Memoire Online - The three shifts of the new paradigm

When I speak of 'enlightenment' or 'powers', I am conjecturing, but I am qualified b y experience to speak of flow and of the obstacles to prosperity and to actualisation of one's potential in the world. Many authors (such as Maslow or Deepak Chopra) are confusing and contradicting, because they do not take into account whether a person is 'in survival mode' or has already met the needs of belonging to society (in particular a professional place with an income), an issue I have addressed before (Bouchon, 1997d) and how stressed they are. The picture I present below is a hypothetical one. It took shape in my experience and my intuition but is only partially confirmed. In my present understanding (sept. 98) (which will need to be tested and refined), there are two ways of 'creating reality', summarised in Table 12

Table 12: B-synchronicity, A-creative action
The natural, organismic mechanism and the function of Creation

'Pre-scendence":

Prior-to-mind, natural awareness of present !.Ensure basic survival needs:

survival, safety and basic belonging

(place in the world: social, ecological)

2.Ensure growth needs: basic needs for LifeWork and inner self-actualisation

Feeling:

Great calm, joie de vivre, love

'Transcendence': Unified Creator Self

Support expression of self:

!.actualisation of self (outer),

2.self-transcendence into Creator Self

Feeling:

exhilaration, excitement, love

One way is related to the 'down' direction 'B', and is spontaneous, un-requested 'synchronicity'. I see its function as the basic underlying role of the most primitive parts of our being: helping us to 'meet our needs', to survive (including health), be safe, and live efficiently within our local community (basic belonging). The Bsynchronicity kind is apparent in my 17-year old gymnastics experience. My mind had nothing to do with it: 'it' just took over when needed. I have found, over time, that this happens also with the most dire financial

situations. B-synchronicity is effective unconsciously, autonomously, and can be impeded by too much disconnection from Nature, from others (lack of care in particular), b y stress, b y culture and b y pressures from the social environment. When it is impeded (by ourselves or b y others on whom we are dependant in one way or another), we do not find solutions to steer away from abuses of all kinds, physical (including denatured food), emotional, and mental. Many of our society's problems seem to be of this nature. This 'pre-scendent' awareness, as I see it, gives us the fundamental feeling of safety that allows us to not function from fear but from trust, to

not be constantly 'in survival mode', self-defensive and manipulative. This natural mechanism seems to be 'acausal' because it is not directly related to a self that wills, directs, and thinks in sequential causal terms. It 'just happens' if we are not 'disconnected'. It has meaning because we do have a self or selves that need to see meaning, as I did in my 17-year old gymnastics experience. My mind had nothing to do with it: 'it' just took over when needed, but through it, I came to 'know I belong' in Nature, and to use natural settings to 'resource myself' when the world of people was too painful. I have found, over time, that the mechanism works also with the most dire financial situations, to save me 'going to live under the bridges' (where it is not safe). In some sense, this mechanism is present in anything that lives or works (machine). Otherwise, when something impedes its functioning drastically, chaos and decay set in, breakdown (including nervous: depression), crash, death. This accounts for the view of disease as a disharmony.

The mechanism has also, I believe, a second function: to support growth, which for humans means the creative force of the individual, the purposeful 'life calling' and expression of self. It seems we cannot become fully operational as Creator Selves without this function in full operation, which seems to be the case for many 'New Agers'. On its own, it works within a natural framework of sustainability, of a 'strict need' strategy, of economy of means, not with surplus abundance, and it does not take into account our Western habit of wanting to own things, this 'grasping' habit of the ego. One typical example is related in EE #13 (in Appendix 3.3). This natural, organismic, or systemic mechanism built into our BodyMindSelf functions unconsciously, whether we know it or not, better or worse depending on how much we interfere and disconnect. It functions to allow us a survival place, be it small, in the world. But we often confuse actual 'need', of a natural kind (food, shelter, safety, basic growth), with desires linked to civilised living, social living, and we do not acknowledge that this mechanism is there and works fairly well actually most of the time. So we feel unsafe, and act from ego-defensiveness and fear. Small children are still in touch with it and act from trust. If we can rekindle our awareness of it, we find trust and some form of 'faith', and we can let go of stress, which in turn allows the natural organismic mechanism to function better, for both health and outer needs.

