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UN Focus on the Crushing of Iran Protests 

In Being a World Citizen, Current Events, Human Rights, Middle East & North Africa, NGOs, Nonviolence, Peacebuilding, Solidarity, The Search for Peace, United Nations, Women's Rights on January 26, 2026 at 7:41 AM

By René Wadlow

On January 23, 2026, the 47 members of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council met in Geneva, Switzerland in a Special Session devoted to the violent repression of protests in the Islamic Republic of Iran. The session began with a call by Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, for the release of detainees, a halt to the implementation of death sentences, and the adoption of serious steps in response to human rights violations. He stressed that “these protests are the latest in a long line of heartfelt calls by the Iranian people for change, met by a long line of violent repression by the Iranian authorities”.

Ms. Mai Sato, the UN Special Rapporteur on Iran, highlighted the large number of protesters killed, including youth and children.  She called upon the authorities of Iran to act in compliance with international human rights standards. She voiced alarm about “the unprecedented scale of the violent crackdown on peaceful protesters by security forces”.

(C) OHCHR

A number of government representatives noted the difficulties of following the current situation due to the cutting of the Internet and other forms of communication.

The Iranian Ambassador, Ali Bahreini, said that the Special Session of the Council had been “politicized” and that Iran rejected the discussion as “external interference in internal affairs”.

Iceland’s Ambassador, Einar Gunnarsson, presented the resolution of the Session saying that “the victims and survivors deserve truth, justice, and accountability”. The resolution which extends the mandate for two years of the UN Fact-Finding Mission, first established after the 2022 protests, was accepted with 25 States in favor, 7 against (China, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cuba, Iraq) and 14 abstentions.

From an NGO’s point of view (C) Assia Tanner/AWC

Assia Tanner, Representative for Diplomatic Relations at the Geneva Office of the Association of World Citizens (AWC), attended the session on our behalf. “Demonstrating is a human right, yet the regime has killed demonstrators and hanged innocent Iranians, resorting to the death penalty which is a serious human rights violation”, she reported. “The UN asked Iran to respect human rights, engage in dialogue, end the violence, and stop terrorizing the population. While The Netherlands called the Iranian regime a terrorist state, some Arab countries called for dialogue as they fear consequences from Tehran. Some African countries called for peaceful support instead of a formal condemnation.”

Nonetheless, the general feeling was definitely one of outrage. “In a session that lasted from 2PM to 6PM with no break whatsoever, all Council members were saying the same thing: Iran must be condemned”, Tanner added. “I felt they were holding the same discourse as all human rights organizations”.

Precisely, Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs) now have the difficult task of calling on the Iranian government to stop arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, and extrajudicial killings. The situation in Iran must be watched as closely as possible and encouragement given to good faith negotiations.

Prof. René Wadlow is President of the Association of World Citizens.

A Hommage to Terrence Webster-Doyle: A Culture of Peace with a Human Face

In Being a World Citizen, Conflict Resolution, Cultural Bridges, Nonviolence, Peacebuilding, Solidarity, The Search for Peace on January 19, 2026 at 12:30 PM

By Vladimir Ionesov

One of the most renowned authors and educators in the field of peace education, Dr. Terrence Webster-Doyle, passed away at noon on Friday, June 16, 2023, in Paonia, Colorado, USA. He was 83.

Dr. Terrence Webster-Doyle (1940-2023) was the founder and director of the Atrium Peace Institute and the Brave New Child Peace Museum Exhibits. He had a sixth-degree black belt in martial arts and was a co-founder of the Martial Arts for Peace Safety Awareness Response System Program (MAP STARS). Holding a Ph.D. in Health and Human Services, a Master’s Degree in Humanistic Psychology, he taught at Sonoma State University and Santa Rosa Community College in California.

He was the author of more than 150 scientific and methodological works, including 15 monographs, 20 textbooks and 23 curricula; the developer of a series of conflict resolution courses for adolescents; a ten-time recipient of the Benjamin Franklin Lifetime Achievement Award for excellence in independent publishing. He was awarded the Robert Burns Medal by the Albert Schweitzer Society of Austria for outstanding service in promoting peace. Recipient of the Benjamin Franklin Gold Medal for his book “Fighting the Invisible Enemy. Understanding the Effects of Conditionality”.

