environment in a positive direction.

In the fifth chapter we get started together. What can each of us do with simple means so that we can soon enjoy worldwide prosperity and peace in harmony with nature? Fortunately, this is the shortest chapter, as there is not a lot to do. »Wu wei, doing by doing nothing«, an expression from Chinese Taoist philosophy lets us refrain from blind actionism and shows us the way of »refraining from acting against nature«.

Instead of a conclusion I will tell you a story from the future. Thirteen-year-old Pia asks her grandparents: “How did you manage it?”

A gift

Nature practises a gift economy and the free e-book is a gift to you: you can download the e-book of the shortened »Free Edition« on the internet and pass it on in unaltered form for non-commercial purposes. The full »Sponsor Edition« can be purchased as a printed book and as an e-book. With your purchase you are sponsoring the projects »Gradido« and »Wish20«. Many thanks!

Gradido is an initiative by people who are still able to think and feel freely or, better expressed, have relearnt this ability. The author and his partner have invested many years of their lives to find out how nature works and which of the brilliant inventions of living nature are suitable for establishing a new economic model – a monetary and economic model to form the basis of worldwide prosperity in peace and in harmony with nature. Several thousand people are currently participating in the gradido research project.

In the tradition of many indigenous peoples a gift has to be passed on for it to retain or even increase its value. That is also the case with this book. By passing it on, the gift circulates, increases in value and can enable you, your fellow beings and the following generations to lead a life that you have not even dared to dream of up to now. It contains invaluable knowledge that helps humankind not only to survive but even to make a quantum leap in its development towards regaining the paradise on earth – just as the creator once intended for people of all cultures and religions.

If you wish to reciprocate the gift by supporting the research project, the Gradido Academy and its initiators in their work, please feel free to do so. Every amount is a help to us. You can find our bank details and our PayPal account in the details at the beginning of this book. Many thanks in advance!

Off we go!

And now I would like to ask you to fold up the tray in front of your seat, put your backrest in an upright position and fasten your seatbelt. We are now together on the runway taxiing into a future where nothing will be as it was before. A future in which your grandchildren will one day be proud of you because you helped to change course before it was too late and change the route of the journey – back from the descent into hell to the way to paradise on earth.

But while we are still on the ground, we will familiarise you with some instructions. You will learn why the situation is as it is today and why it is guaranteed that it cannot go on like this…

Chapter 3 – The new monetary and economic model

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life«

»You can’t solve a problem with the same thought patterns which helped to bring it about.«

– Albert Einstein

Since the beginning of time, living nature has created something which economists can only dream of: it creates live and constant growth in abundance. Only we humans seem not to have understood something yet: although we could feed all the people in the world – actually with biologically produced food – two-thirds of humankind live below the poverty line, while just a few are swimming in money.

Why is there this endless poverty in the world? And why is there extreme wealth? We were concerned with the question of »why« in chapter 1. In this chapter we will concern ourselves with the question of »how«. How does nature do it? What is it that nature does right and we humans have obviously been doing wrong up to now? How can we achieve prosperity for everyone in peace and in harmony with nature?

When I pondered on this question intensively in the mid-1990’s, I was almost the only one with such thoughts. The public did not yet know anything about the idea of a basic income or alternative currency models. Although such approaches had already existed since the beginning of the twentieth century, very few people had heard of them – myself included. And that was a good thing, as it later turned out. For in that way I was able to set out on my quest for the solution without being influenced by other ideas.

Creating new thought structures

»Technology was never a problem. The problem that needed to be solved lay in the inhabitants’ thinking and in the economy.«

– Joytopia

In order to figure it out I had to start thinking quite differently from hitherto: for our previous thought patterns have taken us to the point where we are at the moment. And because our thought patterns are firmly ingrained and our thoughts follow these patterns like the motorists on the highway, I began to use unusual techniques to stop the accustomed patterns in their tracks. Only when there is a total road block are the motorists forced to switch to side roads and try new ways. Then completely new views open up in a wondrous way.