The second way of 'creating reality' is much more conscious and dependent on will or desire. It is a means of 'expressing' our consciousness creatively. Its function is 'dream meeting'. It makes use of the ability to make up dreams, visions, and 'thought-forms' from our desires, and only comes with mastery of the tools of the 'BodyMindSelf'. In 'A-creation', the person feels he or she is influencing (not necessarily 'causing' directly)

personal outer life circumstances. This is what I call the 'power of Creation' (or co-creation). In their 'effortless' form, desires simply have as much reality as a person's 'actual' experience, and automatically call on the organismic mechanism which actualises them. For the 'creator self', creation can be consciously willed, which is different from directly 'caused'. The fruits seem to be the result of a purpose rather than a goal (even when it seems to achieve a goal set in advance) and depends on the values emphasised: the fruits are often not those directly envisioned.

Apparently, if combined with natural awareness, A-creation can give us access to super-normal 'radiant health', to 'perfect relationships', to successful LifeWork (that includes social recognition of the value of that work), etc. as expounded b y some New Age teachers who seem to have developed in both directions. These are the three basic areas where people have problems, usually in one mainly, that turns out to be the main area of their life learning. Each teacher focuses on that area, where he or she has done his discoveries, often assuming that it is 'the' fundamental issue in human affairs. And so they teach the techniques that worked for them, and talk about the kinds of results they gained. Taken together, they show an amazing picture of what is available to humans.

Spiritual traditions interested in creation tell us there is no theoretical limit to what can be achieved this way... Basically, the saying : "If you can think it, it can happen" applies, with the nuance of 'co-creation' rather than conventional causation. The limitations come from all aspects of our thinking. Our beliefs in what is possible or impossible particularly are extremely limiting. This explains the usefulness to the techniques of 'reprogramming the unconscious'. That is, provided they are not used as mere self-manipulation. Here spiritual meaning and psychological integration appear as important elements. They bring higher values of connection, love and altruism, and so the choice of sustainable desires and dreams. The 'size' of our dreams, if ethical, is related to the 'size' of the 'lifework' we feel drawn to do.

The A-creative function does not seem directly related to sustainability. Widespread and luxurious abundance is possible, as is black magic. Creation can be selfish, creation can be destructive, just as any other tool, and only the embracing of humane values will keep the ego-centredness of our desires in check. Creation can be accessed, apparently, at any level of sense of 'self'. Ancient peoples used it. Middle Ages peoples used it. American business wizards use it. This function also works with fears and beliefs and causes many of our difficult life situations. (see for ex. EE# 14 in Appendix 3.3)

Time will tell if this is a correct view, but it seems that the natural, organismic mechanism of the BodyMindSelf is the key to making envisioned dreams come true. Higher mind can form the visions, but it is the BodyMindSelf's mechanism that manifests them. Some of the courses I cited say 'it is the unconscious that does it'. This would explain why so many New Age or 'spiritual' people who know about the techniques to 'envision' or 'manifest' find that the creation does not happen. Without the awareness of the present situation as it is, the 'creative tension' is twisted: the feedback loops are misleading because the reality perceived is a mental

construction, not reality as it is. Without enough self-knowledge, what we 'manifest' is the image of the fears we hold in mind. For others, the dreams are there, and so it the present, but the 'visions' are ego-centred, and so the result self-aggrandising' or even hurts others or the community or destroys the environment. This is the case for much American business success. Part of my work will consists in determining what the pre-requisists are for the two types of synchronicity and what their relationship is, and how various factors influence their functioning.

Naturally, this distinction between A-creation and B-synchronicity is an arbitrary, intellectual one. In some cases (as in EE #15 and 16 in Appendix 3.3), it is difficult to label the event. In this instance, the photocopier I 'received' was something I needed for my work and had worked at envisioning. Yet nothing had happened for months. Then one day, it came, but not as I had expected: it was a loan because I was involved in working with others. In this instance, it did not meet my dream of owning it, and did not come when I first worked at visualising it. It came as a natural meeting of a need I had for my purposeful work and so also for my growth as a human being. So was it an 'A' or a 'B'?