Dr. Terrence Webster-Doyle’s books have been widely recognized by the professional community as an important resource in conflict prevention and resolution. He is the author of the first seminal book on bullying “Why Is Everybody Always Picking on Me? A Guide to Handling Bullies”. Dr. Webster-Doyle is credited to have given a human face back to the culture of peace.

A two-page spread of Terrence Webster-Doyle’s last book, We are the World, the World is Us (Samara, 2024. – 236 p.)

In one of his latest books, A Mini Museum on Understanding the Roots of Prejudice and Discord. Learn More about How to Make Life Safer and Kinder (Samara, 2022), T. Webster-Doyle invites young people to take a fascinating page-by-page museum tour through the illustrated ideas, images, and stories in the book, and learn more about the anthropological, psychological, historical, and social roots of reprehensible thinking and hostility between people, cultures, and nations. The author thrives to show that freeing oneself from prejudice and understanding the root causes of fear and violence in human life is the way to make life better, more peaceful and kinder.

A two-page spread of the book Museum: Learn More. Why is Everybody Always Picking on Us? A Mini Museum on Understanding the Roots of Prejudice (English Edition, Atrium Society Publications, USA, 2019. – 75 p.)

In his writings, Webster-Doyle sought to show that all the best in a person is tied to peace. To achieve peace, we must understand what hinders it, and what hinders it is our very predisposition to ethno- and sociocentrism. The origins of conflicts lie in our prehistory, in the biological predisposition of our brain to protect itself from external threats – imaginary and real. Sometimes a person does not notice how he/she himself/herself becomes a victim of his/her own prejudices. No image. No enemy. No war. It is important to be able to observe and recognize situations that challenge us based on cultural resistance and behavioral stereotypes, and not succumb to outbursts of intolerance, hostility, and aggression.

Once in a conversation with me, T. Webster-Doyle shared the thought that “peace is a given, but only as a premise, a potential, under attack every time by prejudice and preconceptions. Peace requires a true awakening of the mind, here and now, but peace does not require multiple and endless theoretical constructions. Therefore, it is important to understand what creates it, and how one can achieve a real, rather than an imaginary peace”.

Т. Webster-Doyle thought a lot about why people cannot create a lasting peace and find harmony with each other. He began to ask questions: how to bring cultures closer together, to deal with mistrust and enmity, to learn how to build peace on the basis of reasonable, virtuous and humanistic principles. In my search for answers to these questions, I began to use the training materials he developed on peacebuilding pedagogy.

Terrence Webster-Doyle never ceased to remind people that “understanding is the key to peace”. But how can we find the key to understanding itself? Maybe it is the works of T. Webster-Doyle that could become such a key, opening the doors to dialogue, peace and harmony among peoples, cultures and nations.

Vladimir Ionesov, Doctor of Cultural Studies, Candidate of Historical Sciences, Professor with the Department of Cultural Studies, Museology and Art History at Samara State Institute of Culture. Developer of the concept of cultural transformation and models of civilization viability in transition. Full member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts. Deputy Chairperson, Research Advisory Council, “Personality. Culture. Peace” Scientific and Enlightening Center of Samarkand International University of Technology (SIUT).

Iran: Dark Clouds, Future Uncertain

In Being a World Citizen, Conflict Resolution, Current Events, Democracy, Human Rights, Middle East & North Africa, Nonviolence, Peacebuilding, Solidarity, The Search for Peace, United States on January 8, 2026 at 7:30 AM

By René Wadlow

Since the “12-day war” of Israel and the USA last June, Iran has been a powder keg with unresolved political tensions, deepening economic turmoil, and rising domestic dissent. With the start of 2026, the keg has exploded. Protests have started in some 32 cities and larger towns throughout the country.

The protests were first focused on economic issues symbolized by the sharp collapse of the rial, the national money, and the inflation exceeding 40 percent. These dynamics have turned the bazaaris – the merchants – traditionally a more conservative social group, into key participants in the protests. Economic hardship has become a daily experience for a wide segment of the population.

