Fw: Re[2]: "Bylo chudo" or New Paradigm slavery-- long

[Harrison Owen]

Does Consciousness exist? That is a question that has been around for some time -- and hopefully will not be resolved in the near future. For its final resolution would doubtless mean that we have all come to the end of the road and discovered where it was leading all this time. In the meantime, the journey continues. And I for one am rather enjoying the ride (mostly). If you are asking for my personal answer to that question, I guess it comes in two flavors. In terms of my own practice and life experience, the answer is simple -- yes. If you are looking for a more theoretical basis, the answer is still yes --but with a few qualifications. It works (makes sense) for me and works better than the alternative. Pay your money and take your choice.

And reading Wilber and Kuhn wouldn't hurt. Both pretty bright guys. Kuhn doubtless wrote other stuff, but the seminal work is/was "The Structures of Scientific Revolution" -- I think it was published by Princeton, or maybe it was Chicago (University Press). Wilber has damn near buried the world in paper. All of it is good, but some is better than the rest. A good introduction might be something like, "A Brief History of Everything."  He is a wonderful writer, great storyteller, totally outrageous, and a massive intellect. Other than that he is pretty run of the mill. And if you are looking for other good stuff to read, you might check out the section on www.openspaceworld.com called "Literature."

As for being a "lonely visionary," I honestly have to say, I never noticed, but thanks for asking. But how could I be lonely in the company of such illustrious folks? Of course, that might not speak well for the company I keep -- but there you are.

Harrison   


Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Dr.
Potomac, MD  20854
USA
301-365-2093
207-763-3261 (summer)
website www.openspaceworld.com


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Raffi Aftandelian 
  To: hhowen at comcast.net ; OSLIST 
  Sent: Sunday, July 24, 2005 1:08 PM
  Subject: Re[2]: "Bylo chudo" or New Paradigm slavery-- long


  Thank you, Harrison, for going to the trouble of giving a quick recap
  of where we have gone in the past twenty years with organizations and
  consciousness.

  If there was a friendly, implied suggestion to consider something in
  your message, I missed it. Other than perhaps read Kuhn and Wilber whom I have heard
  of and some friendly OST'ers in BC (British Columbia) do nudge me
  towards looking at them, which I will.

  Is this vision of the "Open Sleep Organization" fanciful? We like to
  ask at the end of an OS, what will happen on Mon.? And on Mon. that is
  the vision that came to me. In all of my adolescent passion, I know I
  can get (very) carried away. And one very kind OST'er lovingly
  suggested offline that these are great ideas in the "Bylo Chudo" post, yet
  there is a danger in dissipating creative energy in talking about them
  so publicly. And that Mon. pointed me the way to go with OST.

  I like to think back sometimes to what Ralph Copleman said when I first
  began talking about my struggles with this OST work: either I'll think
  it's garbage or I'll think of something better. I definitely don't
  think it's garbage and it is very intriguing to watch people who have
  participated in a 4 hour or daylong OST deliver a verdict on this
  technology...and say (in so many words) that it's garbage. And then
  there are those who are troubled and intrigued enough by OST to give
  it another go...

  I sometimes imagine that it must be very lonely for you, Harrison, to
  be a visionary. To repeat the same thing day in and day out. And I
  have thought that you may never get proper recognition for this work.
  I doubt you'll get the Nobel Prize (nor do I think you are holding
  your breath for it), even though your contribution to human knowledge
  is indeed earth-shattering.

   Which makes me think about how all these Nobel Prizes (for peace, at
   least) are awarded for Extraordinary Mediocrity. For Brilliant Minds who did More of the Same.

  Just one more thought on the evolution of consciousness-- do you
  really think that consciousness exists? Isn't it just another
  dream-state? I notice that I am *always* living in illusion. There
  may be gradations of illusion, but illusion is all we got, perhaps
  just like the illusion (read: prism) of Open Space.

  One thing I hope to get a deeper understanding of in Halifax is what
  self-organizing OST events look like. And what self-organizing
  self-organization looks like.

  And if our illusions are all we got, what then?

  Warmly,
  Raffi



  Raffi Aftandelian wrote 20 июля 2005 г., 15:27:53:

  > Raffi Wrote: Harrison, you in your delightful semi-impish spirit
  > trickster raven kind of way said you were almost afraid to ask what
  > I thought the next paradigm was. I think I explained what I thought
  > the next paradigm was+and I didn't quite understand why that thread
  > died. Is it because I'm talking out of something besides my mouth?
  > Or that everyone already knows what the next paradigm is. Or that it
  > is moot? Or that the paradigm of thinking in paradigms is well
  > so+passe because it assumes a linear path of development?