This natural awareness has concrete effects. Harish Johari explains that in advanced yogic development (7^th chakra), the yogi finds that 'whatever he desires comes true, as does the ability to induce visions of the past, present and future.' (Johari, 1987, p.79) This is relating the finding of many people who are developing spiritually or creatively, that a certain degree of mastery brings series of synchronicities that meet our basic needs but also our desires and dreams without striving 'effort' on our part,. In my view Johari's statement covers both what I have called 'B-synchronicity' and the will-directed 'A-creation'. This is what Deepak Chopra has called 'effortless' living, and which I have called 'Business Flow' in the context of a professional life.

Observing people of the land and native people, I came, similarly, to imagine that there are two kinds of 'flow' states. Csikszentmihalyi described, for example, a mountain woman who kept goats and seemed to be in permanent flow, even though her life was very simple and repetitive. In my framework, such a person would have the primitive 'natural awareness' but a little-individuated personality and so would be far from a 'Higher Mind'. Her life, as described, or as I see it in other people like her, was neither highly creative nor oriented toward higher knowledge through intuition, but she had 'her place in the world', a fundamental trust, and was neither self-defensive nor manipulative. This I would term 'FlowB', as distinguished from the kind of flow that higher creativity or spiritual life can bring, as described in much of transpersonal literature, which I would term 'FlowA'. This distinction has led me to challenging seriously the notion of 'psychological development' as it is usually understood, that is, involving a necessary step of developing an ego that is dis-eased and disconnected, as we have it in the West. I discuss this in Appendix. 3.2.

It seems to me that the first task of our world is to re-establish the 'natural awareness' of 'FlowB' more than
focusing on accessing Higher mind and, as Wilber and some others used to advise, take everyone to fully

fledged 'spiritual awakening'. It is the loss of 'FlowB', in my view, that drives our world mad. An interesting question is to know whether a little individuated person can be taken from a 'FlowB' to a 'FlowA' developing a left-mind but without a separating ego. Our Western psychologies basically say 'no', but I am not so sure. If thiss natural awareness is what I believe it to be, it is something we have as children, whether we live in the West or in the rest of the world, and do not have to lose. In other words, the education we give to our children has a fundamental flaw we can rectify. Other cultures do not seem to go through the psychological agonies the 'ego' brings to the West. A child who would be educated free of the limitations of Western perception and thinking could develop a healthier, authentic personality, knowing who he or she is and wants to do in life (purpose), with efficient left- and right-minds, and with access to both types of flow or creative activity, and without the torments of an 'unconscious' shadow. Such people would be spared the agonies of 'midlife crisis' and 'spiritual emergencies'.

Given the usually well organised ways of Nature, it would seem rather unlikely that such pains should be 'inscribed in our genes'. It seems particularly important for us, collectively, to cultivate this kind of awareness, as it seems to be crucial for people to stop to fight and fear. I will discuss another crucial aspect of life that we need to cultivate, mutual validation, in my conclusions.

Fear and fight are epitomised in the syndrome of the 'survival drive gone mad'. John Wren Lewis is a professor of physics who turned to religious studies after a near-death experience that left him, he believes, spontaneously enlightened. He now devotes himself to finding a way to bring this liberating experience to others through less drastic experiences. His state seems similar to the 'plateau' experience Maslow described after nearly dying of a heart attack, which represents the natural awareness that can be called upon any time:

"After my rescue from death-by-poisoning in Thailand in 1983, I felt as if something like a cataract had been removed from my brain, and for more than ten years now, it has allowed me to experience a wonder and depth of aliveness in each moment in a way I had never dreamed possible...

Quite a few of us [Near Death Experiencers], including many like me with no prior mystical beliefs at all, have found ourselves living in a state of consciousness where 'egoic' preoccupartions no longer dominate life, though we have done nothing to discipline ourselves...

