From New Age to New Edge

Can we really change the world without changing ourselves? From New Age to New Edge explores this question, as it travels to the remote rainforests of western Canada, where a revolution is in the making. Here, the face of environmental activism is going through radical changes, as it dovetails with the personal growth movement. So far, it’s been a winning combination: it has kept chainsaws away from one of the largest remaining stands of old-growth forest on the planet.

For this to happen, a highly factionalized environmental movement had to be forged into a more cohesive community, and infused with fresh wisdom and new ideas. Who took on this formidable task? It turns out that behind this “new edge” in leadership was a small, but determined “new age” centre.

From New Age to New Edge takes us back to 1994, when Canada made international news as a fervent group of activists fought against clear-cut logging in Clayoquot sound. Back then, the evening news was filled battle images: blockades, industry pundits talking in bureaucratese, legions of protesters being hauled from bridges. In the centre of it all, Greenpeace warriors Karen Mahon and Tzeporah Berman led the charge against government and Big Forestry, who were charging back with equal ferocity. The hostility got to the point where Ms. Mahon and others in Greenpeace were labelled “enemies of the state.” At the same time, the environmental movement was in shambles, reeking with infighting, anger, and eventually, burnout. It was getting to the point where both Berman and Mahon nearly gave up their activism. Mahon ended up passing out from tension while she was bicycling to work one morning. It was time for a change.

Fortunately, around the same time, on a small island on the edge of the rainforest, a personal growth centre named Hollyhock was exploring ways to better its use inner disciplines to engage with the outer world. They saw the problems of the environmental movement, and realized they had some tools they could offer to beleaguered activists. Out of this, the Hollyhock Leadership Institute was born.

From New Age to New Edge follows Mahon, Berman and other eco-warriors from the front lines of the battle for the trees through nervous collapse, burnout, and eventually rehabilitation, as they found their way to Hollyhock. This was a totally different culture for most activists, who were determined not to lose their fighting edge, not to descend into the merely metaphysical. At first, they resisted the breathing exercises, meditation techniques, and other trappings employed there. Berman remembers thinking, “don’t these people understand? We’re in the middle of a war here. We’ve got work to do, we don’t have time to go spend time in hot tubs and walking through the woods!”

Through intimate footage of the workshop process and interviews with Hollyhock president Joel Solomon, program director Oriane Lee Johnston, visitors like Ralph White of the New York Open Center and authors like James Redfield (The Celestine Prophecy), Jean Houston (The Possible Human), and Andrew Harvey (The Direct Path), we witness the driving force of the environmental movement transform from rage into respect, from confrontation to compassion. As Tzeporah Berman put it: “I realized that doing this kind of work through anger is so draining.” So when Mahon and Berman return to the front lines, the simple, compassionate, centering techniques they learned pay off when they de-fuse a final behind-the-scenes boardroom battle, see the humanity in their adversaries, and find a way to keep the chainsaws out of the Great Bear Rainforest.

At the moment, the environmental movement in this region is transformed. But at the same time, many are wondering if it has lost its edge? Though the Great Bear is free from logging at the moment, neither is it saved. The corporate clock is ticking. As From New Age to New Edge grapples with these difficult realizations, it will also offer viewers an insightful and sometimes amusing overview of the triumphs and troubles of the controversial personal growth movement, with most of the critique coming from many of its widely known authors and lecturers. In the end, it reminds us of larger issues facing all of humanity, as it inspires both young and old to get more involved in their communities, their planet, and their life purpose, as we enter a real “new age” — the 21st century.