Upaya Dharma Podcasts - The Perfection of Patience

Sensei Beate Stolte offers a nice teaching on patience, one of the paramitas.

The Perfection of Patience

Speaker: Sensei Beate Stolte
Recorded: Wednesday Oct 13, 2010

Sensei Beate opens by explaining the “paramitas,” or “perfections” in the context of the Buddha’s teachings, which are, in order: generosity, morality, patience, diligence, concentration and wisdom. She notes that patience is the antidote to anger and aggression, and that to practice patience, one must continually choose not to “hit back” but to take a step back, to allow one’s nerves to settle, and to come forward with understanding and spaciousness. She offers practical advice on how this may be accomplished, mentioning mindfulness of the body and the “hot” feeling we experience when triggered as the gateway to a deeper understanding of our anger and the road to sharing patience and courageousness with the world.

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Tags: Buddhism, patience, Upaya Zen Center, Dharma, Podcasts, The Perfection of Patience, Sensei Beate Stolte, paramitas, perfections, anger, aggression

Douglas LaBier - How the Common Good Is Transforming Our World

Douglas LaBier offers a follow-up post to his recent article about a rising social psychosis that's visible in three areas of our society - this one is more hopeful.

How the Common Good Is Transforming Our World

Douglas LaBier, Business psychologist and psychotherapist

Posted: October 17, 2010

In my previous post I wrote about a rising social psychosis that's visible in three areas of our society. It's likely to prevail for some time, but I think it's like a wave that's crested and will crash to the shore. The reason is that the social psychosis is a backlash against a steadily growing consciousness and behavior that refocuses personal lives and public policies towards promoting the common good.

By the "common good" I'm referring to a broad evolution beyond values and actions that serve narrow self-interest, and towards those guided by inclusiveness -- supporting well-being, economic success, security, human rights and stewardship of resources for the benefit of all, rather than just for some.

It's like a stealth operation, because it hasn't become highly visible yet. But polls, surveys and research data reveal several strands of change that are coalescing in this overall direction. I describe each of them below. They may appear to be unrelated, but I think they're driven by an underlying perspective that we're all like organs of the same body, and the body doesn't thrive if any of the organs is neglected or diseased.

It's an awareness of interconnection of all lives on this planet, and a pull towards acting upon that reality in a range of ways. They include rethinking personal relationships, the responsibility of business to society, and the role of government in an interdependent world.

A 21st-Century Mindset

The rise of the common good reflects a sense of global citizenship and an obligation to be a good ancestor to future generations who inhabit this planet. In fact, it embodies behavior and policies that fit the needs for effective functioning -- both personal and political -- in our post-9/11, post-economic meltdown world.

That is, in previous posts I've argued that this new era of unpredictable change in a non-equilibrium world requires new criteria for psychological health and resiliency, beyond just effective stress management and coping. Others have emphasized the new mindset that's needed for effective business and leadership strategies in this interconnected era.

For example, Matt Bai has described in the New York Times that "[n]ow we live in an integrated world where American jobs rely on the economic policies of governments in Asia or Latin America, while our security is subject to the whims of a cleric living in a cave," and, "[w]ith global interdependence comes a certain lack of control, a vulnerability to disparate influence."

Similarly, CUNY professor and blogger Jeff Jarvis refers to a "great restructuring of the economy and society, starting with a fundamental change in our relationships -- how we are linked and intertwined and how we act."

And Umair Haque writes in his Harvard Business School blog about the new principles of a new economy "built around stewardship, trusteeship, guardianship, leadership, partnership," adding that "[a]s interaction explodes, the costs of evil are starting to outweigh the benefits." In effect, transparency will become the antidote to evil.

Let's look at some of the seemingly disparate themes of the massive shift underway that has spawned the current social psychosis.

The New Norm of Racial-Ethnic Diversity

As you read these words, the country is becoming more diverse. Some demographers believe that 2010 could be the first year that most children born in the country will be non-white. Already, five states have a majority non-white population. New York Times columnist Charles Blow captured a slice of this at the time of the passage of health care legislation, writing that "[a] woman [Nancy Pelosi] pushed the health care bill through the House. The bill's most visible and vocal proponents included a gay man [Barney Frank] and a Jew [Anthony Weiner]. And the black man in the White House signed the bill into law. It's enough to make a good old boy go crazy."

Nearly 20 percent of counties in the U.S. have, or are close to, a nonwhite majority. This shift is steadily changing the social landscape. The trend is towards movement in the direction of tolerance, acceptance and valuing -- rather than fearing or hating -- the increasingly diverse composition of American society. And that includes the rising numbers of those with multi-racial/ethnic backgrounds. Moreover, research finds that the latter group tends to be open-minded and more oriented to inclusiveness and openness.

Volunteer Service

Data show that the number of volunteers is steadily growing among all age groups. During 2009, about 64 million Americans did volunteer work (defined as unpaid volunteer activities through an organization.) That's nearly 27 percent of the populations and reflects a steady year-by-year increase, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics report. And a rapid rise of volunteerism has occurred in the last decade among men and women in their 30s and 40s. Today, people describe volunteerism as part of their sense of responsibility to help others in need, not something for padding their resume.

Donations of Organs by Living Donors to Strangers

That number is steadily rising. For example, kidney donations from living donors have outnumbered those from deceased donors since 2003. Some states, such as Wisconsin, offer tax deductions for expenses related to living organ donations.

Hands-On Philanthropy

This trend is towards wanting contributions to have visible, direct impact upon people's lives. More are turning away from writing checks to well-heeled organizations like universities or cultural centers. This trend is visible among venture capitalists who bring a high-impact perspective to venture philanthropy as well as among average citizens, who increasingly contribute to international organizations that help people become more self-sufficient in daily life -- for example, through micro finance (providing small loans to individuals starting businesses in impoverished countries), or purchasing a goat for a family that relies on small farming for their livelihood, or paying the salary of a schoolteacher in an impoverished part of the world.

Responsibility for a Healthy Planet

Despite the continued denial of the reality of climate change and the human contributions to it by the GOP, a denial unmatched among major political parties around the globe, pressure continues to build, both politically and on a grassroots level, for actions that reverse or halt climate change and promote sustainable living. Among the latter are groups like 350.org, the Alliance for Climate Protection and community alliances of citizens, businesses and government such as Bethesda Green, in Bethesda, Md. This trend is underscored by the steadily rising financial contributions to environmental organizations.

Support For Human Rights

Data show a steady increase of both financial contributions to and membership in such organizations as Human Rights Watch, Save the Children, Amnesty International, Mercy Corps International and others. Even in the absence of effective action, consciousness continues to build around the perspective that violations of rights to safety, dignity and personal freedom for another -- anywhere in the world -- affect oneself, as well. In addition, the view of security and human rights is expanding to include not only freedom from violence and terrorism, but also the rights to health care, support of older citizens, rights to adequate housing, food, fair wages and other conditions. A recent U.N. report examines these issues with respect to responsibilities and actions of member nations.

