The Network M is highlighting members to encourage discussion and networking of like-minded and diverse individuals.  This endeavor gives members a chance to share their initiatives and present organizations in which they are affiliated.  The Member Spotlights include a biography and short interview.  This gives everyone a chance to learn more about other people spiritually and socially striving to create a better place to live and way of life for humankind.  Take time to find out how your peers are shining in the world.

Biography 

Adrian Wagner, also known at The NetworkM as Wiesel007 , grew up in a little village near Lauffen am Neckar (where the German poet Hölderin is from).  He had a basically "normal life" until age 17….through a crises, he discovered Yoga, Paolo Chelo and Herman Hesse. At the end of his studies in business school he faced a major breakdown and by going through it deeply sensed that his work should be with kids and nature.

Adrian started working in a nature center on the schwäbischen Alb. He discovered the beauty of playing and teaching children about nature.  This allowed him time to continue his Hatha Yoga practice and to write. He was engaged with nature and youth in helping to set up some environmental festivals for young people. During that time he read the Atlas of Globalization and this inspired him to do something against the neo-liberal globalization.  

He tried to connect with Buddhism to no avail and then discovered Anthroposophy. Adrian canceled a yoga training trip to India because he had to complete his civil service. An instant intuition said to him, "It is a chance, their might be an interesting place waiting for you"…and that is how it came about… 

Adrian moved right into the city of Stuttgart into a youth and cultural centre called Forum3 that is deeply engaged in global civil society networks and Anthroposophy. It was very intense and the change from living a romantic life in nature to moving into the middle of a postmodern-materialistic city (his workplace and home were surrounded by discos and clubs) took quite some energy.  

He discovered at Forum3 a deep need to connect to his heart and went on a journey through Portugal, Israel, Palestine, Egypt, Turkey and Greece. During this time, Adrian was part of a European social forum in Greece, visited Sekem in Egypt and Kibbutz Harduf in Israel, and helped a friend to set up a youth centre in Bethlehem (www.lightingcandles.org).  After completing a walk for peace from the Sea of Galilee to Jerusalem, (visit their website at www.grace-pilgrimage.com) he became worn-out by the "peace business".  

He finally hitchhiked back to Germany with his new fiance he met on the journey. Here, Adrian met the Alternative Nobel Price winner and social-spiritual activist Nicanor Perlas which deeply moved him.  He was able to connect Nicanor’s work with the U-theory, the ideas of Steiner (Philosophy of Freedom) and the Integral Theory of Ken Wilber. The Forum3 asked him, along with two friends, to start a project around his desire to combine various ideas...and of course they did (www.engage07.de) by creating a two-week training course in July/August 2008 with Orlando Bishop and Nicanor Perlas.

Adrian will be back in India in December 2007 to continue studying Tai Chi and integral thought. His long term goals are to combine the integral map of Ken Wilber with Anthroposophy and to set up large scale transformational processes within society, systems, cultures and the self. He also would love to create a university or a learning-visioning center that provides training in integral theory, intuitive thinking and the transformation of consciousness.


Interview

1) What is your name and where are you from?

My name is Adrian Wagner, I am from Europe, Germany but I feel like a citizen of the world because I traveled a lot in the last few years.

2) How did you find NetworkM and what attracted you to join?

A friend told me about it. I feel connected to Anthroposophy and I like to surf the Internet so I was very happy to see other people connecting and being engaged in Social Change as well as spirituality.

3) What are your burning questions right now and how are you working on or with them?

-- What traps the human potential to emerge fully to a world centric consciousness? -- How can we design structures that enable transformational processes on both a small and large scale?
-- What is the connection between Anthroprosophy and Iintegral Theory/Science…how can they be further connected with each other?
-- What is the new that wants to emerge?

4) What is social renewal in your own words?

Let the future tell us, let us be present and sense (presencing) and delve into the field of social emergence and help it to manifest in the “real world”.


5) What is the difference you are in the world? (What is your personal striving?)  

I am organizing trainings that enable social activists (and other people) to connect with their authentic self. I do think that only if I am truly centered in my higher or authentic self am I able to meet the challenges and bring change. In Anthroposophical terms: I am searching for ways to develop into the conscious soul and to think, feel and act from that place. So that at some point I will be able to help others do the same. I am trying every day, and I am just a student like most of you.

6) What organizations--if any--are you affiliated with? Tell us a little about them and your attraction to them and describe any similarities in your personal philosophy or interests to theirs.

I am affiliated with the Forum 3 a culture and youth centre in Stuttgart. I am also a member of Zaadz, a social network powering the larger Gaia community, and I am part of the engagement team. We have organized a training with Nicanor Perlas and Orland Bishop in 2008. Stay posted: www.engage07.de !


7) How do you hold your integrity when faced with opposing forces?  I

I have my daily practice of meditation, bodywork, Qi Gong and Tai Chi. Staying present to my breath moving into my heart helps me face difficulties. I discovered that before something great happens you are usually faced with a big darkness and the bigger the darkness the bigger the reward if you go through it.

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