His official website is....well:
http://www.owmarkley.org/

Check his resume:
http://www.owmarkley.org/resume.htm

From this citation:
http://abs.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/42/3/522

American Behavioral Scientist, Vol. 42, No. 3, 522-530 (1998)
DOI: 10.1177/0002764298042003024
© 1998 SAGE Publications

Visionary Futures
Guided Cognitive Imagery in Teaching and Learning About the Future
OLIVER W. MARKLEY
University of Houston-Clear Lake

Guided cognitive imagery is described as an appropriate technology of choice for intuition-based exploring, learning, and teaching about alternative futures—especially suitable for futures involving cultural transformation. Two methodological approaches with case examples are described: (a) a virtual time travel method for visionary futures exploration and for experiencing the needs offuture generations and (b) a set of depth-intuition methods for need finding, transforming perceived needs into opportunities, choosing between policy options, and transcendental exploration. Although these “visionary futures” methods extend well beyond the conventional paradigm of the behavioral sciences, they are consistent with the cannons of science in that they are trainable and can be replicated. Moreover, they can readily be used to help integrate the methodologies of social action research, futures research, and political activism—a task which urgently needs to be done.

From this fruity site:
http://www.fmbr.org/editoral/edit02_03/edit8-may03.htm

ASCENSION

Ascension is typically thought of as going from the physical body to a higher level after death of the body. However, the wisdom traditions of the world have for millennia told us that ascension should begin while we live in our physical body. Ascension emerges from a three-fold miracle of creation. The first miracle is that anything at all exists, rather than nothing-ness. The second miracle is that some of what is, is alive. The third miracle is that some of what is alive is self-aware, including awareness of the three miracles. Ascension becomes the application of this self-referencing capability—a journey inward to the Source. In effect you ascend to a “higher zone” of consciousness that transforms your perception of critical problems into opportunities. The movement from each major zone to the next represents the equivalent of a quantum shift in how one perceives reality.

Dr. Oliver Markley proposes a gradient model of ascension that maps three profoundly differing levels or zones. At the first level an individual’s motivation is primarily based upon a “win-lose” competition between “I and it.” Polar opposites are the norm. There is a defined good and an evil. Relationships follow a pattern of domination and/or submission. At the second level a proactive “win/win” collaboration between “I and Thou” prevails. This strategy of conflict resolution has been researched under the mathematics of game theory. The path to success is through the practice of compassionate acceptance, cooperation and sharing. All polar opposites integrate holistically. At the third level there exists a knowingness that we are a part of a Unity Consciousness originating within an eternal now-ness—beyond space and time. One experiences a total awareness that no separation of self exists and encounters a peace and love that passes understanding. At this level there is a transcendence of all polar opposites including good and evil—the ultimate motivation resides in the One—the Unity Consciousness.

Lets apply this gradient model of ascension to the issue of good and evil. We will use the war in Iraq as a specific example. At the first level of ascendance, we never get away from evil—it is absolutely necessary for ascendance and evolutionary transformation. It provides the rungs of a ladder on which we climb. Our President perceives Iraq and Saddam as part of an “Axis of Evil.” Equally, the peace activists who indulge in violent protests against the evil of President Bush’s action are also participants at this first level of ascendance. At the second level, however, evil becomes perceived as an integral part of all that is, to be accepted with compassion, rather than resisted or merely tolerated. Thus, evil is experienced as more of a negation of good rather than an opposite. The goal is to address this negation of good through universal law process established by consensus. Examples would be the United Nations Charter and mutually agreed upon use of force and humanitarian actions. Peace activists following the non-violent principles of Gandhi and Martin Luther King represent examples of second level perceptions—a move from confrontational activism to interactive activism.

From Future Studies:
http://tech.uh.edu/futureweb/history.htm

The graduate program in Studies of the Future was established in 1974 (when the Clear Lake campus of the University of Houston was founded) by Dean of Human Sciences and Humanities, Calvin Cannon, and Chancellor of UH-Clear Lake, Alfred Neumann. The mid-1970s was a high point of futures studies in the U.S. with the founding of the World Future Society and the publication of futures best-sellers, such as Future Shock and The Limits to Growth. Dr. Cannon thought that futures should be a regular part of the curriculum, as a complement to the study of history.

The University hired two faculty members to initially staff the program—Dr. Jib Fowles, the first chair of the program, and Dr. Chris Dede. Dr. Fowles received his degree in communications from. Dr. Fowles graduated from a New York university (NYU or the New School for Social Research) in communications and sociology. Dr. Dede graduated from the University of Massachusetts with a degree in education with a strong emphasis in futures studies and instructional technology. Faculty from other programs in the university also taught courses in the futures program – notably, Jim Bowman and Fred Kierstead from education and Jim Coomer from public administration.

