We’ve all experienced turning points in our lives, although some are more memorable than others. In the summer of 1969, I experienced two turning points that changed my life, and they both happened within less than a month of each other! I was on break from school that summer and working on a ranch in southern Missouri. The near-100°F temperature, combined with the near–100 percent humidity that’s typical at that time of year in this region, pretty much assured that every outdoor activity would be a miserable experience. This was especially true for my main job of “bucking” wire-bound bales of hay onto the back of a slow-moving truck.
Walking alongside the vehicle, I was tasked with lifting each 60-pound bale from the ground and catapulting it into the truck to be stacked just as the truck arrived at the next bale, where my co-workers and I would repeat the sequence. This went on for hours at a time. I looked forward to dinner each evening not only to find relief from the dust, insects, humidity, and heat, but also because it was the only opportunity to watch the evening news and connect with the rest of the world.
Turning Point 1: To the Moon
There was a tiny black-and-white television in the dining room where everyone at the ranch would gather for meals. The TV was in one corner of the room, and the volume was usually turned so low that we could only guess what the people in the grainy images were saying. One night, however, that changed. As the drone of voices at the table fell silent for the dinner prayer, the words that were coming from the TV were unmistakable. “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” the voice said.1
I felt the wave of two very different realities pulse through my body as I listened—one from the world that separated us from one another before the announcement, and one from the world where that separation disappeared, if only briefly, afterward. The words were from Neil Armstrong, and his voice was traveling from the ladder of a fragile spacecraft on the surface of another world, across space, to the television networks around the earth, and to the little TV in front of me.
The first human had just set foot on the moon, and through the recording, I was reliving the moment it happened. This was the moment that humankind’s collective view of itself from countless generations past suddenly gave way to a new and expanded vision of hope and possibility. It changed me forever. It changed the way I felt about the world. It changed the way I felt about the people in the world.
On that day, we were a global family beyond North and South Americans, Europeans, Asians, Australians, and Africans. In that moment, we were human beings, and we’d just accomplished something that until that day had been only the stuff of dreams. Suddenly it all became real. We were on the moon, and I felt it in my body. That moment was a turning point for me, and I remember it vividly to this day.
Turning Point 2: Three Days of Peace at Woodstock Televised
Just when I thought that I couldn’t possibly regain the awe that I’d just experienced, the unthinkable happened. The TV stations that had been showing the images of Neil Armstrong on the moon just a few weeks before were now carrying another story that the whole world was watching as well.
As I stepped over and turned up the volume on the TV set, it was clear that the story had the attention of the tired workers with me at the dinner table.
In a twist of fate that couldn’t have been choreographed any better in a utopian novel, the television was showing some 500,000 young people living together peacefully at the Woodstock Music Festival in New York. And it was happening during the same summer as the moon landing! What are the chances? I thought, reflecting on the irony.
The power and synchronicity of what I was seeing on the television was both surreal and deeply moving. The news reports were describing how the 50,000 or so people originally anticipated by the festival organizers had unexpectedly turned into a half million!
The bottom line was that the facilities could no longer handle the sheer number of people safely. The organizers did the only thing they could do: they declared the festival a free event, and then did their very best to provide food, water, and medical and sanitation services to the rain-soaked audience that had turned the New York State Thruway into a virtual parking lot on their way to get there!
While it had long been known that both the landing on the moon and a gathering of so many people were possible, the unknown factor was how such events would turn out. The fact that Woodstock ended up being the largest and most peaceful gathering of its kind in modern history was a paradigm-altering moment in the minds of people throughout the world.
With so many young people gathered in such a small area with so little supervision against the backdrop of heated emotions regarding the Vietnam War, the widespread belief had been that chaos would turn the event into a dangerous disaster. But what transpired that weekend showed mainstream Americans that their fears were unfounded.
Turning Points Happen Before Our Eyes
Throughout the three days (which turned into four days) of music, nudity, sex, drugs, rain, and mud, the reality of the festival became the theme for a generation: peace and love.
The fact that humans went to the moon, walked on the surface, and returned safely altered the paradigm that had held the vision of people bound to this world only. That this event happened during the same summer as Woodstock is a striking fact that future generations will study and marvel at.
In the span of just a few weeks, we showed ourselves that we have the technology to visit other worlds and the wisdom to live peacefully on this one without the need for law enforcement or a higher authority forcing us to do so.