Although the protests began with economic demands, reports from across the country indicate that slogans have increasingly shifted toward explicitly political and antigovernmental messages, including chants directed at the Iranian leadership and the political system as a whole. Universities have once again emerged as key protest centers with action by both students and professors.

(C) Time Magazine

The government led by President Masoud Pezeshkian has promised economic reforms, but there is no protest leadership with which to negotiate. The security forces have increased repression with a large number of people arrested. A number of persons have been killed. Funerals for the protesters killed have become occasions for additional protests. The repression has led the United States (U.S.) President, Donald Trump, to say, “If Iran violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue. We are locked and loaded and ready to go.”

The U.S. threats in the Iran situation are very unhelpful. It is time to unlock and unload. Rather, the Association of World Citizens calls on the Iranian authorities to cease immediately the use of force against peaceful protesters and to release those arbitrarily detained. This will create space for genuine dialogue and the needed reforms for economic justice.

Prof. René Wadlow is President of the Association of World Citizens.

BOOK REVIEW: Metta Spencer, “The Russian Quest for Peace and Democracy”

In Being a World Citizen, Book Review, Conflict Resolution, Current Events, Democracy, Human Rights, NGOs, Nonviolence, Peacebuilding, Solidarity, The former Soviet Union, The Search for Peace, Track II, United Nations, United States on January 7, 2026 at 8:00 AM

By René Wadlow

Metta Spencer, The Russian Quest for Peace and Democracy.

New York: Lexington Books, 2010, 348pp.

With the violence and tensions in Ukraine and the reactions of the USA, Russia, and NATO, some writers have spoken of a “New Cold War”. Thus, it is useful to look at how civil society representatives helped to keep lines of communication open during the first Cold War (1945-1990), in particular how Gorbachev’s advancement of democracy and peaceful foreign relations was fostered by private conversations with members of international civil society and NGOs.

There is in the Agni Yoga teachings of Helena Roerich, to which Raisa Gorbachev was particularly devoted, a line which says, “Not the new is proclaimed but what is needed for the hour.” This idea became a guideline for Mikhail Gorbachev whose new thinking was not really new. Many of us had been saying the same thing for years before, but none of us was head of state.

Gorbachev’s September 1987 address to the United Nations (UN) General Assembly was a clear call for the rule of law both domestically and internationally. He recommended greater use of the International Court of Justice and that all states accept its compulsory jurisdiction. He called upon the permanent members of the Security Council to join in formulating guidelines to help lead the way. This was a renunciation of a sixty-year resistance to the World Court that the then Foreign Minister Maxim Litvinov − though an internationalist − had initiated in 1922 claiming that there could be no impartial arbitrator between the Soviet and the non-Soviet world saying, “Only an angel could be impartial in judging Russian affairs.”

Unfortunately, the United States (U.S.) State Department took the speech as a propaganda ploy to further embarrass the U.S. over the World Court’s Nicaragua litigation. Therefore, the U.S. delegation to the UN did everything it could to hinder discussion of giving the World Court a larger role and was successful in stopping any effort to expand compulsory jurisdiction.

Gorbachev did all he could to strengthen the peace-making role of the UN, leading to the successful completion of what had been seemingly endless negotiations at the Palais des Nations in Geneva concerning the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan, and the very difficult negotiations, also in Geneva, between Iraq and Iran to end their war.

Progress was also made on the Vietnamese occupation of Kampuchea (Cambodia) which led to the 1992 Paris Accord. This combination of deescalation in tensions and violence in the international area and significant steps in arms control was largely due to the leadership of Gorbachev. His seven years in power (1985-1991) left the world a safer place and Russia a more openly pluralistic society. However, the common ground on which he tried to stand was constantly eroded by forces he could not control, leaving him at the end with no place to stand.

Metta Spencer, Editor of Peace Magazine and professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Toronto tells some of this story, especially through interviews with persons in Gorbachev’s inner circle as well as other participants in the fast-changing scene. She has continued her interviewing so that persons also reflect on events and trends in post-Gorbachev Russia − the Yeltsin and early Putin years.

