Welcome to the Planetary Citizens

Every choice we make reverberates across the planet. Planetary Citizens began with that simple truth: when cultures, ideas, and skills mingle, new pathways to resilience appear. We champion people and planet over profit, collaborating inside today’s systems while nurturing the seeds of better ones—until harmony feels like it “just happened” because enough of us moved in concert. My journey to compile and share this started in 1975. 

The book Planetary Citizens: Awakening the Heart of Humanity captures this momentum and is already sparking its own ripples with stellar reviews on Amazon. Add yours—whether by funding a project, sharing our story, or lending expertise. Together, purpose-driven people can turn conversation into the thriving world we know is possible. When I speak of ‘purpose-driven’ it is of coherence with our designed purpose prior to being here now. It is said many are called, few choose. I chose and endured the longsuffering to introduce the potential of a true new world order, a ‘new normal’ that works for people and planet.

With love, respect and unyielding commitment,

Zen Benefiel, MA, MBA, Co-Founder

LinkedIn Profile

The Planetary Citizens’ story began in the 1970s, founded by Donald Keys and was a pioneering organization committed to promoting global consciousness, peace, and sustainability. Alongside Keys, other notable members such as Norman Cousins, Aurelio Peccei, and Gordon Feller played significant roles in shaping the group’s direction.

Feller, in particular, contributed to the organization’s efforts in advocating for environmental stewardship and sustainable urban development during his tenure. The collective aim of Planetary Citizens was to transcend political, cultural, and geographical boundaries, uniting people in their common humanity and shared responsibility for the planet.

Through educational initiatives, advocacy, and collaboration with other organizations, the group sought to inspire a sense of global citizenship and encourage active participation in creating a more harmonious and sustainable world. We carry on the work begun a half-century ago, with greater probability of achievement today.

We acquired the domain in 2010 and set it up to showcase world servers initially, beginning the process. Planetary Citizens has been reborn today with nonprofit status and a defined mission, still dedicated to promoting global unity and sustainability through diverse holistic approaches. The mission encompasses educational, environmental, governmental, and societal challenges, fostering regenerative cultures and true democratic communities for a harmonious future.

First, though, one has to dissolve preconception of self, identity, and mission. It is a new way of approaching problem-solving from a single source within us all, the recursive function that descends into nothingness, then emerges anew with greater coherence in FLOW, aligned with our collective design leading us toward harmony. This allows what is naturally within each of us as a design feature to emerge and build something new with other Planetary Citizens.

The concept of being a planetary citizen involves understanding humanity’s emotional and environmental predicament and taking action to address it, individually and collectively. We live half inside and half outside, misunderstanding the internal because we are bereft of experiencing it fully in order to address the external world impacted by our unconscious and/or maligned behavior. Solutions are emerging! Planetary Citizens story deserves to be heard. Explore the recursive function within.

The digital epicenter of Planetary Citizens celebrates collective action and diverse solutions for a harmonious world. The website aims to unite people beyond borders in a common purpose to create a thriving future. In December 2023, Planetary Citizens received a 509(a)(2) status from the IRS in the United States, promising a bright year ahead in 2024. We’re carrying the message Don Keys et al planted a half-century ago.

Planetary Citizens is seeking team members for this project and invites donations to support the network of conscious co-creators. This is a self-initiating activity that unites personal and professional skillsets, passion and purpose. Many have felt the progression of a much anticipated evolutionary leap for humanity. Most recently, there’s even a movement for happiness. We put this list of communities together over the last couple of decades, some flourishing, some may be inactive.

Planetary Citizens envisions a vibrant tapestry of movements, each with unique solutions and perspectives. The global community is committed to fostering harmony and sustainability in every aspect of life. The website encourages visitors to explore, engage, and collaborate with individuals and organizations working towards a better world. The founder’s recent book, ” Planetary Citizens: Awakening the Heart of Humanity,” serves as a primer for collaborative growth and harmony among people and planet. We envision a burgeoning community that gathers to serve humanity in ways never imagined possible until recently. We explore the nature of the recursive function built into our natural design just being discovered by science today.

