As humans, we have a deep desire to find an identity that resonates, and a sturdy, dependable sense of purpose. We ask ourselves big questions: Why are we here? Who am I? What is my purpose?
Humanity has developed different ways of approaching life’s big questions throughout our history. These different approaches can be categorized into the First Story, Second Story, and Third Story.
The First Story began thousands of years ago, when belief systems and religious doctrines were our primary way of understanding complex ideas greater than ourselves. First Story worldviews are rooted in myth and ritual. They help us to acknowledge, understand and participate in the sacred dimension of life as a community.
When the Scientific Revolution occurred in the 16th and 17th centuries, a new worldview was developed: the Second Story. This worldview was rooted in objective truth, reason, logic, and the scientific method. It led to the rapid development of natural sciences and technological advancement creating more stable and secure civilizations.
Both Stories have elements that our digitally-dependent contemporary world can benefit from for finding deeper meaning and personal understanding. The Third Story worldview idea is our response to the crisis of orientation that colors our current moment. It’s a way of helping you view yourself, and your potential, in a new light. It blends the ethical dimension of the First Story and the clarity of method of the Second to bring about a contemporary way of understanding our role in our planetary community.
The Third Story worldview calls upon the first two stories to create a fresh perspective that energizes life with empowering insights and a renewed sense of meaning and purpose.
Third Story principles:
- Combines the First Story’s sense of purpose with the universalizable applications and laws of the Second Story.
- Coherent worldview that is adaptable to new discoveries
- Centers on human agency and the sentience of of living beings
- Belief in potential to improve conditions for human beings and life on Earth
- Strong tendency toward sustainable policies and choices
- Everyone shares one natural world and one cosmic, geological, and deep evolutionary history
- Celebrates the immense diversity of human meaning systems with the belief that metanarrative can find ways to integrate into a shared universal story.
- Vision of human beings and societies in meaningful globalization as a kind of superorganism
- Sense of participation and responsibility for a profound planetary community and its development
