Original subtitles

[THEME MUSIC]

GREGG BRADEN: Hello, my name's Gregg Braden.

And I know that if you're watching me today,

you have seen the program "Missing Links."

And we have a lot of people that are asking me

questions behind the scenes.

What has happened in my life?

What was involved?

What have I found?

When I was putting that information together

and I think you're probably aware

it's just the tip of the iceberg of all

of the research that went into putting this series together.

We know our world is changing.

And I think one of the most common themes of the questions

that people ask me from all over the world, every culture,

every continent that I'm on, two things, economy,

self-sustainability-- how do we bring those into our lives?

And that's what I want to talk to you about today.

So when I hear questions coming to me about economy,

one of the first things that I found

is that the word itself means different things

to different people.

Economy for some people is about money.

But I want to say, today, that economy

is much more than money.

It can be about money but it's more about us.

It's about people.

It's about the way we share the things that we need to sustain

us in our everyday lives.

The way we share food, energy, medicine, communications,

the vital things that are necessary in everyday life.

Those are the things that are changing in our world today.

We have found ourselves in a world where much of our economy

has been centralized.

And what's changing, now, in our time of extremes,

is we see the climate change.

And we see all of the factors of conflict,

and we see all the factors of the financial economy changing.

All those systems coming together.

What we're finding is, this centralized model no longer

works anymore.

So when people ask me, what is it that they

can do in their own lives?

The answer for me is very simple.

The key is a localized economy.

Localized economy, what does that mean?

It means living within our means in a local community

while that community is part of an even greater community that

can be a nation, it can be a planet.

It means localized forms of energy.

It means localized sources of food.

It means localized businesses.

It means localized money, localized loans.

These are the things that are sustainable in a time

of extremes when the world is going

through a time of such volatility and uncertainty.

It is the fragile centralized system that is most at risk.

And it's this system that you and I sense.

We feel it.

We don't need someone to tell us.

We know this system is at risk.

And this is where a lot of the fear comes from.

What if?

What if the banks fail?

What if the storms from the climate change

are so bad that delivery trucks can't come across the roads

into the mountain communities of Colorado and New Mexico?

Which has just happened recently.

These are a real time thing.

This isn't just a make believe hypothesis.

What do we do then?

And this is where people get nervous.

The key here, in localized living,

is we don't have to worry about any of those things.

Let me just give you a quick example.

A couple of years ago, there was a bacteria

that was found on certain kinds of fruits, melons, cantaloupes,

that were being grown in portions of the Rocky Mountain

area.

And they pulled these from the grocery store shelves.

They were warning people not to eat these things.

They were having the same problems with lettuces.

There were having the same problems with broccoli.

And there was another bacterial issue with eggs,

with fresh eggs.

I live in the high deserts of northern New Mexico,

a rural localized economy.

We went to our neighborhood restaurants

and we had no problem.

We didn't have to worry about any of those things,

because our food came from about a block away

from where the restaurant was, farm to table.

And I know, many of you listening to this,

you're already experiencing this because it has made sense.

What I want you to know is that it's more than a convenience.

This is the way of sustainable living in our future.

And just as the localized sources of food

work to help us provide reliable systems that we can count on,

the same thing is true for energy.

Energy is determined by environment.

Not every environment supports the same kind of energy.

If your living out West and you have a lot of sun,

solar makes tremendous sense.

If you're living under a lot of cloud cover

in a rainforest in Byron Bay, Australia,

it doesn't make quite so much sense.

There are other forms of energy.

The key is that one size does not fit all.

And this is where the centralized model in the past

has gotten us into trouble.

It has invited us to rely upon a single source of energy

mostly burning of fossil fuels that we know is not sustainable

and it's causing more problems now

when, in fact, we have so many localized and sustainable ways

of living.

And some of them are conventional, some of them

are unconventional.

We all know about wind.

Here in northern New Mexico we have geothermal because

of the volcanic activity.

You drill a hole in the ground, pump water

into the molten lava, that turns into steam.

That steam drives the turbines and you've

got a beautiful source of electricity that's

not dependent on sun or wind.

So these are examples of the kinds

of things in the near term.

One of the other questions that people ask all the time

is what about free energy.

As a scientist, what I can say to you

is the principles of free energy, the physics exist.

