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Author & ADD Expert Thom Hartmann
By Bob Yehling

Thom Hartmann lives for the next generation. He also lives in the eternal present. Put the two together, and you receive a prolific, wise author of some 30 books, including The Prophet's Way, Beyond ADD and Healing ADD. He has brought a very holistic and deep awareness and sensitivity to the issues affecting children around the world, and is one of the nation's leading experts on Attention Deficit Disorder. He's seen the most hideous hunger and desperation in countries like Uganda, and he's participated in and witnessed "more than a few miracles," as he puts it, during his 25 years of directorship and involvement with the Salem Children's Centers in the United States, Germany, Africa, Asia and Australia.

Q: The Age of Awareness is about building community and re-connecting with our divinity – individually and collectively – yet we live in such a fractious, segmented social, spiritual and community situation. What dynamic is lacking the most in our society?

A.: Connection. The loss of connection to tribe is probably the single biggest cultural psychopathology we have. We Americans of European ancestry were de-tribalized by the Celts 3,000 years ago, de-tribalized by the Romans 2,000 years ago and de-tribalized by the Christians 1,000 years ago. We've become the hungry ghosts the Native Americans refer to – people without a tribe. The peoples who have managed to maintain their tribes, such as the Jews and Gypsies, are consistently and aggressively attacked. We crave tribe so much that we can't stand to see anyone else living it, so we become jealous and violently aggressive.

Q: This is the overarching problem. Yet, there are examples of people forming community, forming tribe, all over this country.

A: It's happening all the time, all over the place. Some well-run businesses are like tribes. So are well-run churches, organizations, community groups and families.

Q: So what is preventing us from shifting to a tribal consciousness and living as tribe on a larger scale?

A: The problem is, the traditional role models for how a functional tribe works have been lost to us. People who immigrated here from Europe, or were dragged here from Africa, or fled here from South or Latin America, ended up in this great melting pot which is a great de-tribalization. They're at risk; they're vulnerable. They're like hungry people who walk down a street that is full of food stores with many different choices; what do you eat? The cake? The bread? The vegetables? De-tribalized people are very vulnerable to people who offer tribe. These people often have hidden agendas. They offer community and a generic or basic spiritual teaching, and people draw to them like bees to honey. It's not a new story. What they're offering underneath it all is tribe, but we have to be very discerning and careful in our choices.

Q: How do we work to better integrate and increase spiritual attunement in a society that remains governed, to a large degree, by organized religion?

A: We have to look within ourselves and also look at the possibility of creating community. In Buddhism, there's the example of dharma and sangha – right work and community. I don't think it's all that different between religions. Some just act out in a more toxic way than the others. It all begins at the personal level, when people realize through their own experiences that a direct connection with divinity is not only possible but one of the highest goals a human can achieve.

Q: We've had numerous discussions over the core issues affecting humankind today, and the need for those of us in position to serve people to address these issues. What do you feel we must address on a large scale?

A: I'm going to give you a political answer. The bizarre and dysfunctional politics of our current world are something people have got to understand and become politically involved to deal with. We have a situation in the United States where an unelected president is shredding the Constitution. We have a situation in the world where trans-national corporations are eviscerating the concept of national sovereignty. We have a situation where huge factions of Islam are seeking to impose medieval theocracies on people who are longing to live in democracies. These three forces are interacting in many strange ways. You have Dick Cheney's old company, Halliburton, negotiating to build oil pipelines across Afghanistan. You've got an administration consolidating power and shutting down communications, taking us farther and farther away from a two-party system. These actions serve to de-spiritualize the world. We cannot divorce spirituality from the world in which we live. As the Dalai Lama said to me in India, "Spirituality does not exist in a vacuum."

Q: It's now been almost 25 years since you and your wife, Louise, started the Salem children's center in New Hampshire. Could you distill that incredible experience into principles that would light the paths for people today?

A: When Herr Mûller first came up with the idea of villages for troubled children in Germany, the question he asked himself was, "What is it that I had growing up that allowed me to be a normal functioning adult? And what is it that these kids donÕt have?" His answer was "family"; it comes back to finding the tribe. He decided not to put kids in large buildings like Army barracks, but to house them in single homes, 6 to 8 people in a home with parent role models. He fed them simple, healthy food, had no TV, gave them healthy activities like hiking, soccer and horseback riding. By doing this, he took kids who didn't do well in institutions, and made them healthy. This system has created more than a few miracles in the last quarter-century.

