Voluntary Simplicity
Toward A Way Of Life That Is Outwardly Simple, Inwardly Rich - Revised Edition

Author: Duane Elgin
Format: Paperback
Length: 240 pages
Publisher: William Morrow
ISBN: 0688121195

Highly Recommended!

Item #: BVS

Price: $12.95

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When Voluntary Simplicity was first published in 1981, it quickly became recognized as a powerful and visionary work in the emerging dialogue over sustainable ways of living. Now, more than ten years later and with many of the planet's environmental stresses having become more urgent than ever, Duane Elgin has revised and updated his revolutionary book.

Voluntary Simplicity is not a book about living in poverty; it is a book about living with balance. It illuminates the pattern of changes that an increasing number of Americans are making in their everyday lives--adjustments in day-to-day living that are an active, positive response to the complex dilemmas of our time. By embracing, either partially or totally, the tenets of voluntary simplicity -- frugal consumption, ecological awareness, and personal growth--people can change their lives. And in the process, they have the power to change the world.

Excerpts:

At the heart of the simple life is an emphasis on harmonious and purposeful living...There is no special virtue to the phrase voluntary simplicity--it is merely a label, and a somewhat awkward label at that...

...To live more simply is to live more purposefully and with a minimum of needless distraction. The particular expression of simplicity is a personal matter...To live more simply is to unburden ourselves--to live more lightly, cleanly, aerodynamically...Simplicity of living means meeting life face-to-face...

...We can describe voluntary simplicity as a manner of living that is outwardly more simple and inwardly more rich, a way of being in which our most authentic and alive self is brought into direct and conscious contact with living...

Reviews:

A copy of this book in every American household could change the course of history...Voluntary Simplicity shows that what this nation needs is not so much a change of policy as a change of mind, and that individual citizens, acting on their own, can do more to solve our crises than can any national administration.

• George Leonard, author of The Transformation

About The Author:

Duane Elgin is a researcher, author, and speaker with 30 years of experience in exploring the co-evolution of culture and consciousness. He is the author of three books: Promise Ahead: A Vision Of Hope & Action For Humanity's Future, Awakening Earth: Exploring The Evolution Of Human Culture & Consciousness and Voluntary Simplicity: Toward A Way Of Life That Is Outwardly Simple, Inwardly Rich. He is also the author of two reports: Global Consciousness Change: Indicators Of An Emerging Paradigm and Collective Consciousness & Cultural Healing. In addition, Duane co-authored (with Joseph Campbell, Willis Harman, and others) the book Changing Images of Man (Pergamon, 1982).

Duane was formerly a senior social scientist at the Stanford Research Institute (now SRI International), where he co-authored numerous studies on the long-range future; for example, Alternative Futures for Environmental Planning: 1975-2000 (for the EPA); Anticipating Future National and Global Problems; and Limits to the Management of Large, Complex Systems (both for the President's science advisor). While at SRI International, he also participated as a subject in a range of scientific experiments on parapsychology over a period of several years. Prior to SRI, Duane worked in 1970-71 as a senior staff member for the joint Congressional-Presidential Commission on Population Growth and the American Future. From 1981-1989, Duane was the founder and director of the non-partisan and non-profit organization Choosing our Future. The mission of COF is to revitalize citizen participation through the innovative use of tools of mass communication. COF conducted research, took legal action with the FCC, developed a pilot "electronic town meeting" (aired on ABC-TV in San Francisco), and organized a "community voice" organization to produce televised forums for citizen dialogue and feedback. Duane has an M.B.A. from the Wharton Business School and an M.A. in Economic History from the University of Pennsylvania.

Related Resources:

Promise Ahead A Vision Of Hope & Action For Humanity's Future
      By Duane Elgin (Paperback)

Collective Consciousness & Cultural Healing
      By Duane Elgin (Report)

Global Consciousness Change Indicators Of An Emerging Paradigm
      By Duane Elgin (Report)

Living Legacies How To Write, Illustrate & Share Your Life Stories
      By Duane Elgin & Coleen Ledrew with foreward by Angeles Arrien, Ph. D. (Hard Cover)