And we are surrounded, we are bathed

in energy that can be tapped and used in a very real

and a commercial way.

Realistically, are those systems available right now?

What I say to people that ask me this, they say,

why aren't we using these things right now?

And I say to them, the systems that are available now,

to the best of my knowledge I wouldn't want

to depend on those systems.

If I were on an operating table in an operating room

and knew that those systems were running all the power--

or if I were in an airplane depending

upon those systems for navigation and guidance--

they're not at the point where I would want those things,

my life to depend upon them.

I think what we're seeing is a gradation.

It's a phasing in of these new forms of energy and forms

of economy.

Humans are very interesting in this respect.

And we've talked about this a little bit

before in that we seem to learn what we do not want

by experiencing that first.

Rather than simply saying, this is the way

we choose to live and let's put all of our energy

into making these things happen.

It seems that we experience war, for example,

before we say we don't want that we want peace.

Or we experience a breakdown of the financial system

before we say, we don't want that.

Let's regulate that.

So we could, in a six month period

of time, the leaders of the world

could come together and say, hey, look.

All these new technologies already exist.

Let's put the world on hold.

Let's put our people to work.

Let's give people jobs.

Let's rebuild an infrastructure and six months from now

we're going to push a button.

And we're going to be clean, green, sustainable, smart grid,

and we'll never looked back at fossil fuels again.

That could happen.

Is it going to happen, realistically?

Probably not.

So realistically, what we're doing

is we're doing this piecemeal, step by step,

as aspects of the centralized forms of economy--

food, medicine, communications, energy, defense,

all these things, finances--

as they break down, we're fixing them piecemeal.

And I'm not saying it's good, bad, right, or wrong.

It just is a path we've taken.

Ultimately, they are stepping stones.

They're leading us toward what you and I both know

is possible for us and our children in our world.

And that is a world where we live in harmony with nature.

Localized living is the way nature works.

And that should be the model for the way we live our lives.

So one of the questions that people ask me all the time,

and this is true in every country I go to,

when they talk about the economy they're

being very specific about money.

And this is the physical money that we all use

and that we all depend on.

They say, where are we going with the money?

What's happening with the money?

So I'm going to preface this.

I'm a scientist and when I give you a scientific answer

I identify it as a scientific answer.

I'm not an economist.

I've spent a lot of energy, my energy researching this.

So I'm going to share with you what

I have found to be true to the best of my knowledge.

The global financial system is changing.

And one of the reasons it's changing

is because it is now a global financial system.

We never have had this in the history of the world.

The world has never been connected the way that we

see the world connected now.

We've never lived in a truly globalized society.

And people ask me all the time, are we

going to a global government, a one-world government?

Are we going to a one-world currency?

And my answer is, we're pretty much already there.

Nobody told us when it happened.

It wasn't like, flash, CNN, BBC World--

one-world government, one-world monetary system.

But if you think about it, we've got a 24/7 global stock

exchange.

We already have that--

24/7 global news, 24/7 global communications,

we've already got global defense.

We've got global energy sharing, global technology,

global medicine.

The way that governments are now working together,

in many respects they are cooperating in a global sense.

So where are we going with all this?

Ultimately, ultimately, at some point,

I think we will see more of what we would interpret

as a global government.

It doesn't mean that there is one person that's

dictating what's happening with everyone else.

It is more of the sense where the world has the opportunity

to chime in on the input of the policies that are happening.

And I think you're already seeing

this happen in our world today.

And the same is true with money.

So this is where I'm going with this.

People ask, are we going to lose physical money?

My sense is we will always have among us in our communities,

we will always have an Australian dollar,

a Canadian dollar, an American dollar

to exchange at the grocery store or for a tank of gas.

But the role of that dollar is going to change.

And there are already efforts right now--

the G20 met recently, this is the year 2017.

2016, and as far back as 2008/2009,

after the financial crisis, they've

proposed-- the G20, the 20 most powerful economic forces

on the Earth-- proposing a cashless society.

So is that good or bad?

Is it right or wrong?

People ask me that, I say, it's all about how it's implemented.

If it's implemented for the purpose of bringing people

together for accountability and to honor people and the way

that we exchange vital resources,

it could be a very good thing.

If it is implemented with the greed

that we have seen in the past from large centralized banks

and corporations-- we already know

what that looks like because we're living in it right now.

