"Cause Your Life" Transformational Centers

I believe that human evolution is at a stage where we each have the astonishing opportunity to transform ourselves into an entirely "new creature." In important ways, this new creature is as great an evolutionary leap as was the emergence on the planetary scene of Homo sapiens.

Visionary and futurist Barbara Marx Hubbard coined the term Homo universalis for this new evolutionary creature. As she describes in her book Emergence: The Shift from Ego to Essence, "...the Universal Human is connected through the heart to the whole of life, evolving consciously and helping to cocreate a new world."

Future-Based Vision Story:
Under the direction of the Institute for Transformational Activism and the Council for Planetary Transformation, 50 "Cause Your Life Transformational Centers" were opened simultaneously in major metropolitan U.S. cities in 2010. Accompanied by a nationwide marketing campaign, these Centers were an instantaneous hit with the American public. They quickly rivaled Starbucks as popular social gathering spots.

The CYL Centers were marketed from the start as affiliated with the popular DVD and book "The Secret." In partnership with PrimeTime Productions, the CYL Centers are official affiliates of this popular transformational teaching modality. The famous "Secret" logo, the "S" embossed red wax seal, adorns each CYL Center's entranceway.

The CYL Centers marketing campaign was aimed at capturing the attention of the "Cultural Creatives." This campaign catapulted the phrase "Cultural Creatives" into the popular vernacular. Paul Ray, author of the 2000 book of the same name, coined the term to connotate the then-26% of the U.S. population segment identified in statistical surveys as caring deeply for the earth and sharing those concerns loosely grouped under the "transformational" umbrella. Paul states that the launch of the CYL Transformational Centers has had the greatest impact he could have imagined, in bringing the existence of this segment of the population to the forefront of attention.

The students and staff of the Institute for Transformational Activism coordinated and managed the corporate launch. The CYL Centers are being developed under the auspices of the ITA, as one of the key Business Incubator Pods of the Institute. Students of the Institute throughout the United States are "cutting their business teeth" through this transformational entrepreneurial endeavor.

The Centers serve as the home base for the Institute for Transformational Activism. ITA staff work in the Centers, and operate the Institute from their offices housed in the Centers. Institute students take courses in the Centers, and work as staff in these Business Incubator Pods.

The CYL Centers are a "family" of businesses. Each Center is comprised of a natural foods restaurant and cafe; transformational/personal growth and development bookstore; boutique selling a full range of "Cause Your Life" branded clothing, jewelry, and other products; adult education school offering a wide range of personal growth and development courses, both live and web-based; and a community center hosting social and transformational events.