The importance of family is key to all of these kids, whether they be severely emotionally disturbed children or your kids and mine. The communication of a family is safe and nurturing. The way in which a kid's brain and mind develops is so affected by this.

Q: In The Prophet's Way, you gave three specific exercises for what poet Gary Snyder calls "practicing presence" – see the presence of God in everything; notice the whole world in the "Now;" and find your true purpose. How does living in the present change each of our lives, and by extension, the world?

A: When we're not living in the present, we're not functioning consciously. By reacting to things that don't really exist because they're memories of the past or figments of an unlived future, we're much less competent to be useful or functional in the world. When we do function out of the presence of the here-and-now, then our spiritual and intellectual powers come together in a way that is vital. This is not new. Jesus talked about it in the Sermon on the Mount. Buddha defined it as the core of his religion. Both are back in vogue with Eckhart Tolle talking about it; God bless him!

Q: The admonition "forgive the past, trust the future" stated in The Prophet's Way is so wonderful. It is so simple to think, yet so difficult to live. What lies on the other side of this principle for the person who acts upon it?

A: Life becomes freer. People who experience thick, dark, negative emotions of depression, guilt and shame are often overwhelmed by them and are carrying around too much past. People who spend too much time in the high, thin frightened states like anxiety, fear and reactivity are carrying around too much future. They're hallucinating a negative future and it scares them, diverts their ability to act in the world right now. It's a tragedy.

The solution is to ask yourself a question: "Is there anything I've learned from this past experience, or anything I can learn now?" If there's a reasonable answer, then come back to the Now and, as Ram Dass said, Be Here Now.

Q: Let's switch to Attention Deficit Disorder. We have a nation of children unfairly addicted to Ritalin. You've written seven books about this subject. How can parents and educators give these kids a greater creative, spiritual and functional base so that their assets as multi-dimensional thinkers can define their lives?

A: Get them out of public schools as quickly as you can and take the TV out of the house! If you do these two things, you give your child an extraordinary gift – the opportunity for spiritual and psychological survival and achievement in this world.

Q: As recently as the 1970s and early 1980s, there were plenty of opportunities to exercise thinking and creativity. Now, public school seems to be stripped down to preparing for standardized tests. I know teachers who are frustrated to the breaking point because they can't teach. Can you elaborate?

A: The educational system has been degraded into the factory-assembly line system. Teachers are no longer mentors; they're factory workers. If a child can't fit into this system, he or she is medicated; if we can't medicate a child to make them more standardized, we throw them off the belt. The goal is to produce standardized children who won't revolt, and who will become standardized employees who dig the ditches, flip the burgers and do what they're told. Education is about social engineering rather than the learning and integrating of intellectual information.

Q: This sounds like round two of the Industrial Revolution.

A: It is. In the 1860s, we had a Civil War in this country. After that war, the Industrial Revolution really took off. This is when public schools started. The government was very explicit about creating a generation that would never revolt; they didn't want any more trouble. As the Industrial Revolution took off, the schools were set up to produce good workers for industry. That's what schools were set up to do, and they do it very well. However, it's created a dramatic dumbing down of education that's again getting worse.

Q: It seems parents really need to take charge again – and that means greatly increasing the quality and type of time they spend with their kids.

A: Right now, most Americans could cut 30 percent of their workload and income, and recalibrate their lives without a huge disruption. They will be happier and more available for their children. This is not what Corporate America wants to hear, but it's the best for the kids. It's called downshifting.

When you do have time with your kids, read to them. Talk to them. Walk with them. Explore processes with them, whether it's building projects, doing pottery, or going to karate class with them. Ask yourself: "What do I want to impart to my child?" In a healthy family relationship, a child will always choose a parent over anyone or anything else if that parent gives them the time. Give your kids the time. Live with them, right now, in this moment.

(For more on Thom Hartmann's activities, visit www.thomhartmann.com. To order his books, go to www.amazon.com or your local bookstore).