– Marc Gafni’s friends, collaborators, and supporters speak out for the sake of restoring integrity. This comment by Gabrielle Siemion on the Wide Spread Emergence of Internet Driven Attacks was first posted to the Center for Integral Wisdom statement on centerforintegralwisdom.org. You can read the statement below or listen to the audio. –
I have worked closely with Marc Gafni for over two years and have known him in a social setting for at least five. Those that know me would agree that I am smart, opinionated and vocal. I am NOT easily manipulated, even by the brightest out there.
My experience of Marc is that he is beyond smart, wildly passionate, deeply purposeful, and at his core, motivated by the greater good for all. The mission at the Center for Integral Wisdom AND the center of Marc’s heart is a Global Ethic for a Global Civilization.
Sure we might disagree at times. We might even occasionally have an uncomfortable exchange. I welcome it. Marc welcomes it too. I find he welcomes dialog, even when it is in disagreement with him. I have experienced Marc to be open and even coachable for any area we have had differing perspectives. Anything can be said. And it is.
The people I have met and worked with through Marc are some of the smartest, most experienced, globally minded, eyes-wide-open people I have ever met. Internationally recognized and celebrated thought leaders I respect, not just in the public eye, but also working with him directly, SEE Marc deeply and are defending him, even being willing to risk being attacked themselves or losing their livelihood over it.
I am deeply disturbed by the wide spread emergence (and acceptance) of trolling and internet driven attacks without the benefit of a complete, balanced, accurate, fair and accountable presentation of the facts and evidence.
The very nature of what Marc has to say can raise some eyebrows to say the least. For some he is unconventional or even shocking, for other’s he is revolutionary and brilliant. Especially with people who are taking on the status quo, we must be vigilant in not succumbing to organized cyber attacks motivated by personal agendas.
In the spirit of that accountability I long to see respected in the world, I can only attest to my own experience which is that Marc is a good man, with good intentions and enthusiastic urgency towards those intentions. Sure, he is human (like the rest of us). He too has an ego and at times can be so connected to the urgency of the matter that he might be perceived as overbearing.
First of all, the global good IS an urgent issue and people should be jumping up and down and using every ounce of influence they have to help people wake up to the cliff we are about to drive off. Transformation and evolution are full of challenges and require stepping out of our comfort zones which likely requires some passionate prompting to get anything meaningful to happen.
Second, we’re ALL human! Who has not experienced moments of ego or employed manipulation in their efforts to bring about an important change. Who hasn’t made a comment or an off color joke that they later regretted? I would be willing to guess that we ALL have moments, conversations, actions we have experienced that we would not want dissected on the internet in an intentionally frenzied firestorm.
And third, I can attest that any “manipulation” I’ve ever felt from Marc has been based out of his enthusiasm for the greater good and urgency about progress for ALL of us. Never have I felt unsafe or like my wishes were not respected by him.
As for the more serious accusations against Marc, I understand that he has taken a lie detector test from one of the leading experts in the country and welcomed his accusers to meet and talk both now and in years past (when the same kind of calculated and organized effort to discredit him surfaced previously). I have no way of knowing what happened 30 plus years ago, yet the lie detector test, his willingness to discuss it with his accusers (and their refusal), the behind the scenes motivations I have been shown, the staunch support by some of the wisest minds and biggest hearts I know and most of all, my personal experience, well, that says everything to me.
And when there are organized and personally motivated agendas for attacking someone who is urgently questioning the status quo, we should all take pause.
Gabrielle Siemion