As different as the events were from one another, both Woodstock and the moon landing proved to be powerful turning points in my life, as well as in the lives of countless other people. And while we know that millions watched both events unfold on TV, I can only describe the reason why they were so life-changing for me. Both scenarios challenged the world’s thinking, ideas, and beliefs that had been in place before they occurred. And both scenarios showed me what was possible.
What Do Turning Points Mean for Our Future?
Whether a turning point is spontaneous or intentional, the key to taking advantage of it is to understand that once one occurs, it opens the door to entirely new possibilities and outcomes. In light of the kind and number of crises that we face in our lives today, it may be that our ability to recognize critical turning points, or to create them when needed, will become the key to transforming our lives.
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Excerpted from Resilience from the Heart: the Power to Thrive in Life’s Extremes by Gregg Braden. Copyright © 2015 (Hay House).
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20 responses to “The Key To Transforming Our Lives”
Every experience in our lives is a series of turning points, great and small—a series of fractals in time and space.
Every experience in our lives is a series of turning points, great and small—a series of fractals in time and space.
I think that Woodstock happened the way it did BECAUSE of the moon landing … no the other way around. A bit of a chicken and egg situation …
Beautiful & magical web site thank you so much for being you!
Beautifully written words about the moon landing and Woodstock which i watched on a small black and white tv I was born in 1958 and remember both well Even at my age i knew it would influence my life forever Thank you for your website So glad i stumbled upon it Looking forward to reading more You are truly a gifted man blessed by God
Thank you Mr Bradden for everything. I study lee carroll/Kryon teachings, I am glad you know know one another !!!!! The world will never be the same.:)
Yes. These ARE turning points. I think they still hold that turning point power. For me, the film “Rocky” is my continuous turning point.
I watch it any time I need a tune up or to tune back in. It is an every man story so it resonates to millions the simple knowing of the power of the human spirit.
I was raised in Kansas City, MO. I know the hot days you describe. My father worked in sugar beets fields as a boy, and at the end of every row, they looked forward to hearing the car radio. Then back to work.
I wish I could tell you more about what Is happening in my heart. All the things you say feel like…home. It seems so easy. Rocky was all heart. That was his greatest strength. That no matter what, his heart would see him through. He could go the distance.
I can’t explain how since I was about 5 years old this has helped me.
I am sure I finally cured myself of cancer when I took charge of my cells. I was ready to not have it anymore. I was tired of that identity.
Thank you for your work. Your tenacity and enthusiasm. It is essential and I’m grateful.
I’m doing my own work through my dolls, PocketPeople. Happy Sunday. Rita Ross and the PocketPeople
Also, a fun thing is that one of the founders of Woodstock, Michael Lang, is a friend of my husband. I can’t say I know him well but once we visited him in NY and I made him a family of PocketPeople dolls as we all talked. It was wonderful. He wrote a book called the Road to Woodstock and it’s awesome. I bet you would love to meet him. Truly incredible story.
Congratulations on your website and your work!
Like the new website design. Clear and soooo user friendly. So grateful for short clips of interviews.
Great website !!.. I remember the moon landing as well, watching it on a black and white TV at my parents home, remembering in awes and wonder and going out to look at the moon and thinking wow how can there be a picture here and a moon out there, as though the time gap and the reality had changed, everything had changed and my perception too about the world around us..I can remember thinking what it would be like to be sitting on the moon looking back at the earth.. and thinking in that moment about actually manifesting on earth and how we got here in the first place.. The Turning points in lives become radical shifts and portals opening to new beginnings and wow what a journey, if I had known half of it have been so lucky with the adventure and that’s what it is a mysterious and marvellous and wonderful adventure full of possibilities and probabilities and I have dreamt and stepped into most of what I visualised and imagined.. I hope the world returns to the wonder and magical time I grew up in as a child with the freedoms and love and care that was shown. Time was slower then and the pace less fast I hope the young ones of today start to realise that it’s not a race to get it all done it’s a huge journey and experience of wonder and magic, everyday being a new day to created and envision a peaceful and vibrant planet for our grandchildren. I pray for a huge shift in consciousness that envelopes everyone and sees how special ever person on the planet, every soul being a unique creation of the spirit manifest…in physical form.. earthbound consciousness with love love at the core, when you remember who you truly are.