Writing a visionary short story was one such new way. You relocate to a desirable future and look back at the way you achieved this future. In doing this you can wish for anything you like – prosperity for all, peace, a nation without taxes, full employment, a good working climate, happy and motivated people who are fit up to a great age, intact nature and much more. There is no such thing as »It won’t work«, since everything is possible and everything is allowed in your imagination. Even Albert Einstein valued the imagination higher than knowledge: »Knowledge is limited, imagination unlimited.«

Another method of breaking the pattern is the requirement to think of everything in the reverse of the usual way. When we live in a world where the national budget is financed with taxes, we have the government donate money to its citizens. When demographic change can no longer be financed, in our vision senior citizens finance the economy through their simple existence. When single parents have child support problems, in Joytopia children contribute to their family’s prosperity through an active basic income.

Internal role play is also an effective instrument for creative lateral thinkers to obtain completely new perspectives and impulses. You slip into another person’s role and have them speak on a topic. In our story it is Very Goodfriend from another planet who shows people the way to worldwide prosperity – in peace and in harmony with nature.

Such and similar creative techniques are excellently suited to helping us find new ideas and solutions. We let our soul grow wings and discover worlds full of opportunities.

Nature as a role model

»On Freegaia there had always been people who observed nature and sought to fathom its laws.« 

– Joytopia

Nature has always been and still is the greatest source of inspiration. I repeatedly asked myself, »How does nature do it and what do we do differently?« – and that for several reasons. On the one hand, the new economic model should be in harmony with nature. If we humans want to survive, we need to work with and not against nature. We need to do everything in our power to make good the catastrophic damage we have caused in past years. On the other hand, nature shows us how life functions. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel. We only need to decode the inventions of living nature. Are you familiar with the term bionics? Wikipedia describes it as follows:

»Bionics (...) is the application of biological methods and systems found in nature to the study and design of engineering systems and modern technology. (...)The transfer of technology between life forms and manufactures is, according to proponents of bionic technology, desirable because evolutionary pressure typically forces living organisms, including fauna and flora, to become highly optimised and efficient.«

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bionics

In technology bionics is applied as a matter of course. Every aircraft manufacturer studies the bird flight and learns how flying works from nature. Afterwards it is much easier to construct aircraft or optimise them. But Wikipedia only mentions technology. What is part of the tools of the trade for aircraft engineers and other technicians is only just starting to find its way into economics.

At the Gradido Academy (formerly Joytopia Academy) we have been practising economic bionics for years. By observing nature intensively we have arrived at a completely new economic theory – the Natural Economy for worldwide prosperity in peace and in harmony with nature. All our research comes to the same conclusion with a very clear message:

We humans can create worldwide prosperity if we observe natural laws.

Below we will analyse statements from the Joytopia story, supplement them and assemble them into an economic model. That is not so difficult at all. For everything brilliant is simple in its fundamental idea. And nature is brilliant! She has not only generated life but also maintains it – in a sustainable way.

The power of vision

»Everything you can think will become reality! Everything you wish for will come to pass if you can imagine it.«

– Joytopia

“Do be realistic!” – “You’ll never manage it!” – “I can’t imagine it!” – “Who do you think you are because you think you can change the world!”– “ »They« will never allow it!” – “The world is as it is and we can’t change it!”

Do you know who our greatest enemies are? No, they aren’t other people! They are our own thought blockades. We don’t believe we can imagine that we can succeed in doing something. Yes, you read it correctly: the thought blockade starts with us thinking we couldn’t even imagine it. However, we know that our imagination is infinite. »Thoughts are free«, a German folk song says. But if we do not even allow ourselves to imagine a positive future in our thoughts, however do we want to create it?

»Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God.

Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.

It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.«

– Marianne Williamson – A Return To Love:

Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles

This quotation, which was incorrectly attributed to Nelson Mandela and thus became world famous, insistently urges us to live our life’s purpose: »We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us«.We have let ourselves be weighed down by our self-made thought blockades for much too long. We have allowed ourselves to be forbidden to make use of our inalienable freedom, the freedom to think and dream, develop visions, make plans and help shape the world.

The powerful people of this world have not permitted this ban on freedom. That is the reason why they appear so powerful to us. But they are also prisoners of the system as long as they believe they can keep this simple secret and have to keep down the rest of the world in order to stay in power. This way of thinking is consistent with the zero-sum dogma, the illusion that there is not enough for everyone. A person who believes there is not enough for everyone has to put up fences and deny others access to the source.

But God’s gifts are there for all of us. We were all born »to make manifest the glory of God «. We all carry creative power within us to create a world in which there is prosperity for all, in peace and in harmony with nature.

