Spontaneous Remission of the Violence Pandemic

A Peace Conversion Plan for Hiroshima Day 2025

Hiroshima, August 6, 2025 – On the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the world is once again called to remember — and to act. Survivors of the bomb, the hibakusha, continue to call out: “Never again.” Yet, their voices echo into a world that seems deafened by new wars, rising authoritarianism, and climate-fueled instability.

In response we developed a visionary peace plan first published here under the title “Spontaneous Remission of the Violence Pandemic.” It proposes a new yet powerful approach:

to understand war and systemic violence as a kind of civilizational illness

— a socially contagious disease that can, under certain conditions, experience remission or even healing. What if we treated violence like a pandemic, not just morally but epidemiologically?

This plan reframes peace as more than the absence of war. It presents peace as the restoration of global health, made possible by activating the collective immune systems of humanity—our culture, our conscience, and our capacity for change.

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Violence as a Social Pandemic

The peace plan’s metaphor is striking: violence behaves like a socially transmitted virus. It spreads through hate, ideology, dehumanization, and the arms trade. It is carried by “superspreaders”—extremists, weapons exporters, populists, and propaganda outlets. It thrives in vulnerable hosts: fragile states, traumatized societies, militarized institutions.

Like a pandemic, war can appear suddenly and spread uncontrollably. But like a virus, it can also recede—sometimes unexpectedly. Peace, then, is not just a product of treaties and weapons balances. It is the result of cultural, psychological, ecological, and political immunity.

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Nine Social Healing Factors

Inspired by Dr. Kelly Turner’s research on radical remissions in terminal cancer patients, the peace plan translates her healing factors into nine collective pathways for the spontaneous remission of war:

1. Will to survive – A collective longing for peace and planetary life.
2. Responsibility – Empowering citizens and communities to take responsibility for peace.
3. Intuition – Reviving deep wisdom traditions, including indigenous and spiritual insights.
4. Emotional release – Truth-telling, trauma healing, forgiveness, and reconciliation.
5. Social support – Building global peace networks across cultures and generations.
6. Positive emotions – Spreading hope, humor, joy, music, and vision.
7. Spiritual connection – Cultivating meaning beyond materialism and dominance.
8. Radical lifestyle change – Converting military and extractive economies into sustainable, life-affirming systems.
9. Strengthening immunity – Enhancing democracy, media literacy, diplomacy, and international law.

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The Roadmap: From Insight to System Change (2025–2045)

The peace conversion plan is structured in three phases:

Phase 1: Consciousness Shift (2025–2030)

• Spread of Peace Literacy in schools, media, and community spaces
• Launch of peace journalism platforms as alternatives to militaristic narratives
• Pilot projects converting military budgets into peace and climate adaptation programs

Phase 2: Systemic Intervention (2030–2038)

• Redirection of at least 10% of global arms spending into UN peacebuilding
• Support for trauma-informed recovery in war-affected societies
• Establishment of demilitarized zones for education, reforestation, and healing

Phase 3: Structural Stabilization (2038–2045)

• Adoption of a Treaty to End War and enforcement of the UN Charter’s Article 1
• Abolition of veto power in the UN Security Council for transboundary threats (climate, war, pandemics)
• Global institutionalization of nonviolent conflict resolution mechanisms

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Monitoring Global Peace Health

To track the healing of our collective condition, the plan proposes the creation of a Peace Epidemiology Observatory. It would monitor peace-building indicators, early-warning signs of violence outbreaks, and collective resilience capacities. A new Global Peace Index+ would measure not only the absence of war, but the active presence of peace systems: education, equality, disarmament, dialogue.

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Hiroshima Day as a Turning Point

This plan was intentionally released on Hiroshima Day 2025—a date that marks one of humanity’s darkest hours. But also a moment of remembrance, resilience, and resistance. Today, Hiroshima has become a global peace symbol. It reminds us what is at stake—and what is possible.

The vision: that just as a single human body can experience an unexpected, radical healing—so can humanity.

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Global Call to Action

The plan calls on civil society, cities, educators, scientists, artists, and diplomats to join forces:

• Implement Peace Literacy programs at all levels of education
• Shift military budgets toward climate protection and disaster resilience
• Launch international trauma healing initiatives and truth commissions
• Build alliances such as Mayors for Peace and #thinkbig4peace
• Pressure states to end the arms trade and invest in diplomacy

This plan does not naively deny the reality of war. It boldly affirms that we are more than what we’ve inherited. We are capable of regenerating the systems we’ve built—and of organizing peace instead of organizing destruction.

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You want to go deeper or take action yourself?
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