Personal Success

I've written previously that men and women increasingly want a "4.0 career": one that provides more than personal recognition, power and financial reward. They want meaningful work, opportunities for continued learning and growth, a positive management culture and a team-oriented, ethical environment. They want to have impact on something larger than just their own personal success. These themes are especially pronounced among younger workers.

The Social Impact of Business

Business leaders have already bought into the need for sustainability, and many are contributing to the rise of a new business model, one that addresses social problems and serves the common good as well as achieving financial success. The "green business" movement reflects this shift, along with the concept of the "triple bottom line." Related trends include sustainable investing, social entrepreneurialism, corporate social responsibility, building a psychologically healthy management culture, and transparency via open access to information and corporate disclosure policies.

Acceptance of Gay Relationships and Gay Marriage

Acceptance of gay relationships has steadily increased, while opposition to gay marriage has steadily decreased, when tracked over the last several years, according to data from the Pew Research Center. Between one-quarter and one-third of gay and lesbian couples are raising children, a steadily rising number. And the most current surveys indicate that about half of all Americans support gay marriage.

Families And Relationships Are Transforming
A majority of Americans now say their definition of family includes same-sex couples with children, as well as married gay and lesbian couples. Regarding intimate relationships, surveys by the Gallup organization and other groups find that the quality of the relationship is more important to people today than simple allegiance to the institution of marriage. Census statistics and other data confirm this, showing, for example, a steady decline in the marriage rate over the last several decades, while cohabitation has steadily risen in each of those same decades. About half of all households today are headed by people who are single. And unmarried couples are as likely as married couples to be raising children: it's currently approaching 50 percent.

Some surveys report that at least 30 percent of those polled admit to having had an affair. Whether that's accurate or not, the upshot is that affairs are no longer viewed as immoral in today's culture. Moreover, attitudes towards prostitution are also shifting towards greater acceptance and focus on the rights of sex workers.

So, these are just some of the pervasive shifts underway. My read is that they link around an underlying theme that our culture is evolving in both consciousness and action, and that evolution will grow and strengthen over time. That's why the current social psychosis will fade. That's not only hopeful but important: The rise of the common good is both a necessary path for survival and security on an interdependent planet and the path towards personal psychological health, success and well being in this new world era.

Douglas LaBier, Ph.D., a business psychologist and psychotherapist, is Director of the Center for Progressive Development, in Washington, D.C. You may contact him at dlabier@CenterProgressive.org.

Follow Douglas LaBier on Twitter: www.twitter.com/douglaslabier

Tags: Douglas LaBier, How the Common Good Is Transforming Our World, Huffington Post, culture, values, society, interconnected, diversity, volunteering, organ donors, philanthropy, environment, human rights, success, gay rights, families

Paleo Diet for Heart Patients With Diabetes and Prediabetes

More support for the Paleo Diet - for treating pre-diabetes and diabetes - this comes from a while ago (2007), but the author follows up with a more recent study (2009). This comes via the Diabetic Mediterranean Diet Blog.

Good results: Glucose control improved by 26% in the paleo group compared to 7% in the consensus group (the consensus/control group ate a Mediterranean-style diet, so this is a significant result in my opinion).

Paleo Diet for Heart Patients With Diabetes and Prediabetes

A Paleolithic diet lowered blood sugar levels better than a control diet in coronary heart disease patients with elevated blood sugars, according to Swedish researchers reporting in 2007.

By Steve Parker, M.D.

About half of patients with coronary heart disease have abnormal glucose (blood sugar) metabolism. Lindeberg and associates wondered if a Paleolithic diet (aka “Old Stone Age,” “caveman,” or ancestral human diet) would lead to improved blood sugar levels in heart patients, compared to healthy, Mediterranean-style, Western diet.

Methodology

Investigators at the University of Lund found enrolled 38 male heart patients—average age 61—patients and randomized them to either a paleo diet or a “consensus” (Mediterranean-like) diet to be followed for 12 weeks. Average weight was 94 kg. Nine participants dropped out before completing the study, so results are based on 29 participants. All subjects had either prediabetes or type 2 diabetes (the majority) but none were taking medications to lower blood sugar. Baseline hemoglobin A1c’s were around 4.8%. Average fasting blood sugar was 125 mg/dl (6.9 mmol/l); average sugar two hours after 75 g of oral glucose was 160 mg/dl (8.9 mmol/l).

The paleo diet was based on lean meat, fish, fruits, leafy and cruciferous vegetables, root vegetables (potatoes limited to two or fewer medium-sized per day), eggs, and nuts (no grains, rice, dairy products, salt, or refined fats and sugar).

The Mediterranean-like diet focused on low-fat dairy, whole grains, vegetables, fruits, potatoes, fatty fish, oils and margarines rich in monounsaturated fatty acids and alpha-linolenic acid.

Both groups were allowed up to one glass of wine daily.

No effort was made to restrict total caloric intake with a goal of weight loss.

Results

Absolute carbohydrate consumption was 43% lower in the paleo group (134 g versus 231 g), and 23% lower in terms of total calorie consumption (40% versus 52%). Glycemic load was 47% lower in the paleo group (65 versus 122), mostly reflecting lack of cereal grains.

The paleo group ate significantly more nuts, fruit, and vegetables. The Mediterranean group ate significantly more cereal grains, oil, margarine, and dairy products.

Glucose control improved by 26% in the paleo group compared to 7% in the consensus group. The improvement was statisically significant only in the paleo group. The researchers believe the improvement was independent of energy consumption, glycemic load, and dietary carb/protein/fat percentages.

High fruit consumption in the paleo group (493 g versus 252 g daily) didn’t seem to impair glucose tolerance.

Hemoglobin A1c’s did not change or differ significantly between the groups.

Neither group showed a change in insulin sensitivity (HOMA-IR method).

Comments

The authors’ bottom line:

In conclusion, we found marked improvement of glucose tolerance in ischemic heart disease patients with increased blood glucose or diabetes after advice to follow a Palaeolithic [sic] diet compared with a healthy Western diet. The larger improvement of glucose tolerance in the Palaeolithic group was independent of energy intake and macronutrient composition, which suggests that avoiding Western foods is more important than counting calories, fat, carbohydrate or protein. The study adds to the notion that healthy diets based on whole-grain cereals and low-fat dairy products are only the second best choice in the prevention and treatment of type 2 diabetes.

This was a small study; I consider it a promising pilot. Results apply to men only, and perhaps only to Swedish men. I have no reason to think they wouldn’t apply to women, too. Who knows about other ethnic groups?

There's more - go read the rest.

