Dear Organlearners,
Sherri Malouf <sherri@maloufinc.com> writes:
>When I have seen it used the impact seems to be that it
>controls conversation and it becomes difficult to be
>spontaneous.
Greetings Sherri,
Your observation is very interesting to me since it concerns the issue of
spontaneity.
Whereas the thread is on spirituality, the following account will appear
to be as far from spirituality as the east is separated from the west. In
this account I will connect your observation to "entropy production",
"free energy" and all those starnge stuff. But I will try to rectify the
situation at the end.
What is spontaneity? Although it is one of uncountably many consequences
of the Law of Entropy Production (LEP), it is one of the most important
consequences. Think of any system at situation A which has to evolve into
situation B. If the system cannot produce entropy by going from A to B, it
will not evolve from A to B. Hence we say that the change from A to B is
non-spontaneous. But this does not mean that it is impossible for the
system to evolve from A to B. If the surroundings produce at least the
entropy required, the system will then evolve by force from A to B.
Unfortunately, if along the route from A to B an emergence has to happen,
such a forced change will induce an immergence rather than the required
emergence. Thus non-spontaneous emergences are very scarce in contrast to
to spontaneous emergences.
We can also formulate spontaneity if terms of the system's "free energy"
rather than "entropy production" for the system and its surroundings as
the universe (the whole). If the system's free energy gets less (by using
it for entropy production) along the route, then the change will be
spontaneous. The system will change on its own. But when the system's free
energy has to increase, the system will not change on its own. It has to
be forced by the surroundings, doing work on it. This work raises the
system's free energy. In order to do such work, the surroundings has to
produce its own entropy.
What does it mean in terms of entropy and free energy when you observe
that the Talking Stick (TS)makes a person (the majority of them) less
spontaneous, if not completely non-spontaneous? It means that with the TS
the person has less free energy than without the TS. Without the TS, the
person's free energy is high enough so that it can decrease while thinking
and talking. (The thinking and talking as a result of the entropy
production which consumes the free energy.) But because of the less free
energy (due to the TS) the person does not have enough free energy to
produce entropy while thinking and talking.
The person's free energy is less with the TS because so much more of the
entropy is locked up in maintaining the person's spiritual organisation
with the TS as without it. In other words, the TS becomes a burdening
factor in the person's spiritual organisation. It is as if the person is
carrying extra spiritual baggage to use the TS. But we should remember
that this is in contrast to the people (American Indians) for whom the TS
is part of their spiritual make up. Why?
I think it has to do with how the TS facet of spirituality is obtained in
the first place. Each facet of spirituality can either emerge from within
the person or be imported from the outside from people in which it has
emerged. When it has emerged consistently and coherently from the rest of
the inner spirituality of the person, it is a source of free energy, thus
raising the person's free energy for thinking and talking with the TS. But
when it is imported from the outside, it does not fit coherently and
consistently into the person's inner spirituality. Thus it cannot act as a
source of free energy. In fact, to maintain it within as baggage and not
as an integral part of the make-up, it consumes the person free energy to
do so.
OK, let us try to summarise the above without using "entropy production"
and "free energy". Hopefully the answer will appear to be more spiritual.
Spirituality in all its facets (TS included) is not something we can
simply transfer from one person to another without any ill effects. It is
possible to imitate and memorise another person's spirituality or merely
some facets of it. But then the person has to go at great lenghts to do
so, paying a lot of money for the services rendered. This is so because
this importation of spirituality is non-spontaneous. It does not happen on
its own accord. Futhermore, once that person has become more spiritual,
that person has to work very hard to maintain that baggage (veneer?
window-drssing?) of spirituality. This leaves the person with very little
vitality to particpate spontaneously in other spiritual events.
Furthermore, assuming the same for other people, the person is inclined to
enforce spirituality on others by decreed and dogma.
On the other hand, spirituality which emerged from within, does not need
to be maintained by decreed and dogma. Since it happens spontaneously from
within, it does not require big sums of money to pay other people for
services rendered. However, although it happens spontaneously, it requires
a commitment to choose for far reaching inner changes affecting treasured
structures. These structures will have to be loosened in a diversity of
becoming (chaos) so as to emerge into new spiritual structures of higher
order. This is where fellow humans acting as spiritual midwifes come in,
caring for the emergences, guiding the person to avoid immergences. It
leads to a communion of humans in which spirituality blooms.
I would like to see that we will become spiritually so sensitive that
another person will not need a TS for reminding for us to respect that
person's spirituality and join into a common spirituality. If we want to
retain any symbolism, that person self should be regarded as the "talking
stick" and given the opportunity to open his/her spirituality to us
without fear of getting hurt.
>So we use things like talking sticks in an attempt to
>control people's natural tendencies to be self obsessed.
Sherri, this is a sentence with very deep meanings. Why are so many people
self obsessed? Is it not possible that they have seldom experienced the
asymmetrical-transitive nature of emergences? Why do so many people desire
to control other people? Is it not possible that they have seldom
experienced the healing power of irreversible self-organisation? Why are
so many people ignorant to the evolution path of spirituality? Is it not
possible that they deny humankind those things essential to this path?
What are these things essential to the evolution path of spirituality?
>Perhaps frontal labotomies are a next step...(-:
Frontal labotomy will be the death certificate of spirituality. But let us
rather look at the positive side. What is the birth certificate of
spirituality? Is it not the open dialogue without any judging?
Sherri, thank you very much again for your wise thoughts on spirituality.
You are a spiritual midwife which makes you very special.
Best wishes
--At de Lange <amdelange@gold.up.ac.za> Snailmail: A M de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre Faculty of Science - University of Pretoria Pretoria 0001 - Rep of South Africa
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