The program was assigned to the human sciences component of HSH, but it was treated in the early years as more a humanities program, in which the big issues of the day were studied and debated, rather than a professional program for careers in futures studies. One of the biggest debates was whether Houston should continue its meteoric growth of the 1970s or whether steps should be taken to control that growth. Most feeling was on the side of managing the growth. Ever the contrarian, however, Dr. Fowles became quite well-known as the advocate for pro-growth or no-regulation side of the debate.

It became obvious early on, however, that a purely academic program was not going to be sustainable as enrollments began to dip at the end of the decade. As a result, the faculty recruited Dr. Oliver Markley from the Stanford Research Institute where he had done a number of futures studies under contract to the US Department of Education among others. Dr. Markley had an undergraduate degree in engineering and graduate degrees in experimental psychology. His task was to create a more professionally program that would still retain the diversity and interest of the original program.

Are you ready for...EXTREME DEMOCRACY??? How about The Great Turning?
http://www.extremedemocracy.com/archives/2007/06/the_great_turni.html

The Great Turning
Oliver Markley hosted a discussion of the concepts in this book last night in Austin. It prompted an interesting discussion about the problems of American society and democracy. I’d be interested in any comments you may have about this book if you’ve read it.

The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community by David Korten, Berrett-Koehler, 2006

The following are excerpts from documents prepared by Oliver Markley:

SYNOPSIS OF THE ARGUMENT (selections from pp. 18 - 22)

The human species is entering a period of dramatic and potentially devastating change as the result of forces of our own creation that are now largely beyond our control. It is within our means, however, to shape a positive outcome if we choose to embrace the resulting crisis as an op¬portunity to lift ourselves to a new level of species maturity and potential.

THE CULTURAL TURNING. The Great Turning begins with a cultural and spiritual awakening. Economic and political turning can only follow a turning in cultural values from money and material excess to life and spiritual fulfillment, from relationships of domination to relationships of partnership, from a belief in our limitations to a belief in our possi¬bilities, and from fearing our differences to rejoicing in our diversity.

THE ECONOMIC TURNING. The values shift of the cultural turning calls us to turn from measuring well-being by the size of our yachts and bank accounts to measuring well-being by the health of our families, communities, and natural environment. It leads us from economic policies that raise those at the top to policies that raise those at the bot¬tom, from economic plutocracy to economic democracy, from hoarding to sharing, and from the rights of ownership to the responsibilities of stewardship.

THE POLITICAL TURNING. The economic turning creates the neces¬sary conditions for a turn from a democracy of money to a democracy of people, from passive to active citizenship, from competition for in¬dividual advantage to cooperation for mutual advantage, from retribu¬tive justice to restorative justice, and from social order by coercion to social order by mutual responsibility and accountability.

The outcome will depend in large measure on the prevailing stories that shape our understanding of the traumatic time at hand—its causes and its possibilities. Perhaps the most difficult and yet essential aspect of this work is to change our stories. …

The power of the institutions of economic and political domination depends on their ability to perpetuate a falsified and inauthentic cultural trance based on beliefs and values at odds with reality. Break the trance, replace the values of an inauthentic culture with the values of an authentic cul¬ture grounded in a love of life rather than a love of money, and people will realign their life energy and bring forth the life-serving institutions of a new era. The key is to change the stories by which we define ourselves. It is easier said than done, but I have found it to be a powerful strategic insight. [Emphasis added.]

Fast Company has a short but insightful clip about the “Re-visioning”:
http://www.fastcompany.com/online/18/visioning_Printer_Friendly.html

Visioning” is not the same as hypnosis, Oliver Markley assures me. Then he tells me to relax, to imagine I’m drowsy, and to count backward from 10. At least he doesn’t have a pocket watch.

Markley is a professor at UHCL’s Studies of the Future program. One way for people to create a future that they will be happy with, he argues, is to engage in an exercise that helps them to see, or to intuit, multiple futures.

Visioning starts with a vehicle. In a soothing voice, Markley instructs me to choose a vehicle that will carry me from the present into the future. “It can be a fantasy vehicle or a real vehicle,” he says. My unexotic choice: a blue station wagon (it looks a lot like the car I left back in Ohio when I moved to Boston to join Fast Company).

Markley then asks me a series of questions about my journey into the future: What’s your first stop? What do you notice? How do you feel?

Next Markley asks me to imagine that I encounter a “wild card” - an event whose probability of happening is low but whose impact, should it occur, would be great. Wild cards can be deeply personal (I give birth to quadruplets), totally cosmic (an asteroid hits Earth), or something in between. (My two wild cards were a little wilder than my vehicle. Let’s just say that the more inviting one involved an alien invasion of Earth.)

The ultimate goal of visioning is to see multiple views of the future. Markley pushes me to create what he calls Plan A and Plan B - two very different futures. “What do the two plans feel like?” he asks. “What are the similarities? Can you create a Plan C, a hybrid that feels better than either plan on its own?”

As for my future, I don’t want to reveal too much. That’s between me and the cute little green man in the passenger seat of my blue station wagon.