Tags: Diabetic Mediterranean Diet Blog, diabetes, nutrition, Health, paleo diet, Heart Patients With Diabetes, Prediabetes, ischemic heart disease patients, lower, blood sugar, glucose control, Steve Parker, M.D., Mediterranean diet

Integral Theory in Action: Applied, Theoretical, and Constructive Perspectives on the AQAL Model (Suny Series in Integral Theory)

[FTC Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher
with no expectation of a positive review.]

SUNY Series in Integral Theory
Integral Theory in Action: Applied, Theoretical, and Constructive Perspectives on the AQAL Model
Edited by Sean Esbjorn-Hargins, forward by Roger Walsh, afterword by Ken Wilber
Paper, 457 pages, $29.95
Published: August, 2010

As an attendee of the 2010 Integral Theory Conference, I had access to all (well, most) of the lectures, papers, and presentations from the weekend. However, only 500 or so people could attend, which leaves a lot of others who would enjoy reading the papers.

I missed the 2008 conference, the first one - but now I can read 16 or so of the finest papers from 2008 in the new book from the SUNY Series in Integral Theory: Integral Theory in Action: Applied, Theoretical, and Constructive Perspectives on the AQAL Model. The volume is edited by Sean Esbjorn-Hargins, with a forward by Roger Walsh and an afterword by Ken Wilber.

Admittedly, I have seen several of these papers before - they have been passed around the integral community by attendees. Among those I had already seen (maybe a recommendation of their impact?):

Clint Fuhs: An Integral Map of Perspective Taking
Susanne Cook-Greuter: Second-Tier Gains and Challenges in Ego Development

I think I had also seen Elliott Ingersoll's An Integral Understanding of the Etiology of Depression, though I am not sure. By the way, Ingersoll, with co-author David Zeitler, has a new book on Integral Psychotherapy (also from the SUNY Integral series) that I will be reviewing here soon.

One paper that I had never seen before blew me away and sent me out on a book search for the original sources he had referenced. That paper was by Sam Mickey: Rhizomatic Contributions to Integral Ecology in Deleuze and Guattari.

Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari wrote an excellent book called A thousand plateaus: Capitalism and schizophrenia in which they outline a view of history and culture that is rhizomic:

As a model for culture, the rhizome resists the organizational structure of the root-tree system which charts causality along chronological lines and looks for the originary source of "things" and looks towards the pinnacle or conclusion of those "things." "A rhizome, on the other hand, "ceaselessly established connections between semiotic chains, organizations of power, and circumstances relative to the arts, sciences, and social struggles." Rather than narrativize history and culture, the rhizome presents history and culture as a map or wide array of attractions and influences with no specific origin or genesis, for a "rhizome has no beginning or end; it is always in the middle, between things, interbeing, intermezzo." The planar movement of the rhizome resists chronology and organization, instead favoring a nomadic system of growth and propagation. In this model, culture spreads like the surface of a body of water, spreading towards available spaces or trickling downwards towards new spaces through fissures and gaps, eroding what is in its way. The surface can be interrupted and moved, but these disturbances leave no trace, as the water is charged with pressure and potential to always seek its equilibrium, and thereby establish smooth space.^[1]

In his paper, Mickey uses this model, which is ecological in its nature, to help delineate his perspective on integral ecology. The paper is great on its own merits, but I was particularly grateful for the introduction to the rhizome model.

Mark Edward's paper - Of Elephants and Butterflies: An Integral Metatheory for Organization Transformation - is also excellent. In this piece, he lays out the process he developed in trying to research and organize his PhD dissertation on constructing an integral metatheory, including how it can be applied to organization transformation.

He looks at several existing models of metatheoretical framework construction - metatriangulation (Lewis & Grimes), multiparadigm inquiry (Lewis & Kelemen), metatheorizing (Ritzer; Colomy), and traditional theory building (Wacker).

In his review work, he identified 24 integral lenses for identifying the processes of organization transformations. He then grouped these 24 into 6 categories:

1. Holarchical; 2. Bipolar; 3. Cyclical; 4. Relational; 5. Standpoints; and 6. Multiparadigm or Multimorphic.

You'll have to read the essay to learn more - this is good stuff and very relevant for anyone working with organizational development and transformation.

Other excellent essays:

• Sean Esbjorn-Hargins provides a nice intro to integral theory
• Theresa Silow on embodiment
• Vanessa Fisher on beauty and female identity
• Zach Stein on development differences in understanding integral theory
• William Torbert, Ruet Livne-Tarandach, David McCallum, Aliki Nicolaides, and Elaine Herdman-Barker on "Developmental Action Inquiry"

This is an excellent collection - at nearly 450 pages, I'm sure that Sean had to leave some deserving works out of the book. But this is a great introduction to the use of integral theory, the model in practice.

Some may object that there are no papers critical of integral theory or seriously trying to revision the model, but that is not the point of this volume - Sean has a volume in the works that is focused on criticism and revision, so we simply need to be patient - the current volume is designed to show the many ways integral theory is being applied (a theme I think was continued in 2010). I look forward to seeing the collection that will emerge from the most recent conference.

Tags: Integral, books, reviews, Philosophy, Psychology, Integral Theory in Action, Applied, Theoretical, Constructive Perspectives, AQAL Model, essays, Sean Esbjorn-Hargins, Roger Walsh, Ken Wilber, Integral Theory Conference, 2008, papers, SUNY Series in Integral Theory

NIH - Identifying and Characterizing Individual Concepts from their fMRI Signatures: From Concrete Nouns to Numbers to Social Interactions

Can we really pinpoint specific brain locations active in specific brain activities? Marcel Just, PhD, of Carnegie Mellon University, thinks he can, and here he lectures on his efforts to do so. This is part of the NIH Neuroscience Seminar Series.

.NIH - Identifying and Characterizing Individual Concepts from their fMRI Signatures: From Concrete Nouns to Numbers to Social Interactions

Air date: Monday, October 18, 2010, 12:00:00 PM
Time displayed is Eastern Time, Washington DC Local
Category: Neuroscience

Description: Dr. Just's research examines a variety of "understanding" processes involving visual thinking, language comprehension and problem-solving processes. To find out what goes on in a person's mind during such thinking, their lab uses several methodologies, such as functional brain imaging, reaction time studies, verbal protocol analysis, and eye movement monitoring during comprehension and visual thinking. The experiments determine the nature of the on-line psychological processes that occur during understanding and thinking. The research examines the thinking of both normal subjects as well as patients with brain damage, to determine the organization of the underlying cognitive mechanisms. The various performance measures are used to construct theoretical models, often expressed in computational terms, that perform the same task and exhibit similar performance characteristics as human subjects.