»We have already achieved that aim on our planet Freegaia. You just need to copy it and spread it on earth. That’s our gift to you humans«.  

– Joytopia

The plan for such a world already exists. That is the subject of this book. We just need to have the courage to let our light shine and let go of our deepest fear, the fear of being powerful beyond measure. In this way we give our people the opportunity to do the same and our presence liberates others. We trigger a powerful, liberating chain reaction, for the gift from Joytopia is available to everyone.

Advantage 79 – Simple and comprehensible for everyone

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life«

»It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.«

– Henry Ford

American industrialist

Our old monetary and economic systems are actually not so hard to understand at all but they are made artificially complicated. The quotation from Henry Ford explains why. In the present book the author is trying to explain in the simplest possible way why our existing system cannot function at all.  However, that is not the main purpose of the book. It would be irresponsible to explain why the existing system does not work and then leave the readers standing out in the rain.

The aim of this book, dear reader, is to encourage you to desire the simplest solution which is and always has been available to humankind: following nature’s model! Nature has functioned for billions of years. She has produced something as destructive and harmful to the environment as human beings. She has put up with their actions and accompanied them in their evolution. And nature still functions – in spite of human beings!

If we human beings actually have no idea about how to live peacefully in symbiosis with each other and nature, then please at any rate let us imitate nature’s brilliant inventions. Nature has no copyright, no intellectual property or patents. She invites us to marvel at her masterwork and learn how life works.

Nature is complex but not complicated and her fundaments are easy to understand. With a little observational talent, love and ability to abstract, we can translate her mode of functioning to our monetary and economic systems, thereby obtaining a road map to lead us out of our self-made hell and back to paradise.

You, too, will probably understand the content of this book. You will remember what you always knew but was educated out of you during the course of your life. Maybe you were already told in your childhood that the world unfortunately does not work as simply as you imagined; and because all adults said that you accepted that they must be right.

However, the world does work so simply: it is as simple as nature is simple. In her simplicity nature accomplishes the most complex of miracles. Human beings are the only complicated species in the world and have the irresistible urge to complicate everything that is simple and up to now they have succeeded well in this. They have now made the world so complicated that it cannot go on existing as it is. And that is our great chance for changing direction. 

Advantage 80 – We can begin at once

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life«

»In all beginnings dwells a magic force

 for guarding us and helping us to live.«

– Hermann Hesse

Swiss writer

Knowledge is not worth anything unless it is applied. Anybody who knows how a piano works but does not practise will never be able to play the piano. Everything acquires its value from what we make of it. »By their fruits ye shall know them«, the Bible says (Matthew 7: 20). As simple as this realisation is, the more difficult it is to put into practice when it is a question of new monetary and economic systems. We cannot simply try out the Natural Economy of Life either in a laboratory situation or in real life. Is the undertaking therefore doomed to failure? By no means! 

As always when we do not know how to go on, we have an excellent counsellor we can ask – nature. Nature did not first of all try out life on earth in a laboratory situation, or at least we do not know that she did. As far as we can observe, nature uses two tools – the creative plan and evolution. We find the creative plan in all manifestations of life, in every seed, in the genetic code, in the natural laws, in the paths of stars and galaxies and in the paths of electrons. Evolution can be historically researched, for example with the help of excavations, stone specimens and fossils. In general, nature starts realising her creative plan on a small scale as far as is possible and then lets the whole thing grow. Sometimes it grows continuously and sometimes there are leaps in its development, the so-called leaps in evolution.

We have copied nature’s creative plan and from it developed the Natural Economy of Life. It is the fruit of our joint work in the research project. With the copies of this book you can sow the seed in the entire world. When the time is ripe and the soil fertile, the seed will germinate.

You, dear reader, are warmly invited to contribute your personal share and scatter the seed. To do so, you do not have to be in agreement with every detail as everything will go on developing and anyone can contribute to the future development. Knowledge of possible solutions is actually the most important thing we need at the present time.

If you want to do more, you can help to make the soil fertile by talking to others about the concept on the internet, in social networks or in person, of course. This is bound to result in most interesting conversations.