What is most helpful to those of us interested in citizen diplomacy and who were involved in talks with Soviets on arms control is her account on how discussions with members of the Soviet Academy of Sciences’ institutes, especially the USA/Canada Institute of Georgi Arbatov and the Institute for World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO) had an impact on Soviet decision-making. As Spencer notes, Gorbachev’s advancement of democracy and peaceful foreign relations was fostered by private conversations with members of international civil society. Among the Soviets who participated, some became Gorbachev’s chief advisors.

The ground for these discussions had started relatively early at the time of Nikita Khrushchev. The Pugwash meetings started in 1957, and the Dartmouth conferences led by Norman Cousins and Georgi Arbatov began in 1960.

Metta Spencer sets out clearly the core of her book. Democracy, human rights, and nonviolence are rarely reinvented independently by local citizens. Usually, they are imported from abroad and spread by personal contacts in international civil society, not by diplomats or rulers. That was the way it happened in the Soviet Union. This book describes how certain back-channel relationships with foreign peace researchers and activists influenced the Soviet Union’s brief democratization, its foreign policy and its military doctrine. She adds that transnational civil society or organizations are most helpful for they create heterogeneous relationships − those that tend to bridge society’s disparate elements. Such relationships inform and strengthen individuals who, in an authoritarian setting, face heavy pressures to conform.

Metta Spencer’s interviews with people well after the events, give a sense of necessary distance, of the strengths and weaknesses of movements and individuals.

Note

1) For a good overview of citizen diplomacy efforts with the Soviet Union, see the following listed by date of publication:

Gale Warner and Michael Shuman, Citizen Diplomats: Pathfinders in Soviet-American Relations − And How You Can Join Them (New York: Continuum, 1987)

David D. Newsom (Ed.), Private Diplomacy with the Soviet Union (Lanham, MD.: University Press of America, 1987)

Gale Warner, Invisible Threads: Independent Soviets Working for Global Awareness and Social Transformation (Washington, DC: Seven Locks Press, 1991)

Matthew Evangelista, Unarmed Forces: The Transnational Movement to End the Cold War (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1999)

Prof. René Wadlow is President of the Association of World Citizens.

BOOK REVIEW: Deng Ming-Dao, “The Wandering Taoist”

In Asia, Book Review, Nonviolence, Spirituality, The Search for Peace on January 7, 2026 at 8:00 AM

Deng Ming-Dao, The Wandering Taoist.
New York: Harper and Row, 1986, 240pp.

This is a biography of Kwan Saihung, a Chinese Taoist ascetic master written by an American student of his in martial arts and Taoist training. Kwan Saihung was trained in a leading Taoist monastery in China in the 1930s. He left the monastery to fight the Japanese during the late 1930s. After the Communist victory in the civil war, he arrived in California where he teaches Chinese martial arts – many of which are related to Taoist philosophy.

Although Taoist sages usually speak little of themselves – the personality and outward events of life being of less importance than one’s relations to nature and the permanent patterns of life – Deng Ming-Dao has pieced together a chronological description of Kwan Saihung’s early life and training from conversations with the master. Most of the book is recounted in conversational style, which makes for pleasant reading.

“All that matters to a Taoist is that one is in harmony with nature. In one’s character, one is like heaven and earth, as orderly as the four seasons. The book Tao Te Ching clearly states that when things reach the pinnacle of their strength, they begin to grow old. (1) Therefore excessive strength is contrary to Tao. What is contrary to Tao will come to a speedy end. Thus one seeks not to build up one’s own power but to unite with the Tao. Things change but the laws underlying change remain unchanging. If one understands these laws and regulates one’s actions in conformity with them, one can then turn everything to one’s advantage.”

(1) See Arthus Waley, The Way and its Power: A Study of the Tao Te Ching (New York, Grove Press, 1958, 260pp)

Prof. René Wadlow is President of the Association of World Citizens.

BOOK REVIEW: Jean Hardy, “A Psychology with a Soul”

In Asia, Book Review, Nonviolence, Peacebuilding, Solidarity, The Search for Peace on January 7, 2026 at 8:00 AM

By René Wadlow

Jean Hardy, A Psychology with a Soul.