The specific topics that their research addresses include sentence and text comprehension, coordinated comprehension of text and diagrams, and the role of working memory in comprehension and problem-solving, mental kinematics and mental models of dynamic events. In addition to studying various kinds of understanding, they also examine why individuals differ in the strategies and cognitive resources that they bring to bear on a task, attempting to explain why some people are better thinkers than others. Since early 1995, they have been using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study sentence comprehension and spatial thinking. The early part of this work has not only found the network of brain areas that become active during various language and visual tasks, but has also begun to relate the amount of brain activity to the amount of cognitive processing. fMRI research has become another tool for addressing the nature of understanding (linguistic and visual), directly assessing brain function during task performance.

NIH Neuroscience Seminar Series
Author: Marcel Just, PhD, Carnegie Mellon University
Runtime: 01:11:56
Download: Download Video
How to download a Videocast
Permanent link: http://videocast.nih.gov/launch.asp?16201

Watch or download at the NIH site.

Tags: brain, mind, language, perception, cognition, Marcel Just, NIH Neuroscience Seminar Series, National Institutes of Health, functional magnetic resonance imaging, fMRI, Identifying, Characterizing, Individual Concepts, fMRI Signatures, Concrete Nouns, Numbers, Social Interactions

TED Talks - Heribert Watzke: The brain in your gut

Cool - I am a supporter of the idea that the mind if body-based (and culturally and environmentally based for that matter), so any discussion of the enteric nervous system is cool with me. On the other hand, he works for Nestle, so he's suspect.

Heribert Watzke: The brain in your gut

Did you know you have functioning neurons in your intestines -- about a hundred million of them? Food scientist Heribert Watzke tells us about the "hidden brain" in our gut and the surprising things it makes us feel.

Why you should listen to him:

Heribert Watzke set up the department of food material science at Nestlé in Switzerland, pulling together many disciplines, including chemistry, nutrition and neuroscience, in pursuit of ever better foods. Watzke's background is in chemistry -- in the mid-'80s, he was part of a groundbreaking team at Syracuse working on splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen to create alternative energy -- before moving to materials science.

At Nestlé's lab, Watzke focuses on the most basic form of human energy: the chemistry of food. Research on food has previously focused on its sensory qualities -- taste, aroma, texture. But there is much more to know. How does food's biological structure determine its quality, its digestibility, its nutritional qualities? What's the science of turning a biological structure (for instance, a kernel of grain) into something humans can make into pure energy (for instance, a slice of bread)? His team has been looking recently at the impact of food structure on fat digestion, in support of the fight against obesity. How much fat is needed to feel full? And how can we most effectively communicate with the 100 million neurons in our gut?

Tags: TED Talks, Heribert Watzke, The brain in your gut, enteric nervous system, mind, Nestle, neurons, neurotransmitters, chemistry, food, taste, obesity, body, consciousness, food

Germany's Failed Multiculturalism? What's Next?

There are about seven million foreign residents living in Germany.
Some 4.3 million of these are Muslim and there are more than 3,000 mosques across Germany.

Has multiculturalism really failed in Germany (and by extension, much of Western Europe), or is Germany's conservative Christian government no longer willing to pretend it is tolerant?

Why am I reminded of the cliche, "Those who do not remember the past . . . ." A poll suggests that 13% of Germans would welcome a new Fuhrer.

And why does this remind of the immigration issues we face in this country? In Europe they have allowed immigration with an open boarder policy, and we have not. Either way, when things get tough, we blame the immigrants, not the politicians who created the mess.

First, a report from The Daily Mail (UK) - a couple of her most alarming comments are in bold, then an interview with Slavoj Žižek from Democracy Now!

Mrs Merkel said the so-called ‘multikulti’ concept – ‘that we are now living side by side and are happy about it’ – does not work. ‘This approach has failed, utterly,’ she said just days after a poll showed a third of all Germans viewed immigrants as nothing more than welfare cheats.

Addressing fears of ‘German-ness’ being lost amid new mosques, headscarves in classrooms and Turkish ghettos in cities like Berlin, she added: ‘We feel bound to the Christian image of humanity – that is what defines us. Those who do not accept this are in the wrong place here.’

Mrs Merkel joined leading political and business leaders who have questioned immigration policies in recent months.

Bundesbank board member Thilo Sarrazin recently moved the debate centre-stage when he wrote a book that said the country’s four million Muslims were ‘dumbing down’ society and that the national Christian identity of Germans was in danger of being lost.

A poll taken after his book was published showed that one fifth of all Germans would vote for a party headed by Mr Sarrazin if he chose to form one.

Against that backdrop, Mrs Merkel – with her own and her CDU conservative party ratings in the gutter – has chosen finally to speak out.

Until now, mindful of the German legacy of World War II and atonement for racial policies responsible for the deaths of millions, German politicians since 1945 have tended only to speak in broad positive terms of the ‘multikulti’ society.

Germany began to evolve into a country of immigration in the 1960s when Turks and others arrived to fill the labour vacuum left by the nation’s war dead.

Mrs Merkel addressed this in her speech saying: ‘At the beginning of the 60s our country called the foreign workers to come to Germany and now they live in our country. We kidded ourselves a while, we said: “They won’t stay, sometime they will be gone.” But this isn’t reality.’

She tempered her comments by insisting that Germany still welcomed immigrants – particularly the skilled ones it needs for its export-driven economy – and echoed recent comments made by the country’s president that Islam was ‘part of Germany’, like Christianity and Judaism.

But Mrs Merkel also added that those who did come must adapt, and learn German ‘as quickly as possible’.

The ratcheting up in the political tone, allied as it is with the fears of the population about unemployment and loss of identity, triggered a sharp warning from Jewish leaders in Germany that democracy is under threat.

Stephan Kramer, of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said yesterday that the current debate on immigration was making people feel ‘uneasy and scared’.

He also referred to a study by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, which showed that more than a third of those surveyed thought Germany was being ‘over-run by foreigners’ and that more than one in ten called for a ‘fuehrer’ to run the country ‘with a strong hand’.

I don't think I'm misreading this in hearing her say: Learn to speak German and live by our (my) Christian values or leave Germany, now.

Ethnocentric much?

I understand that they are dealing with some serious economic and cultural issues, but is it ALWAYS the "other" who gets blamed? OK, that's a rhetorical question. When human beings face crisis they fall back to older, safer positions. However, with German history as a guide, the world community needs to keep an eye on this.

One of the people keeping any eye on this issue is the rock-star philosopher, Slavoj Žižek.

Zizek recently wrote for the Guardian UK:

Liberal multiculturalism masks an old barbarism with a human face. Across Europe, the politics of the far right is infecting us all with the need for a 'reasonable' anti-immigration policy.
___

Recent electoral results in the west as well as in the east signal the gradual emergence of a different polarity. There is now one predominant centrist party that stands for global capitalism, usually with a liberal cultural agenda (for example, tolerance towards abortion, gay rights, religious and ethnic minorities). Opposing this party is an increasingly strong anti-immigrant populist party which, on its fringes, is accompanied by overtly racist neofascist groups. The best example of this is Poland where, after the disappearance of the ex-communists, the main parties are the "anti-ideological" centrist liberal party of the prime minister Donald Tusk and the conservative Christian Law and Justice party of the Kaczynski brothers. Similar tendencies are discernible in the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Hungary. How did we get here?

