Children of the Revolution - Infinity point zero

In 1996 I had never heard of Steve Jobs. I am typing this on a MacBook Air in 2011. It's safe to say I know who he is now. But back then, I had heard of Apple Computers, but didn't know much about them. One Sunday night, my then husband was on-call at the hospital and left me to program the VCR to tape a show on Channel 4 (If you are young enough to not know what I am talking about then ask someone 30 plus). The name of the show was 'Triumph of the Nerds' written and presented by Bob Cringely. (1)


In three episodes the show outlined the history of the rise of the personal computer. The episode I was asked to record, happened to be the one in which Steve Jobs unveiled the very first Macintosh computer in 1984. It was an evening that changed my life because it was then that I realised I was part of a revolution that was just as big, if not bigger than the rise of the personal computer. 

As the scenes unveiled the path to the invention of the first Macintosh computer, I couldn't help but get caught up in the excitement. It brought back memories of when I was eight years old and first started programming the computers that were present in my (girls') school. Every evening before the 40 minutes that I had to wait for the bus home from school, I would make sure I was the first kid to put up her hand to ask permission to work on the computer. We weren't allowed to record our programming so every evening we had to start from scratch, typing in the BASIC language into the Commodore 64 so that we could eventually spend the last ten minutes before the bus left playing a game. One of us would read out the lines of code, and the other would type them in. 

Eventually, we would be rewarded with few minutes of 'breakout' or 'bat and ball' - games so ludicrously simple compared to what is played nowadays, but for us, it was a revolution. And through the repetition of inputting the code everyday, something else happened; I started to learn BASIC by simple osmosis. I realised that the lines we were typing in, were commands in a language and learnt to manipulate the commands to do what I wanted. 


At eight years old, I had taught myself how to program and what's more - I was in love. I loved the way a computer put you in control of a machine. You told it what to do and it would follow - your TV didn't do that. But many factors came into my life which took me away from my first love, otherwise it is quite likely that I would have become a programmer. One of the factors ironically was that my parents bought a personal computer - a BBC. It was very expensive, but I couldn't figure out how to program it. 

So gradually I drifted away from that world and it became some that 'other people' did. Until years later when I met and married my first husband. He was interested in all things Mac. You must remember that this was the early '90s. Apple was at an all time low. People sniggered about Apple Computers as a company that had lost their way. It was unusual to have belief in Apple. But he did. 


And left alone that day in 1996, I gained that belief too and much more. Because that night was the first time I watched footage of Steve Jobs unveil the Macintosh computer to the world. He showed the same inimitable style as a young man that he is so famous for now in the post ipod era (though without his trademark turtleneck sweater). With a knowing flourish, he unveiled the machine that would change the world. In an extraordinarily well calculated piece of showmanship, he allowed the computer to speak for itself. And a computer-generated voice rose out of the beige box and said "So it is with considerable pride that I introduce a man who's been like a father to me, Steve Jobs." 

And with that, the camera cut back to Jobs. The look on his face says it all. As the roar of the delighted crowd rang out, his smile was one of immense pride - it must have been one of the proudest moments of his life. And why not - he had just made history and he seemed to know it. He seemed to feel the immensity.  


I stared at his face, his smile revealing that sense of achievement. That summer evening, in my North London flat in 1996, within every sense of my being I knew - one day I would achieve something that will make me feel the same way. I knew, even then as a medical student that I was part of another revolution - the Paradigm Revolution. And this time, instead of simply making products for our consumer society to covet, this was going to change the way we see everything. 


