about alan and the project

My name is Alan Macmillan Orr. I am 40 years old, and was born in Scotland, although I have lived all over the world. About 6 years ago, I started becoming aware of the world around me a little bit more - from the litter we drop in the street, the madness of consumerism, to the way we treat each others, the animals, and the planet we all have to share but for a short time. I started to question who I was, what my place was in this world, and if perhaps I was missing out on something important. So started the journey that led to the writing of the Natural mind - waking up; a 2000 page, 250 topic, A-Z personal deconstruction of what it meant for me to be human.

Not having had any previous knowledge of philosophy, nor any religious affiliations, I started from where I found myself. A 30 something man, living in a western society, never having had to want for anything, but with a sudden inquisitiveness to find out answers, I had previously never thought to seek. Each topic, from supermarkets, god, banking, and greed to pornography, addiction, weapons, and hate, is my personal journey where I question myself and the reader to open their minds to the possibility that we humans may be living a life of illusion.

So many books have been written, talks given, on what it means to be human, that I never thought I would be able to contribute anything more. But what I realised, was that although religious books, governments, scientists, ecologists, evolutionary theorists etc all had a view (sometimes very valid), none of them had made a lasting difference to the world. There were still wars, greed, desire, competition, violence, anger, and power struggles. Only now we were destroying the whole planet at an alarming rate. I set to find out why no one had ever managed to change the direction we were heading.

It came to me that the reason we were failing was that we were not looking at the whole. Sure, we were trying to fix bits of the world, but as we always saw each problem in isolation, and never in relationship, when we fixed something, we broke something else. I realised that unless I investigated every aspect of the world with my mind, I could never hope to understand it.

After finishing the book this year I still felt like a beginner at all of this, so, instead of leaving the book to rot on a bookshelf somewhere, I decided that the book had to come alive. The evolving book was born. A book where we could all begin to discover more about ourselves, and change the way we think about our place in the world. There is no end for this book, it is, like you and me, in a state of constant evolution, never static, always changing.

 

the natural mind project 

Welcome to the natural mind project. The natural mind project is a different kind of organisation in that it isn't really an organisation at all! I would define it as a “loose network of like minded individuals". It was set up in early 2009 by me, after spending the last five years writing “the natural mind – waking up” a three volume, 200 topic, 2000 page personal deconstruction of myself, humans and the relationship we have to the planet, the universe, and the other species we share our home with. After finishing the book, I put the philosophy into action – the natural mind project was born.

At the present time the natural mind project has one “employee” and that is me. I am dedicating my life to helping people help themselves wake up, and at the same time do work for the benefit of others, whilst maintaining an active role on environment, human rights, animal welfare, and keeping a watchful eye on the powerful people that run the world “on our behalf”.

One of the main aims of the project is to find a way to reduce the power of money especially on our basic needs. The monetisation of food has had such a profound effect on us. If I am hungry and I take an apple from a shop I will be arrested and charged with theft, after which I will be locked up (at the taxpayers expense) and duly given a meal and a drink!!!? So you can see why some people don't mind being in jail. Many people have tried to tackle this in the past, and have failed, but that is because people don't want to break through the money system, they like it. Until we all want to change I'm afraid our basic needs will remain out of reach for all but the most wealthy or those who are willing to borrow at huge interest rates.

The project currently receives no external funding, and is financed solely by alan (barely). There are no plans to turn it into a charity, as in my thinking, a charity is one to many where the idea behind the project is many to many – human collaboration.

So are there any real aims? Do I want to alleviate poverty and suffering the world over? In a word. No. Do I want all war to stop and no one to ever be cruel or hurtful ever again? In a word. No. Do I want us to be environmentally aware and put an end to global warming? Once again, you guessed it! No. So what do I want? You have heard me say what I don't want.

Well it's quite simple really but it is a very hard concept for people to grasp. Wishing for peace, an end to suffering, no more pollution, murder, etc. is all external. External to me. You see, the only way the “world” will change is through the change in individuals. Not by campaigning for change or protesting for change.

Let me explain. I am a strict vegetarian. I do not eat any products derived from animals, nor wear any animal products. Now, I think that the world would be a more compassionate place if everyone stopped eating meat. So what do I do? Do I wave banners and try to change you? Do I protest at my local butchers. No. I have made a shift in my mind which has the resulting action of me changing.

“Yes but that's just one of you changing” say you. “What difference does it make to the millions of poor animals who are brutally slaughtered?”

But let's look at this a different way shall we? If I say “I am concerned for the suffering of the animals, I will stop eating their flesh and wearing their skin,” have I not changed the world already? You see, we are always worried about the external. We always want to change someone else. But we are assuming we are right!

Just because I think it is cruel to kill hundreds of millions of chickens every year, you may not. You may say “man is a meat eater plain and simple” and I may disagree, but where does all this agreement and disagreement get us? Nowhere. The only way the chickens will survive is if I say, I will not eat chickens anymore.

And then leave it at that. We have made our choice. We have changed our internal world, and we have directly affected our external world. All in all, a good days work I would say.

But something in the back of our mind tells us it is not enough. We MUST go out and change other people. But if I convince you to become vegetarian is that not the same conditioning process you went through as a child to become a meat eater?

We must come to it by ourselves, whatever it is. There is no use campaigning for weapons to be banned when the man who makes them has no intention of not making them! But when he sees for himself the horror caused by his work, becomes aware of himself, and in that moment of clarity and insight lays down his tools, the world becomes a better place.

So should we help people change? Of course. But only when they come to us to ask for guidance. The rest is pure desire to get people to think the way you do – which is, at the root of it. Conditioning. And that can't be a good thing if we want to evolve our minds as a species.

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