Great website !!.. I remember the moon landing as well, watching it on a black and white TV at my parents home, remembering in awes and wonder and going out to look at the moon and thinking wow how can there be a picture here and a moon out there, as though the time gap and the reality had changed, everything had changed and my perception too about the world around us..I can remember thinking what it would be like to be sitting on the moon looking back at the earth.. and thinking in that moment about actually manifesting on earth and how we got here in the first place.. The Turning points in lives become radical shifts and portals opening to new beginnings and wow what a journey, if I had known half of it have been so lucky with the adventure and that’s what it is a mysterious and marvellous and wonderful adventure full of possibilities and probabilities and I have dreamt and stepped into most of what I visualised and imagined.. I hope the world returns to the wonder and magical time I grew up in as a child with the freedoms and love and care that was shown. Time was slower then and the pace less fast I hope the young ones of today start to realise that it’s not a race to get it all done it’s a huge journey and experience of wonder and magic, everyday being a new day to created and envision a peaceful and vibrant planet for our grandchildren. I pray for a huge shift in consciousness that envelopes everyone and sees how special ever person on the planet, every soul being a unique creation of the spirit manifest…in physical form.. earthbound consciousness with love love at the core, when you remember who you truly are.
Dear Gregg, Thanks for all that you do. Your writing on resonance and how we are all interconnected is inspirational and probably the most important concept that anyone can share with the world today. I believe that our next natural step as species is interplanetary (and eventually interstellar) expansion and this goal may have best probability of collaboratively binding us as a species. As competition are part of our current sociological makeup this tendency can be harnessed to accelerate a friendly and collaborative race to interplanetary expansion. Please keep writing and speaking, it is always a pleasure to read your work and listen to your presentations.
Sincerely,
Carl F. Mazur, PhD.
So, three days of peace? You mean the free-sex, drug-drenched three days of wickedness and debauchery? THAT three days? That was chaos, it was anything but peace.
Pienso que estas idealizando ambos eventos, la conquista de la Luna fue una conquista armamentista en medio de una guerra fría, era una competencia a muerte, sino llegaban los americanmos iban a llegar los rusos primero, a la sombra estaba Vietnam con tantas vidas perdidas y mentes dislocadas por el horror de la guerra. En cuanto a Goodstock, droga y mas droga…, claro que hubo caos. Lei este articulo dos veces, no le hallo sentido, he leido otros articulos tuyos, pero este lo tiro a la basura. Vivimos en Paz??? Por dios!!!, no ha habido ni habrá paz, porque solo existe esa palabra en nuestra mente, solo basta con observar la naturaleza, es violenta!!!, lo son las especies que la habitan. Somos los seres humanos los que creamos esa palabra que es ‘bella en esencia’, pero es una utopía.
I think you’re idealizing both events, the conquest of the space was a military conquest amid an arms race, . As for Woodstock, drugs and more drugs … of course there was chaos!
Sorry Greg, didn’t do much for me growing up in the uk when I saw Appolo pics they didn’t look real. My father would never allow me to attend a large open air orgy!
Dear Gregg. I am so greatful for all your teachings. These connections are so very profound. Another Aha! moment . Thank You
You said something about your ancestors gifts being within….this is true. My grandparents are from your era. My grandmother Cherokee and grandfather Blackfoot. Our identities have been kept from us through brainwashing efforts and lies told and sold for truth. The one who seeks wisdom shall find it 🙂 I am thankful for people like you that bring people like me into the marvelous light 🙂
I was too young to go to Woodstock, it would have been past my bedtime. My friends and I were wishing we could be there, and imagining what that would be like. We had a moon walking dinner party with family, friends and neighbors. We all got dressed up in makeshift moon gear and gathered around the TV to watch these first steps together. I was inspired, but not surprised. These seemed like the natural course of events for me. People called me naive in those days, growing up in NYC; they don’t any more. I understood that I was watching history in the making, and I remember wondering what it would be like to know you were going to change history, past, present, and future with that one step. I remember noticing that Neil Armstrong must have had time to think about what he would say. Since then learning more information about Woodstock and the space program, and different peoples’ beliefs about them, has shown me that we do indeed live in parallel universes, as demonstrated by the variety of comments you have received here. Thank you for your writing and videos, which are music to my ears. I have finally found someone who has stepped into the universe where I live. While I am also traveling around the world, me schedule does notcurrently coincide to attend one of your events. If you ever come to New Zealand I would love to introduce you to some people and places that you would want to know.
thank you for your web site and all your books , I like it very mutch