Dear Friends

Many of you I have come to know over several years of our Council Meetings and all the others I want to come to know soon.

I am very grateful to John Drew and the Romanian team who prepared this meeting and brought us here to this exquisite place.

I am more than grateful for the enthusiasm with which John has encouraged all members - especially through the newsletters - to remain one big community and to feel together as a living body of mutual supportive members. I do have the strong feeling that EUROTAS will contribute a lot to the future of our Continent.

When I may introduce myself I would say: When I was a small boy I said "I do have a plan". It has remained like that. Now I am told I am an 8 in the enneagram and a balance in the horoscope with a lion as the ascendant.

"Citizenship in an Interconnected World -

A transpersonal approach"

Is it pure by synchronicity that John choose this title?

I too was filled with the idea of the importance of the transpersonal paradigm being the future of the world. The fact that this title was chosen here and now indicates that EUROTAS wants to go for its task in the world.

Basically the world is ready to take the transpersonal into the  mainstream of thinking and dealing with events. This is the kind of thing the world needs. The old paradigm will disappear from the stage because it has not been able to adapt to the new circumstances - the growth of consciousness of humanity. A different kind of human being is in the making.

Additional to the title of our meetings, my contributions could be:

"EUROTAS, a global citizen."

If we want this title to become reality we have to go quite a distance. It means we have to find a task in which we stand together, take our responsibility and deal with the world as a whole. Today let us do so!

The idea is to propose that EUROTAS enter into the next - being the fifth - stage of its development since its inception.

Most of the people here representing one of the Member Associations have arrived late in the process of the establishment of our European Association. Most of our guests are maybe quite ignorant about the struggle EUROTAS has gone through from transition to transition.

Before making clear the fifth stage of development I will have to pass in brief through the first stages and walk through what I consider the main points in its history.

First stage of development: The creation of National Associations. Actually we can say the European Transpersonal endeavour started in 1983. This is fact when we count from the moment that a Belgian speaker André Patsalides, announced in Davos, at an International Transpersonal Association conference, that Europe has its own history of mystics and its own transpersonal vision and identity. It has not to depend on the Americans who were so overwhelmingly present in Davos. Europe would have its own association and we would hold our own conference next year.

Europeans, from 6 countries started to assist Patsalides in preparing the 1st European Transpersonal Conference that was held at Brussels in August 1984 with some 800 participants. From the date of Patsalides address in Davos up to today we now count 20 years, - a reason to celebrate!

In this first stage, Europe's task was to create national transpersonal associations. In those years national newsletters, conferences and networks came into being.  There was not yet a EUROTAS

Second stage of development:  Building the foundations of EUROTAS. It became August 1987 before the Belgium and Dutch associations decided to invite other associations in Europe to hold a meeting in Provence. France and Switzerland turned up and Italy excused itself. After 3 days of talk we decided to start a joint venture in Europe. The basic rules where put on paper and that became the Constitution.

The main rules were that only national associations could become members and only one per country. An association had to be a legally recognized entity and would be represented at the yearly Council Meeting of EUROTAS by two members of its Board.

At this first meeting, France proposed to organize, the second European Conference in 1990. EUROTAS, which adopted its name in the first year also, started to issue a newsletter between its members.

In the coming years with annual council meetings in Provence more countries

joined: Italy and Germany and for several years we were six. And when we held the second EUROTAS conference in Strasbourg, with some 800 participants, also The United Kingdom joined.

In this second stage we built the foundation stones of a EUROTAS which we hoped would have an important future, though in those years we still lived in the European predicament of the Cold War and only Western European countries had joined. We regularly meditated on the well-being of the people of Eastern Europe whom we found were most closely part of us. We looked for contacts behind the Iron Curtain.

Third stage of development:  West meets East inside Europe

We met first at an ŒInternational Centres Gathering in Hungary, where participants from Poland, Hungary and Croatia asked whether we could assist their countries to understand more about the transpersonal.

Shortly afterward delegates from The Netherlands, Belgium and Germany established a legally recognized organization: the " East-West Eurotas Foundation". Over subsequent years this foundation arranged for scores of transpersonal therapists and trainers, who volunteered to travel to these countries and also to Russia and Siberia to facilitate workshops, training's, summer schools and conferences

New National Associations were formed in these countries and new members joined EUROTAS - Hungary, Poland, Croatia and Russia. Qualified staff from their associations came also to offer their abilities to Western Europe and a real exchange developed.

The annual council meetings continued uptill now and in 1993 we found already 12 nations together at the annual meeting in the South of France as now Spain had joined.

In 1994 the third EUROTAS conference, organized by Ian Gordon Brown was held in London.  Later Tanna Jakubowicz-Mount made Warsaw the base for the fourth EUROTAS conference in 1997.

This third stage of development had the value of extending EUROTAS to the whole of the European realm and gave the national associations an added value through supporting, inspiring and strengthening each other. As this was completed successfully some of us started to look for a new common goal.

Fourth stage of development: The EUROTAS Creative Initiative. It was at the Council Meeting in Ispra in Italy in 1998 that the European Creative Intiative project was proposed and agreed as a worthwhile continuation of the key activities of our Association.

The aim of the project was to harvest the fruits of the combination of the different cultures which make Europe so colourful and invite experts from specific professional fields from all over Europe. The experts would form committees that would reflect on the changes that were taking place in their own professional fields in order to include the transpersonal vision. The idea was that each of the groups would make studies, which would be published all over Europe.