So ultimately, when we're talking

about a global currency, is it going to happen?

Well, what I can tell you, is it's already here.

We already have a global currency.

It's a currency very few people have heard about,

but it's already in use between the central banks.

It's called the SDR.

SDR means Special Drawing Rights.

This is a form of currency when the Federal Reserve,

for example, gives money to the European Central Bank

or something like that.

This is the currency that they use.

And because it is a solvent currency,

it is not burdened in the way that other currencies are right

now, including the dollar, it's being

accepted as a global currency.

So this is a currency that's going to be used--

it's already existing-- it'll be used more widespread

and more applications is how it will be used.

When it comes down to us and our everyday lives,

this is what people are really interested in.

As I mentioned, I think we'll still use our local currencies

for the time being.

Ultimately, I think we are moving

toward a cashless society.

And there have been movements that some countries are already

taking denominations of their currency out of circulation.

And I personally have been to businesses here

in the United States that refuse my cash.

I was staying at a hotel, I had an early flight--

I won't share the name of the hotel chain.

I went to the front desk and I was

trying to use credit cards as little as possible.

And they said, we are not equipped to take your cash

to pay for this.

And I recently was at a restaurant

and had the same thing.

I didn't even think twice about it.

I paid the man cash--

because I don't like to use credit cards when

I'm traveling so much because of identity theft

and things like that--

and they refused my cash.

So this is already happening in some places.

I want to say one more thing quickly.

In rural communities, the idea of a cashless society

has been around for a very long time.

And we see these not only in the mountain states

or in the high deserts--

Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona-- but I've

seen them back east, as well.

Barter-- and there are very formalized ways

of doing barter where people register

their particular skills or their talents.

It's like a tally sheet.

And when someone needs a roof on their house,

the person that can do the roof goes

and puts the roof on their house and charges

so many-- they are called green units-- the system is you don't

exchange them hand to hand.

So many green units went into putting the roof on that house.

And now someone needs a transmission in their car.

And another person will go and the exchange

happens on this tally sheet so that ultimately people

are getting what they need from their neighbors

in a sustainable way without any cash ever changing hands.

It's very difficult to tax.

And this is a problem where the IRS

has as a big problem with things like this for this reason.

So it's not a perfect system.

But it is a system that is in place and is used commonly.

My experience, this is what I think is happening-- in steps,

we're moving toward a cashless society.

These are some of the steps we'll

go through, global currency, the devaluing

of our local currencies, ultimately, to the point where

we are electronic currencies.

People ask about Bitcoin all the time.

I'm not a Bitcoin expert.

I'm not a big fan of Bitcoin.

I like the idea.

The way it was implemented, I think

it could have been done better.

There are some loopholes and I think

we've all seen some of the drawbacks

where the Bitcoin has lost value overnight

and people lost tremendous amounts of money.

It can be implemented I think, in a better way.

But we're in uncharted territory.

This is the thing.

We are a global community in an uncharted territory forging

our way forward, trying to do something has never

been done before.

And I think that's exciting.

And I couldn't think of a more exciting time

to be experimenting with all of these different things.

But I think the key here is, when

we find that something doesn't work,

rather than clinging to it and trying

to force a square peg in a round hole

like we see happening in the European Union

right now which is undergoing a change--

Because one policy set in one nation cannot possibly fit

for all of the 28 nations that were involved originally

in the European Union.

So it's changing to reflect that.

And I think the smart thing for us to do,

if we have the wisdom to recognize when a system is

no longer working, to allow the change to flow

and to find new ways to implement what does work,

rather than trying to cling to something that's

not sustainable and forcing it where

people aren't accepting it.

People ask me all the time if I sense

that we are heading toward a crash in the economic system,

whether it's America's economy or whether it's

a global economy?

I don't know the answer to that.

I don't know that we're heading toward a crash.

What I do know is this the system that

is in place right now is being stretched like a rubber band.

And it can only stretch so far.

Something has to give.

Where this stretching is occurring right now

is the debt that has been accrued.

When a city goes bankrupt, it can be bailed out by a state.

Or when a state goes bankrupt in the United States of America

it's common for the federal government

to bail out that state.

And we've all seen that happen and we have

a lot of experience with that.

Here's the question.

What happens when the debt of the nations of an entire planet

becomes greater than the GDP, than what they are producing?