London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1987, 245pp.

This is a book on the psychosynthesis system of psychotherapy developed by Roberto Assagioli.

Roberto Assagioli (1888-1974) set out a path to the Higher Self with the power of the will. Roberto Assagioli was a close coworker of both Sigmund Freud and Carl Gustav Jung. In 1910, he broke from the Freudian approach and began to develop his own psycho-spiritual model which he called psychosynthesis. He was closer in approach to Jung, but as the first translator of Freud’s writings into Italian, he is often cited as the introducer of Freudian thought into Italy.

Roberto Assagioli was an Italian psychiatrist and humanist.

A short presentation of Assagioli’s view is that “I am what I will to be”. In a sense, the individual does not have a will: rather he is a will, a directing energy, that has taken human form as an individual. The individual will-force is in some way identical to the universal will-force. Assagioli who had studied Asian thought highlighted the Chinese sage becoming one with the universal energy – the Tao.

As the individual will starts on its path toward the Higher Self, it must drop off images of its earlier self formed by experiences, memories, feelings and images of the past. Some of these self-images and experiences have been repressed and stored in the subconscious. Thus, in many cases, there is a first task of self-discovery of past experiences and emotions stored in the subconscious. Only when this is done can one deal with the current self-images and emotions which make up the current personality.

The process of dropping off current self-images Assagioli calls “disidentification”. Disidentification is needed so that a new identity emerges, one that is capable of accepting and integrating in a harmonious synthesis all the earlier emotions, thoughts, and experiences. This is why Assagioli called his approach “psychosynthesis”. It is this fresh, new personality, which Assagioli termed the “I” that can set out on the road to develop the Higher Self. This inner journey is not always easy. There is a progressive examination of the contents of the field of consciousness and the functions of the psyche. This involves a progressive movement through the preconscious, the subconscious and culminating with the higher conscious. Assagioli writes, “Spiritual development is a long and arduous journey, an adventure through strange lands full of surprises, difficulties and even dangers. It involves a drastic transmutation of the ‘normal’ elements of the personality, an awakening of potentialities hitherto dormant, a raising of consciousness to new realms, and a functioning along a new inner dimension”.

Along the way to the Higher Self, the will can be strengthened by what Assagioli calls “transpersonal experiences” and what Abraham Maslow calls “Peak Experiences”. Such experiences help to stimulate the drive toward the Higher Self. However, some of these transpersonal experiences can be short-lived and ephemeral unless they are grounded through meditation and techniques of visualization of oneself as already functioning as the Higher Self.

These techniques of creating an identity as being the Higher Self are one of the outstanding features of psychosynthesis. However, after 1936, his work became increasingly difficult both because of the growing antisemitism under Nazi German pressure on Italy and because his humanitarian activities aroused hostility from the Italian Fascist government. In 1940 he was arrested and kept in solitary confinement for a month and then kept under strict police surveillance. In 1943, he was again actively persecuted and forced to hide in remote mountain villages. He narrowly escaped twice from the Nazi soldiers who had destroyed his family’s home with dynamite.

After 1945, he increased his contacts with a wide group of spiritual thinkers from different traditions. However, his aim remained finding approaches to wholeness, realizing the full human potential, transcending contradictions and achieving enlightenment.

Prof. René Wadlow is President of the Association of World Citizens.

Iran: Dark Clouds, Future Uncertain

In Middle East & North Africa, Human Rights, Current Events, Solidarity, Democracy, Conflict Resolution, The Search for Peace, Being a World Citizen, Social Rights, United States, NGOs, Nonviolence, Peacebuilding on January 7, 2026 at 7:30 AM

By René Wadlow

Since the “12-day war” of Israel and the USA last June, Iran has been a powder keg with unresolved political tensions, deepening economic turmoil, and rising domestic dissent. With the start of 2026, the keg has exploded. Protests have started in some 32 cities and larger towns throughout the country.

The protests were first focused on economic issues symbolized by the sharp collapse of the rial, the national money, and the inflation exceeding 40 percent. These dynamics have turned the bazaaris – the merchants – traditionally a more conservative social group, into key participants in the protests. Economic hardship has become a daily experience for a wide segment of the population.