He has a unique and controversial perspective. He considers himself a liberal/leftist, which is not something Americans have much experience with.

Slavoj Zizek: Far Right and Anti-Immigrant Politicians on the Rise in Europe

We turn now to Europe, where many are concerned about the growing acceptability of anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies. Far from just being expressed by the extreme right wing, the anti-immigrant trend has entered the mainstream. German Chancellor Angela Merkel told a gathering of young members of her conservative Christian Democratic Union party this weekend that multiculturalism has utterly failed. A recent German poll found 13 percent of Germans would welcome the arrival of a new "Führer," and more than a third of Germans feel the country is "overrun by foreigners." We speak to the world-renowned philosopher Slavoj Zizek, who has the been called "the Elvis of cultural theory." [includes rush transcript]

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Guest:

Slavoj Zizek, Slovenian philosopher, psychoanalyst and cultural theorist. He is author of dozens of books, his latest one from Verso Books is called Living in the End Times.

Rush Transcript

AMY GOODMAN: We turn now to Europe, where many are concerned about the growing acceptability of anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies. Far from just being expressed by the extreme right, the anti-immigrant trend has entered the mainstream. German Chancellor Angela Merkel told a gathering of young members of her conservative Christian Democratic Union party this weekend that multiculturalism has utterly failed.

CHANCELLOR ANGELA MERKEL: [translated] In Frankfurt, on the main, two out of three children under the age of five have an immigrant background. We are a country which, at the beginning of the 1960s, actually brought guest workers to Germany. Now they live with us, and we lied to ourselves for a while, saying that they won’t stay and that they will disappear one day. That’s not the reality. This multicultural approach, saying that we simply live side by side and are happy about each other, this approach has failed, utterly failed.

AMY GOODMAN: The German chancellor later added immigrants were welcome in Germany and that Islam is a part of the nation’s modern-day culture. Her comments are seen as part of a rightward shift and come just days after a study by the center-left Friedrich Ebert Foundation found that more than 30 percent of people believe Germany is, quote, "overrun by foreigners." A similar number believed immigrants had come to Germany for its social benefits and, quote, "should be sent home when jobs are scarce." Earlier this year, a book by an influential bank executive in Germany created an uproar, because it blamed the decline of German nationhood on the alleged failure of many immigrants to integrate.

As the debates rage on in Europe, I’m joined here in New York by a controversial public intellectual who’s been called "the Elvis of cultural theory." Yes, I’m talking about the Slovenian philosopher and critic Slavoj Žižek. He’s the author of over thirty books. His latest, from Verso, is just out, and it’s called Living in the End Times. In a recent piece for The Guardian newspaper of London, he argues that "across Europe, the politics of the far right is infecting [everyone] with the need for a 'reasonable' anti-immigration policy."

Well, Slavoj Žižek, welcome to Democracy Now!

SLAVOJ ŽIŽEK: Glad to be here. Thank you.

AMY GOODMAN: Put everything together for us, from Angela Merkel talking about the end of multiculturalism—even what that means, "multiculturalism"—to the mass protests that are taking place in France and beyond.

SLAVOJ ŽIŽEK: I really think that usually we Europeans are a little bit arrogant, like we are the model of tolerance and so on. Now something horrible has happened, and what is really worrying is that it’s not only the countries, the parts of Europe, that we usually associate with intolerance, like southeastern Europe, Romania, Hungary and so on, it’s even the very models of tolerance—Netherlands, Norway and so on.

What really worries me is—I will say something very simple, almost commonsensical, that, you know, for me, I’m here always for censorship. Through democracy, tolerance, in an authentic sense, means that you simply cannot say certain things publicly. You are considered—you know, like if you say publicly an anti-Semitic, sexist joke, it’s unacceptable. Things which were unacceptable ten, fifteen years ago are now acceptable. And what I really am worried about is how the far right, what was twenty years ago the domain of the far right, is setting—even if they are a minority, they are setting the general agenda.

The typical rhetorical trick here is in two moves. First, you of course condemn the far right—"no place in our developed democracy." But then you add, "But they are addressing the real worries of the people," and so on and so on. So, in precisely—that’s the dirty sophistic trick—in order to prevent hatred outbursts, we have to control the situation. You know what is significant about Sarrazin, the banker, that you mentioned? You know that he was politically close to social democracy.

AMY GOODMAN: Which means?

SLAVOJ ŽIŽEK: Which means that they—really, the extreme right imposed their topic onto everyone. But let me tell you now something which may surprise you. I, of course, don’t accept this horrible logic—we have to do it more modestly to prevent real outbursts—but I think there is a failure in this standard, liberal, multicultural vision, which means every ethnic group, whatever, to itself, all we need is a neutral legal framework guaranteeing the coexistence of groups. Sorry if I shock someone, but I think we do need what Germans call Leitkultur, leading culture. Just it shouldn’t be nationally defined. We should fight for that. Yes, I agree with right-wingers. We need a set of values accepted by all. But what will these values be, my god? We neglected this a little bit. You know that it’s not just this abstract liberal model: you have your world, I have my world, we just need a neutral legal network—how we will politely ignore each other.

My second point would have been that it’s absolutely crucial how this anti-immigrant explosion is linked to the withdrawal of leftist politics, especially in the matters of economy and so on. It is as if the left, being obsessed by the idea that we shouldn’t appear as reactionary in the economic sense, that is to say that "No, no, no, we are not the old trade union representatives of the working class, we are for postmodern digital capitalism" and so on. They don’t want to touch the working class or so-called lower ordinary people. And here right-wingers enter. Do you know, the horrible paradox is that, apart from some small leftist fringe parties, the only serious political force in Europe today which still is ready to appeal to the ordinary working people are the right-wing anti-immigrants? So you see, we, the leftists, we have no right, absolutely no right, to take this arrogant view of offended tolerant people who are horrored—no, we should ask the question, how we enabled what is going on.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to ask you about this Christian Science Monitor poll that showed 13 percent of Germans would welcome the arrival of a new Führer. More than a third of Germans feel the country is "overrun by foreigners." Roughly 60 percent would restrict the practice of Islam, and 17 percent believe Jews have too much influence. Thirteen percent would welcome the arrival of a new Führer.