What happens when an entire planet goes bankrupt?

Who bails out a planet?

I don't know the answer to that, and I

don't know that anyone does.

I think we're going to find out.

Because the debt of the entire planet,

now, is essentially-- we are a bankrupt planet.

The major economic nations have assumed the policy

of creating this debt.

And the money is leveraged to such a degree,

I think, it will be very difficult to ever

realistically pay down the debt, including America's debt.

I think America right now, our debt ratio is about 105%.

Which means, we owe more than we're

able to produce by over 5%.

Other nations 30% and 40% over that.

So if that were you and me, we would say that we're bankrupt

and we wouldn't be allowed to function any longer.

Nations continue but this debt accumulates.

And it accumulates because of the interest that is

owed on the debt we're paying.

So it is an unsustainable cycle.

Something's got to give.

The question is, do we have a soft landing?

Do we have leaders who are proactive and are

willing to actually lead nations and the world

together into a new form of economy?

Or do we have a hard landing, do we have a crash landing

where we wait for the system to break?

And then we say, OK, here's what we're going to do.

I don't know the answer to that.

But what I know is, this is precisely the reason

that the conversation we had a little earlier about localized

economy is important.

Because what we saw the last time the economy crashed

is that localized economies are affected much, much less,

to a lesser degree, than centralized economies.

So to the degree that we can keep our money local--

and again, there are rural communities,

northern New Mexico, Colorado I'm familiar with

because that's my home--

we encourage buying locally.

We buy our produce locally, buy our automobiles locally,

instead of going to another city.

And maybe we get a little bit better deal.

We spend more money to keep the money local.

These are the things I think that will help sustain us

as individuals.

The United States debt, a lot of people

don't understand why it happened.

We've had tremendous amounts of debt before.

World War II, the debt we ran up was tremendous to fight a war.

And we paid it back almost immediately.

When citizens, you and I, we bought savings bonds.

A savings bond was us buying a bond,

it was loaning the government some money.

I remember when I was a kid, for my birthday,

my grandparents would always proudly hand me,

here's a United States Savings Bond

you save it until it's maturity and you put yourself

through college, or something like that.

But we did that.

We paid back the debt.

Also we levied something called an income tax, which did not

exist prior to that time.

So the people say, well, we paid it back then.

Why can't we pay this debt?

Because we already have used all of the ammunition that we have.

We already have the income tax.

We can't implement something we already have.

The savings bonds, we have bonds, as well.

They're called something a little different,

but they're working the same way.

And the third thing I want to say very quickly

is up until early 1970s our currency was linked,

it was pegged to something that was solid, tangible, and real.

It was linked to gold.

Gold was about $32 an ounce.

And every dollar that we held in our hand

was a paper representation, a convenient way

of using that gold rather than carrying heavy gold around

or silver in your pocket.

You'd say, this piece of paper represents that.

And it actually said, a Silver Certificate on the dollar bill,

or we knew that dollars were back in gold.

1971, President Nixon de-coupled the US dollar

from the gold standard.

So that meant that we could begin printing more money

than the gold could back.

And this is where we started getting into trouble.

This is where the debt and the inflation actually began.

So there are proposals now to go back

to some kind of a gold standard.

Whether that happens or not, I don't know.

China is amassing tremendous amounts of gold

to give them financial credibility.

And they'd like to go to gold standard.

India is doing the same thing.

Russia is doing the same thing.

So there is a movement we're seeing

in the markets of nations amassing

tremendous amounts of gold, presumably

so that they can peg their currencies

to this tangible asset once again

and maybe get this debt under control for a soft landing.

We'll keep our eyes peeled and see what happens.

But this is where it looks like we're going with all of this.

I think it's obvious to anyone who

is in any way engaged in the world

that we are, in fact, living in time of extremes.

And those extremes are touching every facet of our lives.

And the question that comes up so many times-- and that I ask,

myself, constantly--

how do we keep positive?

I mean, how do we keep a positive outlook

and live our lives in a meaningful, productive way,

in a useful way, every day of our lives,

knowing that all these things are happening?

That's one of the reasons that I've created

"Missing Links" for you.

Because I want you to know why I'm

optimistic about our future.

I've never been more optimistic about my nation, the United

States, your nation, all nations, the world, our future.