Although the protests began with economic demands, reports from across the country indicate that slogans have increasingly shifted toward explicitly political and anti-governmental messages, including chants directed at the Iranian leadership and the political system as a whole. Universities have once again emerged as key protest centers with action by both students and professors.

(C) Time Magazine

The government led by President Masoud Pezeshkian has promised economic reforms, but there is no protest leadership with which to negotiate. The security forces have increased repression with a large number of people arrested. A number of persons have been killed. Funerals for the protesters killed have become occasions for additional protests. The repression has led the United States (U.S.) President, Donald Trump, to say, “If Iran violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue. We are locked and loaded and ready to go.”

The U.S. threats in the Iran situation are very unhelpful. It is time to unlock and unload. Rather, the Association of World Citizens calls on the Iranian authorities to cease immediately the use of force against peaceful protesters and to release those arbitrarily detained. This will create space for genuine dialogue and the needed reforms for economic justice.

Prof. René Wadlow is President of the Association of World Citizens.

BOOK REVIEW: William Bloom, “The Power of the New Spirituality”

In Asia, Being a World Citizen, Book Review, Cultural Bridges, Human Development, Nonviolence, Solidarity, Spirituality, The Search for Peace on January 6, 2026 at 8:00 AM

By René Wadlow

William Bloom, The Power of the New Spirituality.

Wheaton, Illinois: Quest Books, 2012, 248pp.

William Bloom who combines a long-standing interest in New Age approaches to spirituality with an identity focus in international relations (1), has written “We are in changing times. Our culture and technology are continually transforming, and the intellectual certainties of the last few hundred years are no longer secure…It is our need to find a new authenticity in our spiritual lives — to bring back fully into our consciousness — the sacred dimension of life, but we want to do this in a way that honours personal freedom and personal growth. In essence, then, we are turning to the teachings and experiences of what is called the ageless wisdom, but we are doing so with completely new attitudes”.

A key element of our changing culture is that we are discarding old religious forms and re-creating our spiritual and sacred world. Creative new attitudes, practices, and forms have been an emphasis of William Bloom. (2) As he writes, “As a teacher and author I often feel conflicted: on the one hand, I want to inspire and encourage people about their innate goodness and the wonders of creation; on the other hand, I do not want to support naiveté about the human condition. We are magnificent beings with cosmic consciousness, and yet at the same time we are also insecure and can do harm.

“Yet the current emergence and creation of a new culture is not always an easy process. It feels as if everything is being created anew. At the same time, we know that we are working with dimensions which have always been and which always shall be.”

The basis of many New Age approaches is that we live in a vast field of energy. Vibrations and atmospheres can move like waves through this field to impact others. Our thoughts, feelings and actions can cooperate with this vitality, energy and consciousness for our development and to benefit others. We find this use of energy fields in many schools of spiritual healing such as reiki, in yoga and martial arts. (3)

William Bloom sets out a three-step process for deepening and expanding our awareness, developing our hearts, and building a just, creative and benevolent world. He sets out some core skills.

The first is centering — a calm awareness, an integration of body, mind and spirit. This is best done through silent meditation, but some find music or ritual helpful. “Whatever works for you” is basically his approach. This is an approach called “mindfulness” in some Buddhist traditions and can also be helped by breathing exercises and other techniques.

The second step is to focus the heart on compassion. Visualization is one approach, such as visualizing ever wider circles of persons or places held within the field of compassion. Focusing on the Sacred Heart of Jesus is used in certain Catholic traditions.

The third step is to direct the energy field so that it is of service to others. When we are centered and heart-focused, with an encouraging psychological attitude, we create a vibration that is supportive for those around us and can be a positive influence in the wider world.

William Bloom has written a clear and helpful presentation for personal fulfillment and service to humanity.

Notes:

1) William Bloom, Personal Identity, National Identity and International Relations (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993)
2) William Bloom, First Steps: An Introduction to Spiritual Practice (Forres, Scotland: Findhorn Press, 1993)
3) Barbara Ann Brennan, Hands of Light: Guide to Healing Through the Human Energy Field (New York: Bantam, 1990)

Prof. René Wadlow is President of the Association of World Citizens.

