POSITIVE NEWS is a publication anchoring us to the higher truths as well as reminding us to be positive in a time of economic meltdown, contraction and fear.

POSITIVE NEWS' mission, in their words, is "to  bring hope, exemplify solutions, inspire to action, and connect with those who create positive change.  We envision a world where people treat each other with respect and kindness, where we consider the earth to be our home to care for and enjoy. . .and we know that this world is in the process of emerging.  POSITIVE NEWS is a reflection of this widespread emerging movement and tells its stories."
 

It's well known that music has the power to soothe the savage beast.  This image goes back through Shakespeare to the stories of Pythagoras, who witnessed a young man, enraged after rejection by his lady love, putting dry sticks around her abode, plotting to burn the house down.

The Father of Mathematics noticed that a nearby flute player was playing in a certain mode, and that it seemed to enflame the man's anger. He went to the flute player and urged him to quickly change to a different mode, one that was softer, and more emotional. Within minutes, the young man stopped what he was doing, sat down and cried, his will to destroy replaced by the need to grieve.

By Catherine Ann Jones

In 1994, Quentin Tarantino wrote a fictional story about Mickey & Mallory Knox, a honeymoon couple who, as a perverse aphrodisiac, randomly shot and killed over 50 people. Oliver Stone directed the film and the week it opened, a real young couple in the Midwest went on a rampage killing 4-5 strangers. When apprehended by the police and asked their names, they replied that their names were Mickey & Mallory Knox - the fictional character’s names from Stone’s film. The film was Natural Born Killers, and this film made a difference. 

I wrote for a popular television series called Touched by an Angel. Among the fan mail one day, we heard from one viewer. This man had decided to kill himself. It was a Sunday night and he happened to have the television on CBS where he watched an episode of Touched by an Angel.Moved by the story, he wept then decided to give life another chance. He wrote to us and thanked us for making a difference in his life.

NOTE: I recieved (actually helped transcribe and edit) the following response to my 1996 paper (Maintaining Spiritual Integrity While Working In The Media) from a dear friend, who is fearlessly prepared to leave this world due to recurrence of colon cancer.  I find it to be quite a refreshing take on reality - or rather, the lack thereof. You can use the link above to read my paper first - there's another link in a comment at the end to bring you back here when you're done. Sooo, without further ado, here is what he had to say:

"Do as you will, life’s a fiction made up of contradiction." 
    - William Blake

Peter,

I have read and re-read your paper on integrity from the point of view of the marketplace. It’s an excellent paper, and with very little work, could easily be dressed up to become the foundation for a major motivational dog-and-pony show, including the foundation for a best-selling book, and a series of high-powered seminars that would promote the idea that with a little personal effort, we can all acquire integrity, and by the sheer force of that acquisition, take heaven by storm.

The True Test of Integrity

First, what do we really mean when using the word "integrity"? At its core, integrity is not simply a matter of acting honorably. Note that the root word for integrity is the same as that for "integration" - living with integrity means that we choose to live in unity, rather than in separation. We must always be aware of the ego's tendency toward personal comparisons and competition, which not only sets us apart from others, but creates internal conflict and separation as well.

Stephen Simon, movie producer for "The Goodbye Girl" as well as the metaphysical classic, "Somewhere in Time" teamed up with screenwriter Barnet Bain, to create "Metafilmics," the first major motion picture company solely dedicated to entertaining audiences through metaphysical storytelling.

Their first movie, "What Dreams May Come," starred Robin Williams, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Annabella Sciorra and Max Von Sydow in an afterlife love story. Ron Bass, who wrote the screenplay versions of "The Joy Luck Club," "When A Man Loves A Woman" and "Rain Man," wrote the screenplay.

Sex, violence, and greed are what the media executives say the public want to read about, see, and hear. Indeed, 22 million TV viewers watched Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire? However, many individuals and organized groups are now actively trying to change the media. Their concern goes beyond just the sensational and negative stories and programs being produced; they're looking at the big picture-how what we read and see affects our consciousness, and the crucial role of the media in making a democratic society work.

Throughout much of the first 20 years of the history of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, the ideas we have championed have largely been ignored by the media. Suddenly, in 1993, two major television networks are airing documentary series exploring the potential of mind-body health: Healing and the Mind with Bill Moyers (sponsored by the Fetzer Institute), and our program The Heart of Healing (on TBS). Has the tide turned, and are we likely now to have more opportunities for similar series on related topics in the years to come? I think probably so, for several reasons.

Rod Serling was surely one of the most idealistic, outspoken, and iconoclastic writers of television's Golden Age. His highly developed social conscience, his strong opinions against bigotry and prejudice, his antipathy toward network censorship, were eloquently expressed in the more than 200 teleplays he wrote and in the many interviews he gave to national newspapers and magazines. What was Rod Serling like before he made "the big time"? Before the tremendous hit shows "Patterns," which was broadcast on the Kraft Television Theatre in 1955, and "Requiem for a Heavyweight," aired on Playhouse 90 in 1956? Before the staccato delivery of his unmistakable voice became imitated far and wide?

What we call "The Media" is by no means just a modern phenomenon. When politicians or businessmen try to use the media to manipulate public opinion, they are usually quite unaware of the fact that they are participating in a very ancient tradition. For the history of the media is intimately related to the evolution of social power structures and the dynamics of politics, religion and commerce. The history of the media can best be seen in light of a much deeper subject: the history of belief systems and the people who know how to use them.