A further possibility is to join a gradido network, for example http://gradido.net. There you will get your own gradido account, your own website and access to the gradido marketplace. Such gradido networks will soon be created all over the world. They are, so to speak, virtual research islands with a real background. The members can offer each other goods and services and grant each other gradido discounts of any amount agreed on. The more gradido networks are created, the wider the entire network will be. This is plan C from section 78.

If you want to cooperate more intensively or support the project and our work financially, we warmly invite you to become a member of the Gradido Academy: http://gradido.net/academy.

The next few sections are concerned with how the Natural Economy of Life can be introduced in phases parallel to the existing system. 

Advantage 98 – After the pattern of nature

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life«

»We need not view nature as our enemy to be mastered and overcome but learn to cooperate with nature again. She has four and a half billion years of experience. Ours is much shorter.«

– Hans-Peter Dürr 

German physicist

Nature is a living masterpiece. She has existed for billions of years and generates life over and over again, thereby following universal laws. The laws of nature apply to everybody without exception. We have the choice either to observe them of our free will or be reminded of them in a painful way. If we want to learn how to use the laws of nature for our good we are well advised to observe nature and take her inventions as a model. 

In technology this method has long been known as »bionics«. Every aircraft constructor studies the flight of birds before he launches his »iron bird« into the air. Bionics does not means copying everything one hundred percent. Everyone knows that, unlike birds, aircraft do not flap their wings. Their outer covering does not consist of feathers but metal or plastic. They need a runway for taking off and landing but, on the other hand, they can fly much faster than birds. With the aid of bionics, those properties which serve a purpose are transferred to the object in question.

It is the same with the economic bionics we have developed. We do not need to copy everything to be found in nature. If cannibalism is not acceptable to our ethics, we should not translate the model of »eating and being eaten« to our economic model. Instead, nature offers us more appropriate models, such as cooperation and symbiosis.

The same applies to the »survival of the fittest«. In the animal world physical strength is limited to a natural extent. No animal has the possibility to reduce entire nations or even the entire world to wrack and ruin. Due to technological development humans have this possibility; and in business strong companies have the capacity to squeeze all weaker ones out of the market, thus putting an end to them. Therefore it would be absolutely fatal to translate this model to modes of behaviour between people: neither in politics nor in business should the law of the strongest be allowed to rule.

Ethics and religion have given us quite clear guidelines - »liberty, equality, brotherliness« and »Love your neighbour as yourself«, for example. Which inventions of living nature we translate to politics and the economy must first be decided by ethical criteria.

We have to observe the laws of nature, by choice or by force. We can indeed deny the cycle of growth and decay and call for constant economic growth but then the natural law of transience will hit us all the harder – through economic crises, natural disasters, poverty and wars, even going as far as the complete extermination of humanity. However, we can also choose to build the cycle of life into our monetary and economic systems and achieve worldwide prosperity in peace and in harmony with nature. 

Advantage 99 – Prosperity for all

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life« 

»Nature knows no problems, only solutions.«

– Carl Amery

German writer and environmental activist

How often we get to hear that prosperity for all is not possible. For those who claim this it is a pretext not to have to concern themselves with the Natural Economy of Life. If they studied it seriously, they would probably come to another conclusion.

Here we are not practising social romanticism but exploring nature’s laws with regard to their applicability in politics and the economy. Natural laws always function the same and they function for everybody. We can learn to use them for our benefit or we can ignore them and perish. Let’s take the example of gravity: if I try to deny gravity and simply jump out of the window, I will possibly not survive it. However, when we use gravity to drive water turbines, we can generate electricity with it.

Thus seen, humankind has two possibilities, either to perish or achieve worldwide prosperity for all. Nature has appropriate solutions ready for either alternative.

Advantage 100 – In harmony with nature

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life«

»Nature can’t take a joke, she is always true, always serious, always strict;

she is always right and mistakes and errors always come from humans!«

– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

German poet and naturalist

Another counter-argument is that worldwide prosperity for all would destroy the environment. But this only applies if we go on as hitherto and even then we would probably destroy ourselves first. Nature would then have many millions of years to recover again. Worldwide prosperity for all is only possible in harmony with nature.

Thus our choice become even clearer: either we humans kill ourselves or we create worldwide prosperity in peace and in harmony with nature. The Natural Economy of Life offers us the basis for the second alternative.

So let’s get going together! In the next chapter you will learn how simple that is.