Markley shows up once again in the Fast Company archives:
http://www.fastcompany.com/online/18/byofuturist_Printer_Friendly.html

The year is 2020. Political extremists and religious fundamentalists have gained power around the world. A handful of charismatic leaders control production and impose policies that hobble economic activity. Groups deemed “socially unacceptable” are being oppressed, even exterminated.

An unattractive scenario? No doubt. An unlikely scenario? One hopes. A scenario worth reckoning with? Absolutely--at least for students in the Studies of the Future program at the University of Houston at Clear Lake (UHCL). The “Disciplined Society” is one of five scenarios (most of the others, fortunately, are more appealing) that the students must consider as they investigate aspects of their own futures: what professional skills they should acquire, what kinds of companies they should work with, what lifestyles they can aspire to.

“It’s a very pragmatic degree,” says Wendy Schultz, 43, a visiting professor from Oxford, England, where she is a consultant. “We help people to sense the changes occurring around them and to connect those changes to their personal goals. If you’re secure about adapting to change in your own life, you’ll be able to help your company cope with change.”

Which is why, on a summer evening at the Clear Lake campus, not far from the NASA Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, Jorge Sepulveda, 36, Steve Seay, 42, and Sue Skinner, 48, are in a small-group breakout, writing imaginary newspaper headlines inspired by the Disciplined Society. In futurist terms, they’re “incasting”—assuming that a major transition has taken place and working backward to deduce the events that might have led to it. Incasting is different from forecasting—looking at current events and speculating on where they might lead. It’s also different from predicting—which, as any real futurist will tell you, is nearly impossible.

“We can’t predict what the future will be,” admits Professor Oliver Markley, 61, who has been affiliated with the program since 1978 and who is the principal investigator at the Institute for Futures Research, the program’s research arm. “But we know it will be different from the present. We want students to ask themselves, ‘Since I don’t know what’s going to happen, what competencies will make me as flexible as possible?’”

UHCL has been helping students improve their future flexibility since the program was founded, in 1975. The university offers the country’s only master of science degree in “studies of the future,” and the program attracts students from throughout the United States and from as far away as Pakistan, Sweden, and China. Students can take classes full-time, part-time, or during intensive six-week summer sessions. Classes include a lively mix of undergraduates, grad students, and businesspeople—among them, employees from such companies as American Express, Coca-Cola, and Texaco.

Students learn about the future of marketing, the future of the environment, even the history of the future. But for Sepulveda, a Chilean entrepreneur, and for Seay and Skinner, who are both master’s students in human-resources management, the most compelling topic is their future. They’re enrolled in a course called “The Changing Future: A Personal and Professional Approach.” It might better be called “How to Be Your Own Futurist.”

The course is mostly social science, with a dash of self-help. In each class, students share “hits” from their “scan journals,” which record intriguing or unusual information that they’ve culled from magazines and Web sites.

Students also do an exercise that involves completing the phrase “It Could Never Happen That . . . .” According to one student, for example, it could never happen that world hunger would be eliminated, or that she would become vice president of R&D;for a major food company. (The next step, of course, is to imagine how these scenarios might actually come to pass.)

The goal of these and other assignments, says Markley, is for students to develop 360-degree vision—which means paying attention to STEEP (social, technological, economic, ecological, and political) trends.

Those trends can lead to a wide variety of outcomes, and partly for that reason, people are often reluctant to envision the future. But they shouldn’t avoid that challenge, says Schultz. Thinking about the future is the first step toward creating it, for organizations as well as individuals, she argues: “Imagine a company where everyone is asking, What if? Imagine what a lively, dynamic place that would be.”

You can visit the Institute for Futures Research on the Web http://www.cl.uh.edu/futureweb

And that link again:

http://www.cl.uh.edu/futureweb

Oliver W. Markley , Professor
University of Houston Clear-Lake
Houston, Texas USA

Listed thusly on the Millenium Project credits:
http://www.acunu.org/millennium/sof/app-d.html

A lot of heavies in there.

Official site:
http://www.acunu.org/millennium/

Check their sponsors:
http://www.acunu.org/millennium/affil.html

Also check out their “Executive Study on the State of the Future”, if you’re into that sort of thing...it’s only 9 pages.
http://www.acunu.org/millennium/sof2007-exec-summ.pdf

http://tinyurl.com/2p6wyo
Oliver W. Markley “My Work With Nature Spirits”—if you wanted to prove that the dude was a practicing ritual occultist, you wouldn’t need much more than this.

You can do consulting work with Oliver:
http://www.inwardboundvisioning.com/

Oliver Markley is a wonderfully gifted and intelligent facilitator who assisted me in healing hidden unresolved issues… He reads energy very well… He comes from the heart.
Carolyn Chew, R.N.

And his copy of Changing Images 2000:
http://www.owmarkley.org/inward/Docs/Changing Images 2000.pdf