SLAVOJ ŽIŽEK: I think—now again, I will maybe shock you, but, you know, don’t exaggerate the meaning of this. No, no, I think that—OK, my first thesis, that Germany—and this makes it all the more tragic—from my personal experience, Germany is, for example, far more effectively, in everyday life, tolerant than France, for example, I claim with all responsibility. It’s not as general as it may appear. Go to mixed part of ex-West Berlin and so on, you will still see wonderful collaboration. Don’t worry about this. What I’m just saying is that we shouldn’t get too fascinated by these details.

We should ask more fundamental questions, like this is, for me, only part of a general shift, which I mention in the text you kindly referred to, how the whole political mapping of Europe is changing in a horrible way. To cut a long story short, very briefly, 'til now, we had the standard situation that you also have it up ’til now here: one big left-of-center party, one big right-of-center party—they are the only two parties which address the entire population—and then small fringe parties. Now, more and more in Europe, another polarity is emerging: a big liberal capitalist party, which can even be in social matters like abortion, women's rights, relatively progressive—pure, let’s call it, capitalist party—and the only serious opposition is the immigrant—anti-immigrant nationalists. It’s something horrible that has happened. The anti-immigrants are establishing themselves as the only authentic—of course, they are not authentic politically, but in the sense of really experienced as authentic—voice of protest. If you want to protest, the only way to do it effectively in Europe is this. So I think it’s a matter of life and death for a slightly more radical left to emerge.

You know what? Walter Benjamin, the great Frankfurt School fellow [inaudible], he said something which we should always bear in mind today. He said, "Behind every fascism, there is a failed revolution." It goes, more than ever, for us. Like, take—let’s take your own country, Kansas, which is now the bedrock of Christian fundamentalism. As Thomas Frank demonstrated in his book, my god, 'til twenty, thirty years ago, Kansas was the breeding ground of all radical socialist, and so on, mass movements. The same in Europe. This should worry us, not this arrogant—which always has a negative class connotation. When people attack common people's racism, it’s always like we upper-middle-class liberals dismissing ordinary people. We should start asking ourselves what we did wrong.

AMY GOODMAN: And as you come here to the United States, your assessment of the Tea Party movement?

SLAVOJ ŽIŽEK: It’s a perfect example of what I was talking about. I had almost—I use the terms a little bit ironically, but nonetheless—a kind of epiphany moment when, a year ago or so, when they organized, grassroot Republicans, all those—the first wake of tea parties against spending so much money for banks. You know what I was doing? I was sitting in a hotel room, jumping between two channels on TV. One was Fox News—you must know the enemy to fight it. The other one was PBS. On Fox News, it was a live transmission of a tea party in Texas where a singer, kind of a fake folk singer, was singing anti-Washington, anti-state-expenditure song. On PBS, there was a documentary on the great leftist icon Pete Seeger. I was shocked at how the words, although the political meanings of it, were almost the same. Both were singing about we small, ordinary people are exploited; big bad guys, bankers in Washington, and so on, Wall Street, and so on. This is the tragedy. This is the tragedy at its purest.

You must know better than me. I don’t know whether—as far as I can judge the situation, it was after Carter, with Reagan, when this grassroots movement and so on were more taken over by the right, like, no, the time of left, leftist, radical mass mobilization has passed now. When somebody tells you, "Oh, tea party, oh, out of a local grassroot protest," your first assessation is, are right-wingers again doing it, or what? This is a very sad moment. But no reasons—I hope I made it clear—for traditional European America bashing. And this is, I think, part of a global process of what I call the disappearance of the—what philosophers like Kant called the public use of reason.

I listened with amazement and great pleasure to the report about how here in the States the universities, which are financed by taxpayers’ money, are more and more used by companies. In Europe, we are even worse. I’ll tell you why. Because they stated clearly the program in Europe. It’s not only this concrete problem—big companies controlling, through money donations, universities. It’s something more fundamental going on. It’s a well-organized, all-European campaign to turn us scientists, human or natural, into experts. The idea is, we have a problem—let’s say oil spill in Louisiana—oh, we need experts to tell us how to contain it. We have a public disorder, demonstrations; we need psychologists and so on. This is not thinking. What universities should do is not serve as experts to those in power who define the problems. We should redefine and question the problems themselves. Is this the right perception of the problem? Is this really the problem? We should ask much more fundamental questions.

Here, it may surprise you, but I still have sympathy for Obama. But in my view, one of his greatest failures is not Afghanistan. There, the situation is very complex. I don’t know what I would have done. It’s how he reacted to the oil spill. You know why? Because he played this legal, moralistic game, as if the—you know, like, I will kick—we know where—BP, they will make—sorry, but in a tragedy of these proportions, you cannot play this legalistic game who is guilty and so on. You should start asking more general questions. BP is evil, but are we aware that it may have happened also to another company? So the problem is not BP. The problems are much more general—the structure of our economy, why are we living like this, our way of life, and so on and so on. I think that this is the problem today. I’m saying this ironically as a leftist. We have maybe even too much anti-capitalism, but in this overload of anti-capitalism, but always in this legal, moralistic sense: ooh, that company is using child slave labor; ooh, that company is polluting; ooh, that company is—that company, whatever, is exploiting our universities. No, no, the problem is more fundamental. It’s about how the whole system works to make the companies do this. Don’t moralize the problem, because if you moralize it, you can say in the States whatever you want. Already in the movies like Pelican Brief, you remember, no problem, big company, even the president of the United States, can be corrupted. No, this excess of anti-capitalism is a false excess. We should start asking more fundamental questions.

AMY GOODMAN: Slavoj Žižek, your latest book, why did you call it Living in the End Times?

SLAVOJ ŽIŽEK: Of course, the point is to ironically refer or evoke this metaphor of doom, whatever, in 2012, we are approaching the end of times. And, of course, my point is not—I am not this kind of believer—oh, we have two years to live, then whatever will happen. But nonetheless, I think that at the whole—at different levels, we are approaching slowly—no panic yet—a kind of a zero point. In the sense of—let’s look at ecology. It is clear that when people tell me, "Oh, but you are utopian," I tell them, "No, the only true utopia is that things can go on like they do now indefinitely." And it’s very strange how we behave. On the one hand, we don’t really believe there will be a catastrophe. We are split. We know it. We admit it rationally. But then you go out, there is sun, the grass is green, can anything happen. At the same time—this is ideology of everyday life—to make our conscience clear, did you notice how we are blackmailed at this everyday level? "Oh, you threw that newspaper away. No, you should take—"

AMY GOODMAN: Ten seconds.

SLAVOJ ŽIŽEK: Yeah. So, what I’m claiming is that we are approaching a certain zero point. We have to act. If not, I don’t want to live in a society which will be here in twenty years, let us say.

AMY GOODMAN: Slavoj Žižek, I want to thank you for being with us, Slovenian philosopher, author of many books. His latest is just coming out now from Verso Books. It’s called Living in the End Times.