I've never been more optimistic.

And here's the reason why.

Because, we now know what doesn't work.

We know what's broken.

We know what's not sustainable, on the one hand.

And on the other hand, we already

have all the solutions to all the big problems in the world.

They already exist.

We don't have to get all of the leaders of the corporations

and the politicians and the spiritual

and the religious leaders and scientists and engineers

and the technological people together in a room

and say, OK, figure this out, because we

did that in the 20th century.

We have all the solutions to all the big problems.

We have all the food we need to feed

every mouth of every child, every woman, every man

on the face of the Earth.

We have the ability to create energy,

free energy with zero greenhouse gases and no fossil fuels.

And we've had that for over 60 years.

We've already determined that we know

how to build an economy based upon sharing and cooperation.

Which is very different from an economy of competition

and scarcity where one person has what other people need

and they leverage that.

It's a very, very different way of thinking.

We already have all of these things.

Here's what's lacking.

People say to me, if we've got all this stuff, where is it?

Why don't we see it now?

We're lacking the leadership that

makes it a priority to implement these things in our world.

We're lacking the leadership that makes it a priority

to bring into our lives what already exists in the world.

These things-- they already exist

and they're waiting to be implemented-- however,

we have leadership.

And I'm not saying it's the fault of any one

person or any nation.

I'm saying this is a way of thinking.

And I think many of us as individuals are guilty of this,

as well.

Because no one in the media--

the media, typically, has never acknowledged that we're

going through this big change.

And so it's important for the media to say at some point,

the world has changed and we're living a new normal.

So without having said that, so many

of us, consciously and subconsciously,

are waiting for things to get back to normal.

We're seeing these extremes as a little speed

bump in the road of life and we're

waiting for things to settle down,

we're waiting for the dust to settle.

The speed bump is the new normal.

Volatility is the name of the game for our lifetimes

and probably our children's lifetimes,

because we're living the transition of a global society.

It doesn't mean it's bad.

It just means if we are clinging to the ideas, the old ideas

of a world that used to be and were waiting for things to get

back to normal, there's no room, emotionally, psychically,

there's no room to embrace the new world that's already here.

And think about this in your own life.

Think about this with a relationship.

If you are filled to the brim with the love

and the passion of a new romance,

there is no room to entertain another romance

because you're wired for the one that's present in your life.

Now I'm using that as an example because, in many respects,

the romance that we've had with the world of the past,

if we are filled to the brim with expecting

the climate, the weather to behave a certain way,

for spring to start on a certain day,

the rain to come in a certain time,

for the economy to move within certain boundaries,

if we're waiting for that world, that world is gone.

And the new world now is this world of volatility.

But the volatility is where we can

embrace the new discoveries.

Bring in the new economy.

Bring in the new forms of energy.

Bring in the new jobs.

Bring in the new forms of healing.

Bring in the new forms of communication.

It's all, already there.

We lack the leadership that is willing to make it a priority

to bring these beautiful, beautiful, amazing, powerful

discoveries to the people of the Earth to give us

the quality, the healthy lives, the quality of life

that we all know is possible.

So within that quality of life we

can thrive, create, innovate, and bring to the world

our heart's desire.

And that's the world we all know is possible.

So what does that mean for us?

As long as we live in communities, or nations

or societies where we choose to elect people to represent us,

it's incumbent upon us to hold those elected

officials accountable to represent

our views and our values.

And when they don't, we need to let them know about that.

So this is where the process all come into play.

It brings in a lot of ideas and it

touches on a lot of things I am very passionate about because I

know the world that's possible.

And we're right there.

We're just, mm, we're right there.

And we're going to see it in this lifetime.

And I vote for a soft landing.

So when people ask me about where we

are in this time in history--

and many people have literally asked me,

how do we get out of this mindset of scarcity?

This is one of those places where the answer is

in the question, because the idea of scarcity

is nothing more, nothing less than a mindset.

It doesn't exist in the world, it

exists in our perception of what we're

willing to accept in the world.

Perhaps more importantly, what we're

willing to accept of ourselves.

Every one of us is a being that needs to create,

to express in our lives, in our world in some way.

Our creations and our expressions

are the fuel that give meaning to our lives

and contribute in a meaningful way to our society

and to our economy if we're talking

about that specifically.

So when people have asked me, I have never

felt a scarcity in my life.