In recent years, new groups have emerged online, providing education, inspiration, and organizational structure. Developments like the Global Regeneration CoLab, Global Ecovillage Network,  Planet Home ,  Global Regeneration Corps, and the Regenerative Development Group and Re-Build.co are examples of collaborative efforts towards regenerative communities working towards sustainable and equitable systems.

Organizations such as Conscious Enterprise Network (business leaders), Multiverse (AI for leadership) and the Octopus Movement (non-linear thinkers) are addressing diversity, including neuro-diversity, in new ways to support free thinking in psychologicially safe and intellectually humble gatherings; Ghandian Global Harmony Association strives to eliminate nuclear weaponry while the Live and Let Live Global Peace Movement seeks to remove aggression from the Law.

Our team, as it assembles, will research and curate a growing list of participating world servers to share as a sustained activity. We invite you to consider why you are here now, exploring your path.

The current global situation demands a shift from old ways to a new world order (see interview below) focused on people and planet over profit. Regenerative design and whole systems thinking are key to creating resilient systems that integrate societal needs with nature’s integrity and natural order. Planetary Citizens advocates for a crowd-sourced planetary management system that replaces failing systems with holistic and regenerative alternatives with interconnected platforms. We believe there is a natural order of design, including human, that is a driving factor in this profound activity.

We cannot think our way through a system built on vibration, we must sense our way through, restoring natural senses previously diminished by educational and societal ignorance. We invite your participation!

Planetary Citizens envisions an empowered, egalitarian, purely democratic, and caring community at all levels, managing essential infrastructure for regenerative culture, sustainable living, and future technology development. The community aims to present collaborative solutions for dysfunctional systems, empowering the growth toward harmony among people and planet.

This activity examples the notion of the One being in Many (human recursive function) and, as servant leaders, we lead the way as examples of collaboration and navigating holistic growth of our global village, preparing for entrance into our rightful place in universe affairs. Some notions are discussed in a conversation the founder had with Dr. Jeffrey Mishlove for New Thinking Allowed in 2018 about a different kind of new world order. It isn’t a conspiracy theory, it’s a evolutionary leap.

The website showcases individuals, places, and things contributing to a new world order of harmony. It emphasizes the importance of self-organization and collaboration to address global challenges. The concept of a “new world order” is redefined as an emerging order that transcends fear, anger, ignorance, and immobility. Given the recent discoveries in quantum sciences, it only makes sense that humanity is experiencing and evolutionary leap in the application of bridging inner and outer worlds.

One World in a New World examples conversations about that process of briding inner and outer worlds individually and collectively, with guests like Dr. Ervin Laszlo, two-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee and co-editor of Disarmament: The Human Factor with Don Keys,  Deborah Levine, Publisher of the American Diversity Report, and Dr. Daniel Wahl, author of Designing Regenerative Cultures.

Our future vision includes a speakers bureau of a variety of thought-leaders across the gamut of education, industry, science and society.

Planetary Citizens supports the development of solutions and their discoveries in various fields, including academia, economic restructuring, organizational development, and technological advances. The website promotes redesigning our future with sustainable living in mind and encourages collaboration towards a better world. It also explores the next frontier of human evolution, focusing on the intersection of technology, consciousness, and spirituality.

We are not alone in these endeavors, acting as a curator, a dot connector, fulfulling the mission and vision given to our current flag carrier in 1975. We invite you to be a part of this journey together, ascending to a new order of magnitude in our ability to lead people, places and things in support of people and planet over profit. This is our Planetary Citizens story, and you are a co-author of this story. How would you like to write your script?

GiveLively – Our GiveLively portal lets you contribute with just a few clicks, right on the site. The form is mobile-friendly, issues an instant tax-deductible receipt, and lets you cover processing fees so 100 % of your gift fuels Planetary Citizens programs.

PayPal – Prefer the world’s most trusted digital wallet? Use PayPal for a fast, secure one-time or monthly donation. Your account or any major card works, and PayPal’s buyer protection adds an extra layer of confidence while supporting our mission.

Zelle® – For fee-free, bank-to-bank giving, send your contribution via Zelle to  zelle@planetarycitizens.net. Funds arrive in minutes with no middle-man costs, ensuring every dollar goes straight into advancing harmony among people and planet.