Several committees worked very well: The "Training of Transpersonal Psychotherapists" had a full-fledged team of experts from all over Europe and created an overall curriculum. It wants to work to full accreditation. "Publicity" created a website and this continues to develop ­ www Eurotas.org It also decided to postpone a "EUROTAS Transpersonal Journal". "Research" is well on its way with a team of experts from all over Europe.

The "Spiritual Emergency Network" met with some countries where the network was reasonably well established and others who missed the necessary therapist to set up an organization. "Transpersonal in Education" worked well, but missed somehow the focus to see for whom it could bring out its advice as education is so vast a world. Some other fields like health and management lacked the necessary participants, expertise or purpose. Very often the purpose in several committees was not strong enough because there was no feeling of a direct request for the product of their work. This lack of purpose decreased the enthusiasm. As a result we now look for a more important purpose to work together, and this can become the fifth stage

Fifth stage of development: EUROTAS a Global Citizen.

By now in our time of global interconnectedness through communication we can easily say that everyone is a global citizen. What does it mean then to be a transpersonal global citizen? To become a transpersonal global citizen, each of us has to reach out to the transpersonal level of consciousness. We have to include spirituality in our lives. We have to walk one of the many paths leading to our inner source, which we may call God, the Buddha, the Tao, the natural order or many more names. This inner source will offer us guidance through our whole life.

By now we have come to understand and to live "the unity of everything and all" (as we also read it in the constitution of our Dutch/Flemish transpersonal association) and we do know that everything is interconnected

- human beings, animals, plants, the earth - are all one. This means that in all our words and actions we have to consider the interests of each part of this unity.

If problems or differences arise than we know that each party has to win with the solution and not one party may loose. Win-win solutions instead of win-loose solutions - power with, instead of power over. We always look at the whole and work from our inner source. So we are great problem solvers.

If we can do this: working from our inner source and always considering the interconnectedness in everything in every activity than we answer to the criteria of global citizen, interconnectedness and transpersonal. That was the title of our meeting here in Sinaia. In short with this development of our inner spiritual life we have become transpersonal global citizens. May I presume that this is what we have in common, all of us?  Most important is that we are desirous to help the world to enter into the stage of the transpersonal paradigm.

A real global citizen claims direct influence on government of the globe and doesnt sit down powerless when so many things go wrong. This can be done not only indirectly through voting but also directly through action.

What I want to propose here is that EUROTAS  - because of its unique gathering of people, its status and its expressed desire to reach further into the interconnected world - will seriously begin to study the possibility of engaging in a task which is very important for both the development of the world and for EUROTAS. I propose that we start assisting world government in designing certain parts of the future.

The proposition means that from now onwards we will begin to study how we can help the United Nations in defining certain aspects of its development, by becoming an N.G.O. a Non-Governmental Organization, an organization of private citizens which works in collaboration with the UN. The UN - which is a cooperation of governments - asks to be influenced by private people in the form of NGOs. Now let us allow ourselves to assume that status.

In the Netherlands arose the possibility to become an NGO.

I immediately thought this would be a splendid idea for EUROTAS. So if EUROTAS is desirous to take up some of its global interest and maybe responsibility, it can count on expertise assistance from other NGOs who work with the transpersonal vision. These NGOs are very accustomed to deal with representatives of governments and know the ins and outs of the UN.

I had the chance to work myself most of my active life with the UN through one of its specialized agencies. I must say that their vision on developing health services in Africa was excellent. Poor countries want big hospitals and The World Health Organisation helped them to understand that it is more effective for the health of the whole population to run numerous small health centres throughout the country. We worked to achieve this and supported the education of staff for this purpose. I always feel the UN has this very important vision.  Back to basics!

Let me start to explain and look at the advantages for EUROTAS and for the WORLD

EUROTAS as a think tank.

In fact the representatives of governments are not able to solve so many problems as the UN is dealing with. They lack the time and the expertise to work in all those fields. They welcome very much the advice of NGOs, especially when an NGO has been preparing a special subject well and documented it. Here lies a clear task for our study groups, the old ones from the European Creative Initiative as well as new ones.

Dont forget that persons with a transpersonal attitude are unique in their way of solving problems because they work from an inner source, which others dont have. EUROTAS as an N.G.O. could have an enormous value as " a specialist problem solver" regardless of the problem. The transpersonal way of dealing with problems could be used when our representatives talk with the members of the governments of the UN.

When EUROTAS proposes good ideas or projects or solutions for aspects of world problems, then our representatives could announce these worldwide by introducing them to all governments in the UN. If they agree with the idea it could be applied in all countries.

If EUROTAS has the vision to do this, then it will have a joint goal that can inspire all of its members to do more through EUROTAS and to find many more people who want to collaborate with us. EUROTAS will have a much greater social perspective.

EUROTAS will even be more affirmed in the eyes of the planetary community because of its cooperation with the UN.

Most important is that the world cannot solve its problems without the transpersonal vision and that is why we need all of you.

Besides we can work together with other NGOs, especially with those also supporting the transpersonal perspective. In this way we can use their lobbying capacity and knowledge of the UN. As thus we create a support group of many more organizations than EUROTAS alone. Moreover EUROTAS could also have an influence on them and learn from them.

In every single country which is a member of EUROTAS, it becomes much easier to cooperate with persons or organizations which work with the transpersonal idea when we are an NGO. Again these people can be brought into EUROTAS and cooperate with a group which works on one of the worlds problems.

I want to invite those of you who are interested in this proposal to meet at a special place and special time during these days when it would be possible to explain how the UN works and what NGOs are and do.

Rumold Mol   Heemsteedsedreef 59   2101 LM  Heemstede  HOLLAND

 Tel. and Fax  0031 23  529 15 00

 e-mail   < itant.rumoldmol@freeler.nl >