Perception Dollar
Caterpillar, Cocoon, Butterfly. Believe in Miracles!
Issue #2 of the Perception Dollar - Just published!
Caterpillar, Cocoon, Butterfly. Believe in Miracles!
Websites www.monetary.org
www.ProgressiveRadioNetwork.com
"Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it."
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (August 28, 1749- March 22, 1832)
About the Perception Dollar
by Carol Brouillet
In October 2002, in collaboration with artist, Blaine Machan, we printed and and began distribution of 10,000 Deception Dollars. We passed them out at an anti-war rally in San Francisco, they were extraordinarily easy to give away. They were made to overcome censorship of the most vital information about the events of September 11, 2001, an event which plunged humanity into "an endless war of terrorism."We saw that the official story of 9/11 was full of holes, a fabrication, a lie, used to terrorize Americans and the world. The Dollars featured websites which exposed the lies and sought truth. Armed with little more than courage, truth, art, we challenged the lies and nurtured the 9/11 Truth movement, which continues to grow.
Over the years, we have distributed over 7,000,000 Deception Dollars (including Election Deception and Media Deception Dollars), People have discovered the joy of giving away "money." Our greatest obstacle has been "fear" and overcoming the psychological barriers to looking at painful information.
Personally, I have oscillated between exposing problems and nurturing solutions. Many people would rather not look at what is not working, and would prefer to focus on creating something to replace failing systems. I had been wanting to print a Conception Dollar for a long time, to help people overcome fear and find the courage and strength to create a much better future for all of us.
In June, 2006 I was inspired by Anodea Judith's book and a presentation that she gave:
Waking the Global Heart-
From the Love of Power to the Power of Love"
(click on the book image for the June 27, 2006 review)Originally I had hoped to publish the Conception Dollar in 2006, but we couldn't get the art done in time. In 2007 a number of convergences happened, including a powerful conference held in Colorado in August that brought together artists, musicians, storytellers, filmmakers for the First Annual Story Field Conference The stated intention was-
"We believe that changing the stories of the defining culture is a key to the social transformation of humanity now at hand. Our intention is to gather a diverse group of creative artists, media people, thinkers, and doers engaged in story-work to share our stories of what we are doing and learning in our own work, to deepen our collective insights into the story change process, and to grow the relationships of new alliances."
Anodea Judith was one of the story-tellers who came, so was David Korten, author of:
Another author who spoke on a similar theme was Michael Dowd, author of: 
The Great Turning- From Empire to Earth Community
Organizing the conference was an old friend of mine, Tom Atlee, founder of the Co-Intelligence institute and also the author of:
Thank God for Evolution!
How the Marriage of Science and Religion Will Transform Your Life and Our World
I posted a draft of the Conception Dollar on the Story Field Creations Blog in hopes that The Conception Dollar would help us to reach out to people and change the dominant narrative. 
The Tao of Democracy-
Using Co-Intelligence to Create a World that Works for AllI was also inspired by others. On this bill are six round symbols that were taken from the book- Bearer of Light- A Catalyst for Global Change. The symbols capture some useful teaching points for individuals and groups, seeking truth.
I believe that the Conception Dollar had an impact. I don't know if Obama stole his campaign slogan from our bill or not, but certainly people in 2007 needed HOPE and the desire for change grew in 2008. Although the financial tsunami has hit different pockets of people, countries, communities at various times, the threat of global financial meltdown remains. I suspect one reason that traditional US Federal Reserve notes still work is simply lack of a better, viable alternative, but it is definitely time to rethink our monetary system and devise new systems that heal, restore, nourish life rather than impoverish, kill, and threaten life as the current debt-based exchange/war-economy does. I believe the ideal economy is the gift economy, the love economy, so invisible to modern economists, but that which supports all life and dwarfs the exchange economies. The big question is how do we get from Empire to Community, which literally means- the free exchange of gifts. I suspect that there is more than one path and a transformation needs to take place in many different aspects of "modern life." The civilized world still has a lot to learn from indigenous people who did learn to live sustainably, joyfully, meaningfully, in harmony with the Earth and other life forms.
