Leslie Danziger was a documentary maker. By her own admission, she had no training or even aptitude for math, science, technology, engineering, or business. Yet here she was at the State of the World Forum making a presentation as founder of Lightpath Technologies, the Silicon Valley firm that patented a material that bends light. But the truth about the discovery was hard to confess. You have to understand that scientists and engineers had been trying for decades to invent a substance that could bend light without causing the light waves to distort and fracture. Until Lesley's Vision. Lightpath new product, called Gradium is now used in fiber optics, in medical technology, cameras, and other industrial applications. And the breakthrough came from Leslie Danziger. Fifteen years ago, Lesley was down in the New Mexico desert trying to relax and get some rest, when, Bam! A vision came to her. Along with it came insight into a technology plan, a business plan, and the sheer determination to manifest it all into reality. Leslie Danziger was not prone to the New Age or spiritual stuff back then. But this vision that transformed the technology also transformed her life.

The idea for the State of the World Forum came from Jim Garrison, a Bay Area man who worked at Esalen in the 1980's with Gorbachev to foster peace between U.S. and Soviet citizens. The Gorbachev Foundation is now the organization supporting the Forum in their efforts to promote world peace. This is their second year. The Forum's task was Herculean; to bring over 200 Visionaries in over a dozen different fields - business, technology, science, spirituality, education, social services and more - to present their latest information and research to over 900 of the most powerful corporate executives and government leaders in the world over a six day period. At the heart of the Forum was the wondrous fact that many people with economic and political power were, some for the first time, rubbing shoulders with, riding elevators with, speaking and listening to people who may not have that kind of power, but who have crucial information to the survival of the human species (and other life) on this planet. And in each presentation, no matter how dry, how technical, or how "linear" the information was, there was almost always a mention, even if ever so subtle, of "Soul," or "Spirit," indeed, of Spirituality itself.

Stephenie Hendricks is an independent radio & tv producer and media consultant. She advised on GraceCom's "Inheriting a Broken World" and hosted our recent Internet Webcast, "Discovering the Labyrinth."

I attended a discussion group headed by a Native American medicine woman and Harvard scholar, Apela Colorado, who founded the Worldwide Indigenous Science Network. She strives to bring Native American spirituality values to scientists and technology business people. It was here I first met Leslie Danzinger who was co-leading the discussion with Apela. The group attending this discussion was diverse; a tv director and his wife, an amazing woman from Kenya who has organized 6 million rural poor women for economic survival in war torn countries, who became great friends with a sweet, blonde Mid-Western PhD candidate from Wisconsin (their common interest - corn!), a Swiss engineer and his Jewish wife who practice Native American Spirituality, and several other interesting people. Each held a rock passed around by Apela, and expressed their feelings about a previous exhibition, called "A Walk Through Time."

This walk was just over a mile of illustrated panels, snaking around Nob Hill one morning. Designed by Hewlett Packard engineers, it demonstrated the last five billion years on Earth. Needless to say, it was an effective reality check; man's existence is fairly insignificant, except for the fact that we have wrought more destruction in the last 200 years than billions of years worth of asteroids or earth eruptions. The HP engineers felt that if we could see how, for example, species became extinct due to climate changes (like the one we are having now), that we would look at issues like Global Warming a little differently. It was a profoundly deep experience to see just how fragile or human existence is here on the planet at this time.

Although reaction was as diverse as the discussion group, we all agreed that human beings must find a commonality in Spirit to halt the speed of environmental destruction. It occurred to me that if we could come to that conclusion in just over an hour, maybe there's hope that this kind of process can reach out into the world and bring hope for our future.

Apela kept eluding to Leslie Danziger's story, but it wasn't until after the discussion that I went up to Lesley and asked her what her story was. As I mentioned earlier, Lesley's spiritual vision on how to invent technology was an extraordinary story, and revealing it to the public was a very scary thing to do. Her story and the story of her experience of the Forum was an eloquent metaphor for the experience all people were having there. She told it at a plenary entitled "Science & Technology: How Technology is Shaping our Future."

A scientist from the California Institute of Technology who had worked on the recent Mars Explorer project showed lots of neat slides. Alison Sander, a technology consultant, gave us all a reality check by pointing out that less than 1/4th of the people in the world have access even to the technology of a telephone. And then, Leslie Danziger spoke. When she started, she was very nervous. Her hair was tied up in a tight bun. She had on a tweed coat and slacks, and glasses. She dropped things, mumbled, and then finally got into the groove of doing her scientific/technological explanation of Gradium, this substance she invented that bends light for the first time. She had transparencies, she had notes, she did the linear explanation. And then, she did something quite extraordinary. She put down her notes, squared her shoulders, and cleared her throat. She reached up, and, with the slightest pause, let her thick, honey-maned hair cascade down her shoulders. The men gasped, the women's mouth's dropped. And then she spoke. "And I wish I could tell you that I went to MIT and worked hard with many engineers to invent this," she said. "But I have to tell you the truth. I had no training, no education, no background in engineering, technology, or even business. The information for making Gradium came to me in a spiritual vision." She went on to tell her story. Every person in that room was on the edge of their seat, leaning toward her. She received several standing ovations. She admonished the men that all the technology and science in the world means nothing if they do not give it spiritual meaning. If what they do doesn't have a connection to a higher power, they have no reason to be doing it. She told them that if they didn't have the intention to halt the destruction that technology was already causing, that if they weren't committed to saving the earth and her inhabitants, that all that they were doing was meaningless - even harmful. She really let them have it. Then she turned to the few women in the room. And she basically told them, if the men are without soulfulness in their technology, then it was up to the women to make sure it's there anyway. That is was our spiritual responsibility to think of everything we do - how we work, how we make money, how we run companies, how we relate to others, how we treat our employees, our customers, how we think about our products and inventions - all of these things have to have the INTENTIONS and ACTIONS of making the world a better place. We have no choice. Not any more. And thus Lesley Danzinger received her final standing ovation. Shaking with fear and relief, Lesley was swept off the podium into a crowd of suits & ties that had just been slapped around by her. She was their leader. She had hit them where it counted. She had them. She was euphoric. And she was a wreck.

Lesley Danzinger, filmmaker cum scientist and CEO, carried the message of all the diverse religious, indigenous and environmental activists at the Forum - that making Earth and her People are the priority - and it is critical now - or we are doomed to survive as a species. And that we have to trust something more powerful than our intellectual perceptions or greed for profits.

Related Links

Shattering Science's Patriarchal Past
Ecofeminist Carolyn Merchant and best-selling author Theodore Roszak discuss how to break the macho grasp of modern science. RealAudio.

Cloning: Asking the Right Questions
Karen Lebacqz looks at the theological implications of cloning on the human community.