BOOK REVIEW: Baolin Wu and Jessica Riley, “Eye of Heaven”

In Asia, Book Review, Nonviolence, Spirituality, The Search for Peace on January 6, 2026 at 8:00 AM

By René Wadlow

Baolin Wu and Jessica Riley, Eye of Heaven.
St. Petersburg, Florida: Three Pines Press, 2025, 107pp.

The subtitle of this book is The Daoist Secret for Opening the Third Eye. The Third Eye is a path to awareness. Opening the third eye frees one’s mind from certain limitations. This is the reason that in Daoism the third eye is often referred to as the Eye of Heaven (The title of the book). One finds the same approach in Hinduism, where the third eye, placed just above the other two, is one of the seven main chakras, energy centers in the body, symbolized as a turning wheel. In Buddhism, the third eye represents the eye of consciousness and wisdom. The third eye is widely developed in Tibetan Buddhism where it represents the Gate of Heaven.

Dr.. Baolin Wu entered the Daoist White Cloud Monastery in Beijing as a young boy and was trained there in Daoist medical practice, especially acupuncture as well as in spiritual practices. The White Cloud Monastery is a highly respected center for the study of Daoist philosophy and medicine. He worked for many years in a hospital in Beijing and emigrated to the USA in 1990. The information on spiritual practices in the book comes from Dr. Baolin Wu. Jessica Riley is one of his current students in California, and the English style of the book is hers.

Throughout Chinese history, philosophical and spiritual beliefs have often been related to healing. Some of the Daoist schools emphasize internal alchemy, often as a way to reach longevity. Internal alchemy helps one to become aware of sexual energy and how to circulate, balance, preserve and reuse the energy so as to heal.

The book provides illustrated qigong exercises useful for relaxation but which are also preparation for the opening of the third eye. Work on the third eye and the higher states of consciousness is usually done with a master Daoist. Thus the book is no substitute for efforts with an advanced Daoist practitioner. However, it is a good introduction to the approach and its role in Chinese culture.

Prof. René Wadlow is President of the Association of World Citizens.

Protection of Children in Armed Conflict: Action Needed

In Africa, Being a World Citizen, Children's Rights, Conflict Resolution, Current Events, Human Rights, Humanitarian Law, NGOs, Nonviolence, Peacebuilding, Refugees, Solidarity, The Search for Peace, Track II, United Nations on January 6, 2026 at 8:00 AM

By René Wadlow

The recent armed conflicts in Darfur, Sudan, the Gaza Strip, and in the Democratic Republic of Congo have highlighted the fate of children caught in such armed conflicts. In addition to the children deliberately massacred or caught in the crossfire, many more have been deprived of their physical, mental, and emotional needs by the armed conflict. Children can be specifically targeted in strategies to eliminate the next generation. Children, especially girls, have been made the targets of sexual abuse and gender-based violence.

This brutal reality has been exacerbated by the changes in the nature of armed conflicts. Today’s conflicts are often internal, fought by multiple semi-autonomous armed groups within existing State boundaries. The international law of war governing Inter-State conflicts fought by regular armies is routinely ignored. Often the village has become the battlefield and the civilian population the primary victim.

Displaced children in North Kivu, 2007 (C) Julien Harneis

At the heart of this social disintegration is a crisis of values. Perhaps the most fundamental loss a society can suffer is the collapse of its value system. Many societies exposed to protracted armed conflicts have seen their community values radically undermined or shattered altogether. This loss has given rise to an ethical vacuum, a setting in which international standards are ignored with impunity and where local value systems have dissolved.

The world society has an obligation to focus attention on the plight of children. The Association of World Citizens (AWC) has worked to raise greater governmental and public awareness of the need for protection of children in times of armed conflict. The Convention on the Rights of the Child calls for the protection of children’s right to life, education, health, and other fundamental needs. Thus, the international standards are in place. Our task is to see that they are put into practice. Positive action is needed. This is a policy goal for 2026 of the AWC.

Prof. René Wadlow is President of the Association of World Citizens.