This proposal outlines the development of this network, discussing its content, its underlying philosophy, its facilities and technical elements, and its budget.

A well-designed network system, employing the technology of today, could address a tremendous array of the most critical problems facing the human community. This network can be developed rapidly, can organize a series of interrelated projects at the highest levels of sophistication, and can engage almost anyone in the world who wishes to participate.

It has been suggested by many observers that we are witnessing the birth of a "new consciousness", and are entering an age of global renaissance and spiritual revolution. At the same time, however, we also are confronting a series of intense challenges, that threaten the well-being and even the survival of global culture.

A large-scale electronic network can be developed to address these issues, coordinating a dialogue among the most potent thinkers and spiritual leaders in the world. This proposal outlines a way that we can act, in service to the highest ideals, fully unfolding the most sacred possibilities of global civilization.

If there was ever a moment ripe for supreme enlightenment, it is ours. Our bookstores are rich with treasures from the most illuminated spirits who ever lived, from every culture that ever existed. Science empowers and validates their insights, opening the way to entirely new domains of awareness. And the explosive growth of telecommunications is weaving an amazing global network, interactive and democratic at its core, providing a means that the full force and meaning of our cultural moment could be gathered together into coherence, through a cooperative and democratic process meant to heal the world.

The full meaning of this opportunity cannot be realized without a conscious recognition of its possibilities, and a systematic effort to organize and assemble its resources. Without a conscious and explicit effort to bring this emerging new energy into focus, its full implications will be scattered and lost, seen only as a shining but illusive ideal that could never be achieved. Today, it is our task, and indeed our responsibility, to recognize this potential that is now at our fingertips, and to devise a strategy and a plan of action that can bring its meaning into fullest realization.

This proposal outlines a practical strategy for fully unfolding this spiritual and evolutionary potential. It shows how the strongest and most brilliant voices in the world today can be brought together, in an affordable and practical and immediately effective way, to work cooperatively to address the most challenging and profound questions that confront the human community.

Though we must be genuinely concerned with a wide range of issues, that range from political to economic to ecological, and network methods are conceivably applicable to them all, this proposal concentrates on the development of a deeply spiritual network, that would reach anyone in the world who wished to join it.

An "Electronic United Nations of the Spirit" can address the most profound questions of human existence, in the most brilliantly informed way that has ever been historically possible. Using the methods of the Internet, and working with care to build relationships with hundreds of religious and spiritual organizations in the world, we can create a global network system that acts in service to the truly sacred. A network system of this type can have more healing and pacifying effect on civilization than any previous initiative in history.

And we can act today. The systems, the people, the resources, the ideas - all are in position now. What is needed now is no more than a recognition of these possibilities by persons in a position to advance this agenda, and some simple institutional structure that can organize this work in an effective way.