Tags: Slavoj Zizek, Far Right, Anti-Immigrant, Politicians, Europe, Germany, Islam, Democracy Now!, Amy Goodman, The Daily Mail, German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, conservative, Christian Democratic Union party, CDU, Muslims, multiculturalism, culture, ethnocentrism, Politics, economics, postmodernism, Friedrich Ebert Foundation

Paul Froese - Is Our Personal Image of God Stable or in Flux?

Wouldn't the answer to this question depend on the perspective and developmental stage of the person who believes? Of the two answers given, the 2nd (dynamic) approach seems most reasonable to me, though I am sure that some people are very static in their belief.

Is Our Personal Image of God Stable or in Flux?

Paul Froese answers.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

There are basically two opposing responses—both of which have merit. We know that longitudinal studies (those that follow individuals over a long period of time) tend to show that most people are pretty static in their religious beliefs and behaviors. In other words, people tend to stay within the religious tradition of their childhood and also tend to stick to certain basic religious attitudes throughout their lives. Unlike public opinion on contemporary issues—such as how you feel the president is doing on job creation, which can vary dramatically from day to day—religious indicators are reliably stable.

Of course, there are clear and often discussed exceptions. Religious conversions are interesting mainly because they are unusual. To completely swap or discard your religious worldview is a major development, and social science abounds with theories and studies attempting to explain these fascinating reversals. And there are a substantial number of people who drift away from their religious upbringing only to return when they have children. Young adults tend to eschew church for a number of reasons that are easily guessed. But more often than not, these individuals will again enter church doors with their neatly dressed children in tow and their minivans parked strategically for a quick exit.

But a second response is that a person's image of God can change by the minute. I say this mainly due to the fact that most believers have very complex and abstract ideas about their God, so that it would be easy in conversation to get someone to attribute a wide range of characteristics and dispositions to the divine. This is not to say that most believers are confused or insincere in their faith, but rather that the idea of God is so vast that it cannot be easily summed up by even the most devout believer. In sum, a person's relationship with God is dynamic.

We could compare a believer's relationship to God to that of a relationship to a spouse. A person loves his spouse and remains devoted to her (hopefully), but if you ask a person about his spouse, you might get very different answers throughout the day. At one moment, pride is displayed; at another, irritation. This is due to the fact that spouses have intensely intimate relationships that act on multiple levels—economic, social, sexual, psychological, and the list goes on. A believer's relationship with God tends to be as intimate and occurs at a similar number of levels—in despair, in times of joy, in public, in the dark of night, and the list goes on. So if we capture the individual at an especially troubled or conversely happy time, we might hear some very different stories about God.

Still, general conceptions of God will be stable over time. It would be extremely rare that a person has faith in a traditional God one minute and expresses complete disbelief the next (this speaks to the futility of trying to convince someone else that your beliefs are better than hers—it won't happen in the course of an evening). Over a long period of time, I expect you would find that a person is pretty consistent in how she talks about God. And these more stable beliefs are very important. In our recent book, America's Four Gods: What We Say About God—and What That Says About Us, Chris Bader and I find that images of God provide a window into how a believer, or nonbeliever, understands her world and interacts with it. If we understand another person's image of God, we can begin to get a sense of how the world looks through her eyes. Essentially, an image of God is a powerful worldview that believers develop early in life and tend to keep.

Paul Froese is a professor of sociology and a resident scholar in the Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor University.

Tags: Is Our Personal Image of God Stable or in Flux?, Paul Froese, Big Questions Online, Psychology, Religion, belief, perspectives, static, dynamic, Chris Bader

Simon G. Powell - Synchronicity and Emergent Self-Organisation

Thought-inspiring essay from Reality Sandwich - synchronicity, psilocybin, emergence, and consciousness. These are a few of a favorite things.

Synchronicity and Emergent Self-Organisation

Simon G. Powell

As far as synchronicities ago, I have had my fair share of extraordinary ones. Sometimes they even seem to come in bursts and flurries. In any case, when you experience a powerful synchronicity it is hard to simply assume that chance alone was at play. The ‘merelyistic' arguments that wave such events aside as nothing more than happenstance and statistical probability are well worn and well boring. From my own experiences it seems to me that something else may be afoot - and I would connect this with the phenomenon of self-organization. In other words, the notion I am entertaining in this essay is that synchronicities are real and that they evince a hitherto unacknowledged instance of self-organization.

When you think about it, Nature is replete with instances of self-organization. Look at how, over time, various exquisitely ordered patterns crystallise out of the Universe. On a macroscopic scale you have stable and enduring spherical stars, solar systems, and spiral galaxies. On a microscopic scale you have atomic and molecular forms of organization. And on a psychological level, fed by all this ambient order and pattern, you have consciousness which also seems to organise itself into being (by way of the brain). Thus, patterned organisation of one form or another is what Nature is proficient at doing over time. And even when Nature elicits something that seems totally destructive - like an exploding supernova - even the spewing fallout (elements such as carbon, silicon and iron for example) can, eventually, potentiate further forms of self-organization.

Probably the most notable example of self-organization is life itself. What could be more redolent in self-organizing prowess than a living biological organism? Imagine what it is like for an individual cell in an organism. It needs water - and lo and behold water is delivered to it. What a great life saving coincidence. The cell may also need some glucose as fuel. Lo and behold glucose is delivered. Fuel is no good to the cell without oxygen to burn it with. Lo and behold oxygen is delivered - yet another coincidence. Or maybe the cell needs a certain crucial protein in a certain crucial place. Ah, there it is again - the nifty providential coincidence in which what is needed is provided for.

Of course, I am fooling around here. A cell is able to sustain its highly organized pattern not through the coincidental arrival of what it needs but by the deliberate arrival of what it needs. For the cell is part of an exquisite self-organizing system - namely a living creature - which itself has arisen due to the amazing self-organizing process we call evolution.

In short, whether it be living things like organisms and ecosystems, or non-living things like snowflakes and rolling ocean waves, Nature has, through its lawful configuration, a striking ability to promote order and organization. This being the case, is it possible that the amazing synchronicities many of us experience represent an emerging ‘higher level' manifestation of self-organization? To make use of an alluring metaphor, are certain events and cultural processes akin to iron filings coming under the organising influence of a powerful magnet? Such a ‘magnet' could be seen, perhaps, to be synonymous with the Whole which forces component parts to synchronise in a specific way.

