DiCarlo: Let's get back to your comments about developing a vision. There's certainly been a lot of talk about vision lately. There is a verse of Proverbs in the bible which reads, "Where there is no vision the people perish." From your perspective, just what is the vision that seems to be emerging?

Ferguson: Well, it's not a vision of just one particular thing. It's really about the use of our visionary capacity. The formula to achieve this consists of getting you to go deeper into yourself. If we want to get out of the mess that we're in, then we must realize that our old solutions to problems, our old worn ideas of how things ought to work, are not going get us there.

DiCarlo: We have to rid ourselves of 'linear' thinking?

Ferguson: Yes, thinking which is unimaginative, and thinking which lacks common sense. For example, when fire engulfed Yellowstone park in 1988, the foresters adhered to a "Let burn" policy because foresters basically believe that it is better for the ecosystem to let the fires go. But what they did not take into account was the fact that there was a drought. The fires raged out of control as a result. The following year they decided to put out all fires because they were so severely criticized and the tourist industry was so badly hurt. So we seem to lack the ability to make these subtle distinctions. We haven't been educated to think in terms of third choices, or how to create an alternative if you do not like the way things are. I think that is what this talk of vision addresses itself to. Take the example of kids playing. It is the kid who has an idea of something to do on a boring day who becomes the leader. When leaders lack vision then we have to have our own. This is the kind of grassroots leadership that I had originally talked about in the Aquarian Conspiracy. You can begin to make "mini-revolutions," people striving to improve things where they are. Out of that might emerge a shift that may eventually cause a change in authority.

DiCarlo: What advice can you offer to those people who want to take a vision and make it a reality?

Ferguson: Let me take some of the key points from some of the chapters of Radical Common Sense.... Improve your ability to visualize. Be sensitive to your gut feeling. It isn't just the original vision that is involved. There are steps all along the way. You have to become aware of your intuition and your instincts, these guide in the process of implementing the vision. And you also need to be awake. All of a sudden the world changes and your vision has to change too. The vision needs to be continually defined.

DiCarlo: What's the main difference then, between a vision and a goal?

Ferguson: A vision is a tentative goal. You could even have little goals that you set in order to bring about your vision. For example let's say you're a magazine publisher. Your goal could be that by the end of the year you will have 'x' number of subscribers. But that isn't a vision. A vision is a mode of something working-a kind of dynamic.

So that might mean that you see yourself serving your potential subscribership, envisioning what your publication will do for them; what they might understand from it; and how that might affect their lives-what they do and how they think. You could even stretch this to include what might happen in society so that you have an even larger purpose.