After giving my keynote presentation on "The Psychology of the Future" at the World Conference of Futures Research 2015 in Turku, Finland in June, one of the conference attendees, Timo H�m�l�inen, introduced himself and told me that he had recently published an extensive article on well-being that he thought I would find interesting and resonant with various themes in my talk. He told me that my writings on future consciousness were cited and discussed in his article.

H�m�l�inen, a Fellow in Strategic Research for the Finnish Innovation Fund in Helsinki, Finland, sent me his article soon after I returned to the USA; indeed, I discovered that the article, "In Search of Coherence: Sketching a Theory of Sustainable Well-Being," was a chapter in a new book that H�m�l�inen had co-edited with Juliet Michaelson, titled Well-Being and Beyond. Not only did the article look impressive in its scholarly depth, but perusing through the table of contents of the book I noticed other provocative sounding chapters, including one by Maureen O'Hara and Andrew Lyon titled "Well-Being and Well-Becoming: Reauthorizing the Subject in Incoherent Times." H�m�l�inen was kind enough to send me a copy of this article as well. (Complete references are included at the end of this editorial.)

I told H�m�l�inen that after reading his article I would give him some feedback, but as I read it dawned on me that given the great substance and depth of his publication, the article warranted an extended "book review." Moreover, I also read O'Hara's and Lyon's article, which further built upon various themes pertaining to the nature and psychology of well-being. I realized that in discussing Timo's article it made sense to bring in O'Hara and Lyon's article as well.

Adding further to my study, I discovered in the references listed in the latter article an intriguing sounding publication titled "Happiness Donut: A Confucian Critique of Positive Psychology" by Louise Sundararajan. I was able to locate on the web the "Donut" article and read it. Since the concepts of well-being, happiness, and the good that I presented in my talk (as throughout my writings, Lombardo, 2011a) are greatly inspired by positive psychology and the work of Martin Seligman, the "Donut" article definitely perked my interest, and further enriched my thinking on the whole issue of well-being and the good. As Sundararajan questions in her article, does positive psychology (as espoused by Martin Seligman in particular) provide a viable, convincing, and globally balanced theory of psychological well-being and the good? Hence, starting from Timo's article, I eventually read, took notes on, and thought through three new related articles on the themes of well-being and how to define and realize the good life (and the good future)--which were the opening questions presented in my keynote talk in Finland. (See my slide show at the Conference Website.)

Reviewing all three articles in this issue of the newsletter would produce too lengthy an  editorial, hence I first review Timo's article in this September issue, and I plan to review the latter two articles in the next editorial of the newsletter.

By way of introduction, the relevance of these articles to the topics of wisdom and the future is: Well-being and the good are frequently identified as the overarching goals of wisdom; in fact, leading a life of wisdom is frequently seen as the highest expression of psychological well-being (and psychological functioning) and the good life. Hence, our most preferable or desirable future should be a life of wisdom, with wisdom providing both the substance and the means for realizing the good future. Within my review of these three articles I highlight their relevance to the themes of wisdom and the good future, as described above, and of special note, I compare the main points of these articles with my theses that wisdom is heightened future consciousness and that the good future (or the good life) is flourishing in the flow of evolution.

Anne Adams, an advisory board member of The Wisdom Page, recently recommended the following website and associated network,The Conscious Elders Network,

In my opinion, Jerome Glenn is one of the best speakers in the world on the topic of the future, especially global futures. "Jerry" is animated and engaging, highly intelligent and colossally informed, and you never come away from one of his presentations without a host of ideas buzzing around in your head.

What is particularly valuable regarding his talks is the realism, factual content, and comprehensive scope contained in his presentations. As the CEO of

The Millennium Project, Jerry brings into his presentations a wealth of up-to-date information on those most important measurable parameters defining the "state of the world" and the "state of the future." What are the central challenges facing humanity? How much progress are we making on addressing these challenges? Every year, drawing upon a vast network of professionals and "nodes" around the world, information on key global issues is collected, summarized, and analyzed and published in the annual State of the Future report. The Millennium Project website is one of the "Recommended Websites" on the Center for Future Consciousness Home Page.

 

Read a new introductory review of "The State of the Future 2015-2016."

Read the Executive Summary of The State of the Future 2015-2016. The Executive Summary is available in seven different languages. See the website.

Read the short introductory description and view the new video on the "Global Futures Intelligence System."

Of special relevance to the Wisdom and the Future website, read the newly released summary of Global Challenge Nine: Education

Wendell Bell, who is one of the most respected and best known futurists in the world, and is also a very dear friend, recently posted on Academia.edu an excellent article on the intimate connection between futurist thinking and ethics. Given the close connection between theories of ethics and theories of wisdom, as well as, as I have argued, between wisdom and future consciousness, Wendell's article is very relevant to the themes and topics examined in Wisdom and the Future.

From article abstract,

"Individuals, organizations, and whole societies can be viewed as value-driven decisional systems. The values that drive them are inherently future-oriented and their analysis is an unavoidable aspect of futures studies. How can such values--and the preferable futures that they define--be validated?"