Leaving that quixotic contention on the backburner, let me focus on the staggering synchronicity that propelled me into writing this essay. Before I detail it, let me just mention another synchronicity of note. I am what they call a mushroom man, a psilocybin researcher. Once, when I was doing some historical research in this field, I came across a very curious synchronicity involving the author Arthur Koestler. Here is what I wrote about this strange synchronicity in a multimedia item that I used to produce. To give the reader the proper context, the following quote comes after material about the British history of the psilocybin mushroom in which I noted key news articles that made it to the pages of the Times newspaper (these news articles related to the sub-cultural use of Britain's indigenous psilocybin mushroom that emerged during the 1970's and 1980's):

"I should like to relate an uncanny synchronistic twist to the story so far. Right alongside one of the mushroom articles appearing in the Times in 1981 there appeared a large picture of the author Arthur Koestler in conjunction with a short feature about him. The significance of Koestler is that he experienced psilocybin in the early 1960's but had bad experiences and thence severely derided psilocybin in his subsequent writings. However, no connection was made between the Koestler feature and the mushroom feature although they were both printed on the same page. This was not surprising though as the link was tenuous and would only be known to a dedicated student of psilocybin history. A mere interesting coincidence then and nothing more. Two years later, printed right next to a Times story on the acquittal of a psilocybin mushroom possessor (which became a test-case whereby the unprocessed mushroom was deemed to be egal to possess) was a short piece announcing the suicide of Koestler. This was a startling piece of synchronicity, given a decidedly fractal depth since Koestler had written two books chiefly about synchronicity entitled The Roots of Coincidence and The Challenge of Chance. He even ran a competition in the Sunday Times in 1974 to find the most interesting case of synchronicity. Indeed the Koestler Foundation exists to this day which still documents cases of synchronicity. Perhaps someone should inform them of the above case. It certainly seems more than chance."

I well recall what it felt like when I became privy to these synchronistic psilocybinetic juxtapositions. It felt like reality was a kind of narrative or story, that there were plots and themes which, like currents and eddies in a river, were coalescing certain events together. In fact, this is what I really mean when I talk of higher level self-organization. It is the idea that there are natural forces afoot that are weaving together events and people in subtle ways that science does not yet acknowledge. In any case, let me briefly detail the main synchronicity that occurred recently.

Back in 1985 I met this chap that ended up being a guru to me. He introduced me to the ideas and teachings of Gurdjieff. And I rate Gurdjieff as the single biggest influence of my inner life (notwithstanding the influence of the psilocybin mushroom!). Ever since then, the guru and I have discussed Gurdjieff and his practical psychological teachings. And in the mid-1990's the guru and I made a number of important pioneering psilocybin treks around various wilderness areas of the UK. So we have always been, as Gurdjieff would say, essence friends.

Now, back in 1985 after I first met the guru and he first told me about Gurdjieff, the first book I read about him (and I eventually went on to read just about every available Gurdjieff book) was The Gurdjieff Work by Kathleen Riordan Speeth - and it had such an impact that I can even now recall certain pages of that book.

Fast forward 25 years. Due to the death of a distant relative and the necessity for a small inheritance to be shared out, the guru, who I am still in touch with, was contacted by his long lost cousin who, on a trip to London, paid him a visit. They had never met before - but were pretty much forced to meet due to the aforementioned death of a relative. It transpires that they are rather like chalk and cheese. The guru is uneducated (in the traditional sense) and has pretty much always been extremely poor (in the material sense). The long lost cousin on the other hand appeared to be very educated and even rather wealthy. In other words, the guru and his long lost cousin had lived totally different lives in different countries and had never been aware of one another's existence.

Well, after an initial meeting and certain discussions, it transpired that this long lost cousin spent time in the mid-1970's living with, and being romantically involved with.... none other than Kathleen Riordan Speeth, the Gurdjieff author mentioned above! As if that was not amazing enough, I soon learned that this Kathleen Riordan Speeth, after the relationship ended with the guru's cousin, went on to have some sort of a relationship with Claudio Naranjo (a scholar of South American psychedelic shamanism). This too was synchronistic as I mention, and quote, Naranjo in a forthcoming psilocybin book of mine. To be sure, the quote pertains to self-organization - although in this case the self-organization of vast amounts of psychological information into powerful visionary symbols.

So, all in all, these unfolding synchronicities have had a big impact on me of late. Being highly personal however, no one will likely feel them as forcibly as me. These events also made me ponder more deeply what I say about self-organization in my psilocybin book - namely that reality consists of a flow of self-organizing information. If so, then it is no wonder that we may become embroiled in curiously profound synchronistic events. As I have said elsewhere, life on Earth is akin to a self-writing self-righting story. There are plots and themes and convoluted sub-plots. And we may be characters - being woven together in ways we never drepamed were possible. So keep your eyes and minds open. And trust that Pachamama be a cool author.

Tags: Simon G. Powell, Synchronicity and Emergent Self-Organisation, Psychology, hallucinogens, synchronicity, emergence, shamanism, psilocybin, Arthur Koestler, brain, consciousness, Synchronicity and Emergent Self-Organisation, Simon G. Powell

The Power of Collaborative Innovation - Venkatesh Hariharan

Useful Google Tech talk - for the first time in my life I am involved in a collaborative innovation project. I have LOTS to learn - I have always wanted to do things on my own, never trusting others to do their part. Feels good to work with an awesome team of people.

ABSTRACT

Presented by Venkatesh Hariharan, Corporate Affairs Director (Asia-Pacific) for Red Hat (leaders in Open Source business solutions); recorded at Google, Bangalore 20th August 2010. "The views expressed in the recording are those of the speaker and not necessarily those of Red Hat."

Tags: The Power of Collaborative Innovation, Venkatesh Hariharan, open source, Red Hat, Google, tech Talks, collaboration, innovation, creativity, teams, interpersonal skills, synchrony

New Poem: Sitting Shiva

I borrowed the title of this poem from the Jewish tradition of a seven-day mourning period following a loved one's death.

We lost Maggie, our beautiful Great Dane, this weekend (I wrote about it at The Masculine Heart). More so than even the deaths of immediate family members, I feel a need to observe a mourning, to hold her loss in my awareness and feel it with as much embodiment as I can muster.

As is generally the case with these things, it is not a good poem, but it is one I need to write, maybe one of many.


Sitting Shiva

we stumble through this silence -
autumn wind howling through the hole
of her sudden absence

we've collected her toys,
keeping only her favorite -
the squeaky sheep

mornings are the worst,
the daily ritual disrupted -
no wet kisses and bad breath
waking us to the sunrise,
never again the wagging tail
nor the "woooo" of her joy
in having all of us awake

now there is only the silence,
the empty space where was her bed,
useless food and water bowls

and it's the silence
piercing our hearts
binding our tongues
leaving us gasping
wondering who
we are without her

and how to take
the next breath
and the next
the next

Tags: poetry, love, grief, death, pets, poems, Maggie, loss, Shiva, mourning

Documentary - Ladies and Gentlemen . . . Mr. Leonard Cohen

Ladies and Gentlemen . . . Mr. Leonard Cohen paints an informal portrait of the legendary Montreal poet, novelist and songwriter both onstage and off.

Tags: Music, poetry, Buddhism, culture, film, documentary, Ladies and Gentlemen Mr. Leonard Cohen, Leonard Cohen