Self-Organization...More...

[Michael Herman]

hello harrison, chris, paul, prasad, jeff and all... thanks for this thread...
am swirling a bit now and trying to catch up... and wanting to take this in a
different direction, more somatically grounded...

have been working lately to notice the relationship within body of pelvis,
heart and brain... power, caring, seeing (eyes being extrusions of brain)....
linking to the beginnings of this thread, hunter/gatherer relies on the
movement of legs and pelvis, as you say chris, this thread does have legs!
farming is more about caring for that space that we can get our arms and
fences around, agriculturally and in legal/business ways, technology, which
paul raises as the third wave, is all about knowing and seeing more... and the
challenge now seems the ability to develop all of these and to pulse between
these more quickly and easily until they unite...  hunt/gather, farm, tech...
pelvis, heart, brain... power, caring, seeing...  and then we could add
harrison's reactive, responsive, proactive...  and all this mirrored in our
the current level of brain structure... reptilean, limbic and neocortex...
reptilean  and limbic brains are old and already merged, neocortex is new and
still not fully integrated from where it sits atop limbic structures...
reflex, emotion, rationality...  moving toward integration, interactive, soul
(as harrison says... getting it all together)...

...yes, i think a reawakening of dormant pelvic power is one thing that
happens in open space... when we literally give people their feet back...  and
we ask them to connect their hearts to that power, by tying the use of power
to passion (caring) and responsibility (their ability to fence something in as
theirs to cultivate)... and then we also stack on top of all of this our
various technologies, from bulletin board to computer, so that they can see
what is going on in the bigger body that emerges in open space....

most important learning for me in open space is that the process invites us to
be powerful, caring and smart all at once... while other/traditional/formal/or
whatever  forms of organization usually pit these against each other in order
to limit all... labor and management meet as power and smarts, caring is
farmed out to human resources...

...having been out walking in the dark some years ago, not seeing too well,
and stepped off a small cliff, landing on rock with pelvis has led me to pay
more attention to how i bring my own awareness, care and movement to these
various aspects of self, especially when i'm opening and holding space.

not sure how to ask a question from here, or how this fits in, but like chris,
just wanted to get this into the mix here...  again, many thanks to all and
yes my head did ache a bit prasad, but probably from the weight of reading so
many messages in a row!  good to see you here again!

michael

Jeff Aitken wrote:

>> Great thread, you all.
>>
>> I've been working on the notion that when we participate in Open Space
>> Technology we are acting as hunters and gatherers do -- following our
>> intuitive and rational capacities across a diverse and shifting landscape
>> into situations that seem meaty (or may bear fruit)...then returning to
>> the
>> circle
>>
>> I see "open space" as exactly that - a large, open field filled with
>> issues
>> and opportunities. We are individually invited to make our own journeys
>> thru this open space,
>
>>
>> Maybe this is one way to see why open space helps people and organizations
>>
>> in modern societies develop the wherewithal to respond to chaos. Perhaps
>> we
>> are re-learning capacities that have been dormant because of the
>> controlled
>> environments we have attempted to live in for several generations. (Then
>> again, is there anything so hunter/gatherer as taking a family thru a
>> shopping mall during Christmas season?)
>>
>> Hugh Brody's book Maps and Dreams contains wonderful descriptions of the
>> holistic work of hunting/gathering.
>

PKaipa at aol.com wrote:

> ...from Indian spirituality

> perspective.
> SelfOrganizing principle refers to spirit organizing itself. considering
> that
> Spirit is referred to as Brahman in Vedanta and it represents the whole.
> When
> we want to look at the organizing principle---the intelligence it is called
> Purusha. Nature on the other hand is the field in which organizing takes
> place and it is called Prakriti. The dance between the two -- Purusha and
> Prakriti creates the world as it manifests dynamically and continually. Each
>
> living or non-living entity in the universe has both Purusha and Prakriti.
> In
> rocks, there is more nature and less of intelligence. In humans there is
> more
> intelligence and less of nature. Other than that, we are both having same
> ingredients with different ratios.
> When we try to organize and do not take into account Prakriti or nature
> consciously, then we are ignoring one half of the equation and the result
> does show up sooner or later. In other words, nature takes its own time but
>
> Self Organization means putting the intention out -- that is critical
> because
> without it, the dance becomes more evolutionary -- and letting go of
> attachment to it.

>

"J. Paul Everett" wrote:

> In a message dated 11/16/01 11:54:47 AM, corcom at interchange.ubc.ca writes:
>
>
> Chris Corrigan wrote:
>
>> Good thoughts Paul.  I had no idea this thread had legs, but there you go.
>
> To illustrate my thesis that then no further fundamental change happened for
>
> a very long time, take King Solomon and George Washington, living about
> 3,000
> years apart.  Yet, they had, essentially, the same heating, the same
> lighting, the same transportation (nobody went faster than a horse on land
> or
> a sail boat would go on water), same mode of communication (written or
> verbal, delivered by a person), slave power and very similar medicine.  In
> fact, it was not until 1939-40 that medical science had something that would
>
> reliably, knowledgeably (on the part of the prescriber) fight a disease
> inside the human body---that was sulfanilamide, followed in short order by
> penicillin, etc.  (Saved my brother's life, btw).
>
> The next big change in human consciousness about man's relationship to
> reality came someplace in 1740-1785/90 when the Enlightenment fundamentally
> altered ideas about the source of change and what humans might do about it.
> >From that incredible shift we have the modern civilization that we exist
> in,
> filled with ever-increasing rates of change on multiple fronts.  Is it any
> wonder that the Modernists and Post-Modernists are much hated by the
> Medievalists?  We are destroying what existed for millennia.  And, that we
> have multiple troubles adjusting to that pace of change on so many fronts.
> But, in the process mankind is becoming even more free, at least those able
> to avail themselves of technologies and new thoughts that generate newness,
> world wide.
>
> Therefore, I challenge whether the hunter/gatherer is a viable metaphor for
> any organization in this epoch of man.  It certainly can't support the
> aggregation of brains necessary to create what we now have.  It would seem
> rather that Prigogine's model, or George Land's model, or some other model
> might better describe what works best at this point in humankind's history.
> *

Chris Corrigan wrote:

> "Sullivan, Tim J. MCF:EX" wrote:
>
> > Good thought, Chris, however....with 5 Billion plus on the planet now, and
>
> > increasing by leaps and bounds....we can't all be hunter/gatherers.
> > It is a metaphor of 'go lightly' that is feasible with much smaller
> numbers,
> > and will not drive the system to the "edge of chaos". The eco-system will
> be
> > stable. We live in different times. Now, its chaos for breakfast, lunch,
> > dinner and midnight snack. And the 'edge' is becoming the 'brink'.
> >
>
> We can't all be farmers either.  Not so much a case of "either/or" for me,
> so
> much as "both/and."
>
> farmers
> generally have to fence in their stuff, defend against intrusions and lash
> out
> at anyone who wants a piece of it.

> Hunter/gatherers
> (HGs) are able to move because, while they might be dependent on a few
> species,
> they don't care where those species are.  If an upheaval strikes, they move.
>
> In the same way, businesses and organizations that are "farmers" fence in
> their
> market share or property or copyrights and defend themselves against the
> threats
> to their future.  HG organizations move with the times, exhibit flexibility
> and
> an ability to thrive in widely differing climates. Myers-Briggs is a farm.
> Open
> Space is a hunting territory.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Chris

--

Michael Herman
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Chicago IL 60610
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http://www.michaelherman.com
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