That night, with Steve Jobs' face still fresh in my memory, I boarded the train to get to my Paediatrics attachment in Berkshire. When on the train, I opened the book I had brought with me and started to read the acknowledgements. The very last paragraph stated, 'I also wish to acknowledge Steve P Jobs and his original Mac development team at Apple computer Inc for their creative vision in producing the Macintosh computer. Without my Macintosh (with which this entire book was created) and its ability to synthesise ideas, pictures and graphics so intuitively and easily, I would probably have never taken the time to put into writing a project of this scope and size.' (2)


It was like being hit by an infusion of light. I just knew that this was a message. It reaffirmed the feeling of a gathering revolution and that I was part of something so much bigger than the world has known in living memory. The book was 'Vibrational Medicine' by Dr Richard Gerber and it was the first to really bring together different strands of the paradigm revolution into a scientific synthesis covering many aspects of healing and the nature of reality. It spelled out that physics had everything to do with the way in which practices such as Eastern medicine worked. It was the first book to successfully and scientifically map the revolution and it was written by a medical doctor -  someone from my own profession. 

Sitting on that train, with the memory of Jobs' smile still fresh in my mind, I felt an immense sense of connection and order to the universe. I knew that I was going to play a part in bringing about the changes to our world view - I was one of the Children of the Revolution. Just as Jobs had lived through the hippie era and was part of the personal computer revolution, I was part of the Paradigm Revolution; at that point I didn't know how and why, I just knew. 


A lot has happened since 1996. My Macintosh computers have come and gone (as has my ex-husband). Apple's fortunes have confounded the world and now they are once again one of the most successful companies in the world. I have indeed achieved something that gives me a sense of centred pride like the emotion I saw in Jobs in the film. 


The Black Hole Principle was revealed to me in 2003 and I don't either feel inflated or deflated about it. I know it is a mix of my talents partnering with the universe and it was created in a balanced way. I have written my own books, first Punk Science in 2006 (O-books) which has been very successful and the rights have been sold to several countries and then The Genius Groove for which I set up my own publishing company - aptly named Paradigm Revolution Publishing. Both books were created on Macintosh computers of course. 


And what of the Children of the Revolution? Well they may still be under the radar of some mainstream reporters, but little by little the old paradigm is being overthrown. We have seen it in so many areas - from the rise of conspiracy theories, to the popularity of films like What the Bleep and The Secret to the explosion in books and workshops in this area - the revolution is growing fast. This is no over arching organised movement. It is the shift in the way we see reality occurring in the hearts of many individuals, until eventually a tipping point is reached when the old paradigm that has been mainstream is outnumbered by the new. That's what the Paradigm Revolution is truly about, although there are many who still decry it and try to tell you that is not happening. There are even some who play all sorts of tricks to keep people from waking up to the new reality. 


But it is not working. The pull of the heart is too strong. Like the mythical Aslan breathing over the bones of our true selves, fleshing us out and waking us up, we are slowly and surely coming into a new way of being, individual by individual. The new paradigm states that we are not separate - as quantum physics attests. Hence what we do to 'others', we do to ourselves and to the collective consciousness. The new paradigm states that nothing is solid - that a deep level reality is nothing more than information, that consciousness is fundamental and that there is no such thing as keeping your feet on the ground - the ground is nothing but empty space seemingly held together by an idea. 

As we go full circle from the wisdom of our ancient ancestors who had this knowledge that needed to be asleep for a while, to the wisdom of the new, what is so ticklish is that it is coming through the very tools that moved us away - through scientific thought itself that reveals new wonders from the very, very small in the microscopic and quantum worlds to the very large - in the stars and galaxies to even galaxy superclusters. The same pattern, the same fundamental reality is running through it all. 

And as we enter the next cycles of growth in this Paradigm Revolution and approach the tipping point between the two, ain't we glad that the personal computer revolution has placed the power of creation and communication with each other into the hands of so many? So we can connect with other Children of the Revolution throughout the world. These are people who also hear the call in their hearts - who are seeing past the illusions of the structures as they have been laid out for us in old paradigm ways. 


So thank you indeed Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and other visionaries who have come before us, for creating the personal computer revolution which has led to the internet, Web 2.0 and more. And welcome to the next world paradigm and the people who are called to it through the inner pull of their hearts  - the Children of the Revolution: Infinity point zero. 


Further Reading/ Watching
(1)'Triumph of the Nerds' PBS series written and presented by Robert X Cringely 
'Accidental Empires' by Robert X Cringely
(2) 'Vibrational Medicine' by Richard Gerber MD