The mere fact that such mystical opening can occur without any spiritual discipline presents a fundamental challenge to the aristocratic or 'growth' model of enlightenment. And perhaps the most extraordinary thing is that I don't feel in the least bit 'high' or special. The state feels so absolutely natural...

It is as if the NDE jerked me out of a collective nightmarish trance where individuality seemed to mean

separateness and struggle to survive, when it is an arbitrary convention, like the lines on figures....

If this trance can on occasion be broken simply by close encounter with death, then it must be something like a malfunction, a hyperactivity, of the natural protective instincts that are meant to maintain the game of individuality by avoiding death as long as possible. Post-NDE lives offer evidence that these

instincts actually function more efficiently without the 'anxious thought for the morrow' that blocks out awareness of 'eternity now'. What we need now is to take all ancient traditions about enlightenment as hypotheses, and do real research into less drastic ways of soothing the hyperactive survival-drive." (John Wren-Lewis, interview,1992.)

The 'natural protective instincts' corresponds to my idea of an 'organismic natural mechanism' to ensure survival and growth. In this passage, notice the word 'growth'. After a couple of conversations with him, I can point out that he challenges the ideas of spiritual preparation through a regular practice, and of linear development, not the notion of growth in the natural world, of which we are a part. I have come to the same conclusion that this mechanism functions without relationship to thought. If our thinking stops us being aware of the present, we are unaware of the mechanism. It is my present understanding that stressing ourselves actually impedes the very functioning of this mechanism. Most of us respond to thoughts about past or future with stress, which takes our attention away from the present experience. The 'eternity now' Wren Lewis speaks of may simply be the time-less experience of the present (time being a construction generally attributed to left brain functions). It is therefore plausible that our habituation to high stress levels would be one way to formulate and explain the feeling I found in both my experience, and related by Da Free John, of 'something that blocks', within the psyche.

My framework was developed in the contemporary Western context and cannot be expected to suit other cultures or times. It does not yet take into account certain other factors, contains certain assumptions, and is aimed at practical benefits rather than philosophical explanations about the nature of mind or reality, benefits for certain kinds of people. It therefore is not meant to be read as a universal model.

S ynchronicity is a principle of acausal relationship between human thoughts and events. I have intentionally not reviewed literature on this concept at this stage because 'synchronicity' is a matter of psychological meaning (not my focus here) attached to events that have happened, and I wanted to explore the active phenomenon of creation directly in my experience. I will review and discuss the literature in the next stage of my work.

I would like to finish by reproducing two passages. Both express the uncertainty and magic of experiencing both singular-complexity and simplicity, The first highlights knowledge about the mind, and the second an attitude to transpersonal and spiritual experiences in the second.

"The mind is actually very peculiar and unpredictable. It manifests many different forms and faces... We might use many different words to describe the scope of its influence or to discuss its apparent functioning, but finally, it is very difficult to make mind tangible or to give it shape and to say solidly, 'This is exactly what mind is '.

"Mind is also very precious. The more deeply we investigate it, the more we can discover a most comprehensive, universal kind of truth-knowledge. The Buddha, the Enlightened Ones, the great teachers, and all those who have attained this knowledge first observed their own mind. They did not blindly follow someone else's ideas but explored their minds to greater and greater depth until they discovered that the most valuable possession we have in this world is the human mind."

"Steven Hendlin has argued that the best attitude for the transpersonal psychotherapist is 'don't know.

The 'Don't Know' attitude, based on the realization of impermanence, calls for a faith in the unknown, a faith in... the 'wisdom of insecurity'... Paradox is another form of '"don 't know"....Our task is to understand that the one who questions is not different from the 'who knows?' question itself. Our lives are the substance and answer to this question. But I might be wrong. You never know for sure. (Hendlin, 1984, p.12)" (cited in Rowan, 1993, p. 227).

The three shifts of the new paradigm

3.7 SYNCHRONICITY AND BUSINESS FLOW (PART VII)