  > I don't know why the conversation on the  next paradigm" ended --
  > it certainly has never ended with me. I suppose that if there is a
  > single dominant theme in all of my work, it is not about Open Space,
  > but rather precisely on that subject. Thomas Kuhn's notion of
  > Paradigm and paradigm shift has been very useful for me (and
  > obviously millions of others) in several ways. First he wrote
  > clearly about the mechanisms and costs of fundamental shifts. As you
  > may remember he is primarily a philosopher of Science -- but his
  > work obviously applies in much broader realms. He showed us
  > (reminded us) that human progress does not go in nice linear
  > patterns, but in great, always painful, lurches. And the fact that
  > he tied all this to the progress of Science was useful in that it
  > helped us see that super-rationalistic science was also a part of
  > the human endeavor. But as helpful as Kuhn has been it always seemed
  > to me that he stopped short of genuine breakthrough. For me the
  > notion of paradigm shift is really the whole business of the
  > evolution of consciousness. Fortunately, many others have explored
  > territory that Kuhn never (so far as I know) got into. On the
  > contemporary scene, Ken Wilber has led the way for me. And the
  > Spiral Dynamics folks have added some interesting details. But the
  > story is a very old one going right back to The Great Chain of Being
  > traditions, which spoke of the evolution of consciousness in terms
  > of 7 levels or domains. The words vary, but the sense is Nothing,
  > Body, Mind, Intellect, Soul, Spirit, Nothing. Since it is a little
  > difficult to speak of "nothing" -- we are basically left with 5
  > domains that we can get out words around. It occurred to me in the
  > early 80's that although the focus was basically on the individual
  > evolution of consciousness -- the general thinking would equally
  > apply to organizations, which you might call the collective
  > expression (manifestation) of Spirit or consciousness. To make the
  > point and the connection I created what I called an organizational
  > analogue to the development of individual consciousness, and the
  > levels (domains) were denominated as follows: Reactive, Responsive,
  > Proactive, Interactive, and Inspired. If you are interested in the
  > details, I wrote it all up in my first book, "Spirit: Transformation
  > and Development in organizations" which came out I think in 1985. 
  > ═
  > Then along came Open Space, which appeared in my eyes to be a
  > funny thing we did on the way to the future. Its real value totally
  > escaped me. Fortunately several others saw what I failed to notice
  > -- this stuff was important. And once they got my attention, I
  > noticed a very odd thing. It seemed to me that in Open Space people
  > had the experience of moving through levels of consciousness. And
  > more particularly, it seemed that they were shifting in and out of
  > the dominant level, which I called Proactive, into the next level,
  > which═I had called Interactive. For the majority, this was a
  > momentary, although significant experience -- but at the end of the
  > day it was back to the old familiar Proactive organizations. Some,
  > however, did not seem to go back so easily -- and the Interactive
  > level became their domain. This was a exhilarating and scary
  > experience, to say the least. I am totally clear that Open Space did
  > not (does not) cause such shifts -- but it does seem to provide an
  > environment which═is conducive to this shifting. Anyhow it seemed to
  > me that something rather new and exciting was occurring -- and that
  > a radical new organizational lifeform was putting in an═appearance.
  > Since we were heading towards the Millennium at that point,
  > hyperbole got the best of me and I began to talk about The
  > Millennium Organization. Even wrote a book about it with the same
  > title. That book is now out of print, but I tried to tried to bring
  > all my thinking to that point together in my═last book for
  > Berrett-Koehler, which bears the title, "The Power of Spirit: How
  > Organizations Transform." That one came out in 2000, which I thought
  > was sort of appropriate.
  > ═
  > Anyhow, the story continues and becomes ever more exciting.
  > Obviously not without ═many painful bumps and bruises -- and the
  > final chapter has clearly not been written. 
  > ═
  > Harrison
  > ═
  > ═
  > Harrison Owen
  > 7808 River Falls Dr.
  > Potomac, MD═ 20854
  > USA
  > 301-365-2093
  > 207-763-3261 (summer)
  > website www.openspaceworld.com
  > ═
  > ═
    
  > ----- Original Message ----- 



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