Although, when I was young, my father left our family.

We were broke.

We were in debt.

That means you're broke and beyond broke.

We were so in debt, we lived in government subsidized housing.

We moved every year, I went to a different school

in some really rough neighborhoods.

I never felt that idea of scarcity,

because I always had the opportunity

to make my life better.

I always had the opportunity to find some way

to contribute doing something that would benefit someone else

and benefit me, as well.

And I think this is the key.

If we're relying upon our sense of abundance,

if we rely upon the external world

to give that to us emotionally and psychically,

it will show up in our physical world.

So if we're relying on the outer world

for our sense of well-being, for our abundance,

and if we believe that it is a right for us to have it,

we will be disappointed continuously.

Because the universe doesn't see it as a right,

it's an opportunity to create for ourselves.

And when we recognize, when we perceive the abundance

that is already present--

it's not just about money.

Money is simply an energy and we're

talking about energy here--

when we begin to see the abundance

that we have in our lives--

people say, count your blessings.

And I give thanks of gratitude the last thing

before I go to sleep every night.

I give thanks for the day that has been

and the day that has yet to be.

The day that has been, I will go through

the highlights and important things and the people

and what they shared with me.

How they made me feel.

What they offered me in their stories.

What they offered me in the ways that we've collaborated

and worked together.

I give thanks for every one of those things.

And then I give thanks for the day that is yet to be.

The day that will dawn when I awake is full.

It is ripe, it is pregnant with possibilities.

And every one of those is a potential.

Abundance is a consciousness.

It's a state of being.

And my experience is, as we embrace

that on the emotional level and receive the abundance that

is offered to us in so many ways every day,

that shows up in our economic and our financial lives,

as well.

It has to.

And that's different than simply going out and saying,

I need to make money.

Because that comes from a place of lack saying,

I don't have any.

And this is where I find people that

have the greatest unhappiness.

Because they'll always compare what they're

doing to others around them and they'll

always see themselves as less than.

Perfect example-- I just had someone recently say to me,

don't you think it should be illegal

for people like Bill Gates to make the money

that he has made?

And I surprise him with the answer and my answer was no.

I don't think that and here's the reason why.

Bill Gates is a brilliant man.

He had an idea that changed the planet.

And he fought to implement that idea

when it wasn't well-received.

And I was working in the industry

when this was all happening.

He has empowered hundreds and hundreds

of thousands of people.

Is he a wealthy man?

Yes.

And he has created hundreds of other wealthy people, given

people jobs, new technologies have spun off from the idea

that one man had.

Why would I ever want to limit his abundance?

The same thing with Facebook, the founder of Facebook.

Same thing with the founder of Amazon.

There is a list of the wealthiest people in the world.

In no way do I think those people

should have been limited when it comes to them expressing

their potential in the past.

When it comes to the nuts and bolts of tax laws and things

like that, it's a whole different story.

But the principle of what has happened with them is they

were inspired, just like you and I.

And they took that inspiration and they made it

into something real.

And that reality has changed our planet.

You can do that.

I can do that.

Together we can do it.

And when we begin looking at things this way,

the idea of scarcity simply becomes obsolete.

So as we come to the close of this episode,

if there was a single word that I could offer to you my viewing

audience that would embody my sense for everything that we've

talked about that could give us that sense of security

in a world of volatility and uncertainty,

what would that be?

And when I ask myself the same question,

the word that comes to me just like that is honesty.

I think it's important that we are honest with ourselves,

about the world that's at our doorstep, about what we're up

against, individually and collectively.

Honest, truthful, and factual about what the new discoveries

are showing--

and that's why I've created "Missing Links."

And honest with ourselves about what

it takes to implement this new world.

I am optimistic and I'm also a realist.

I'm under no illusion that it takes a lot of work

to shift the thinking within a single generation of how we've

lived our lives and what money means to us

and what savings and retirement and education and energy

and all those things mean.

It's all changing right now.

I think it's exciting but it takes work.

And as I've mentioned previously in this episode,

the prophet Kahlil Gibran said to us,

"work is our love made visible."

It takes a lot of work to change the way we think.

I think we're worth it.

And I think this world is worth it.

And I think it's worth the work that goes into it.

Because that work is our way of loving ourselves.

And loving the world, is our love made visible.

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