Additional symbols include the ancient "Flower of Life."
Flower of LifeIn the lower right corner on the back is the Cat's Eye Nebula whose unusual shape seems to mirror the electromagnetic field surrounding the human heart, according to those studying meta-physics (See the website- solomonsproof.com which details this idea. I will have the author of the book, Solomon's Proof on my radio show, Thursday, April 1, 2010).
Cat's Eye NebulaThe spiral- I believe this is an original that Blaine Machan made similar to the spiral on the cover of the book-
The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the GoddessI have danced the Spiral Dance with Starhwawk in the streets, in actions, in celebration in San Francisco and I have tremendous respect for her work and her voice which has inspired so many of us. (I only recently finally read one of her books- The Fifth Sacred Thing which is more timely than ever in imagining how non-violence could triumph over the cancerous imperial paradigm that has dominated the planet for so many thousands of years.) The spiral is a reminder of (quoting Starhawk)-
"The Old Religion, as we call it, is closer in spirit to Native American traditions or to the shamanism of the Arctic. It is not based on dogma or a set of beliefs, nor on scriptures or a sacred book revealed by a great man. Witchcraft takes its teachings from nature, and reads inspiration in the movements of the sun, moon, and stars, the flight of birds, the slow growth of trees, and the cycles of the seasons."
The Pentagram represents feminine power and esoteric knowledge.
The PentagramThe Date and C 3082010 P, or March 8th, 2010 is the day of the trial of Splitting the Sky versus George W. Bush and the day we hope that these will be published and available. CP stand for the Calgary Principles. Splitting the Sky war violently arrested when he was trying to make a citizen's arrest of George W. Bush on Bush's first Canadian speaking engagement in Canada after he left office. Those who commit war crimes or genocide according to Canadian law should not be allowed safe harbor in Canada and should be prosecuted for their crimes. We hope that the trial will encourage those who act in defense of the Earth and her people to demand accountability and to discourage those who believe it is ok to commit massive crimes against the world and humanity and feel that because of their wealth and power; they can get away with it. Empires and wars will crumble and end without the support of the vast majority. When people withdraw their compliance, energy and time from the oppressive regimes and redirect it towards meeting and serving the needs of our beloved world and the people in it; we will find and create meaning, peace, joy, health, truth, love, ecological wisdom...
I hope these bills will help people to "be the change" we all would like to see. There was not room, space, or time to list every hopeful website on the bill. We did include some key words, some of which have obvious meanings, but some which deserve to be explored on the internet. At the moment, I am trying to finalize printing details, in order to distribute them in time for the major anti-war rallies scheduled for March 20, 2010. You can help by sending donations or ordering some or the final art went to the printers on the morning of March 1st. Here are some good links related to some of the key words on the edges of the notes-
Appreciative Inquiry
Health
(Link to- World Healing Day)Possible
(Link to the movie- What a Way to Go- life at the end of empire)Our goal is to end war, end state sponsored terrorism, redirect human resources towards healing and creating a better future for all life- to move us from a paradigm of terror, war, fear, lies towards compassion, peace, love, truth.
Many thanks to the artists- Blaine Machan who put all the art together, and Mark Henson who allowed us to use a portion of his painting The New Pioneers for the front of the bill (and the whole painting at an altar at last Halloween's Spiral Dance) and Gaelyn Larrick who allowed us to use the Cosmic egg shaped portion from her beautiful Elemental Alchemy on the back of the bill.
You can support this effort, and only you can decide how and where your talents, skills, resources, energy can be best deployed to further the cause of truth, peace, justice, life. We are all in this together!
If you would like to support the publication of Perception Dollars, please contact me (Carol Brouillet- email cbrouillet(at)igc.org). We have run out of them, but still have a few collector sets. Proceeds have gone to-
The Northern California 9/11 Truth Alliance
