Progress on the Hero's Journey

Now that the semester is over, I wanted to detail the differences between what actually happened and what I devised to happen when I came up with the plot for my auto-biography that I had wrote about the plan for the first step in starting the Kickstarter project last May, there is a difference between how you might envision events going for a story, but that isn't usually how they work out in practice. 

Plus the DVD that I worked on most of last July and August got a different reception than I had hoped for, even with all the examples that I put in it.

And even when I put it on YouTube to made it easier to see, it was difficult to get people to pay attention to it.

The Drama 8 class at Butte has been an adventure with steps along the path of the Hero's Journey as part of the auto-biography that I'm going to write called Achieving Communion. 

I've been documenting a lot of it with video that I've recorded in class and journals that I can use as video logs that describe thoughts along the way for notes to show the progress along the path and the steps I've taken follow the stages of the Hero's Journey.

There were things that I didn't expect before I took the class, the most surprising was how little time I had to talk to the other students about the project, ten minutes or less before class and people quickly left after for places they had to go. It was barely enough to get their attention and not enough to keep it to explain the idea for the video. I had trouble with the DVD player taking so long to load and even when I had a group of people watching it, I ran out of time when Jesse came in to start the class that they didn't get a chance to absorb the ideas in the DVD.

But  when Jesse mentioned the Kickstarter project twice in class it helped a lot to give it some legitimacy among the students and made it a lot easier for me the approach them with the offer to join in. Even if he did make a couple of mistakes like on my midterm exam, he had to correct one answer that marked as wrong which was found to be an error that gave me a perfect score on the test because I had watched all the recordings that I had made of the class. 

The other mistake was that he promised to give a discount for the students in the class on tickets to the Drama Departments play and that he would train the ticket takers to accept half off the price of one ticket if we brought someone to see it. But when I got there and asked for the discount on Mom's ticket they were confused and had to go ask Jesse about it, so he didn't train them well enough as he had promised.

I certainly learned the truth of that Campbell quote from my experience in the class, since I had always had severe stage fright and anxiety over public speaking but facing those fears allowed me to accomplish my goals for the next step in the Kickstarter project.

Jesse did give some helpful instructions and great advice which allowed me to overcome my fears to get me through performing the monologue. By continuing to focus on deep breathing to relax and meditation to bring yourself back to the present moment, it certainly was a huge asset since in the pressure of doing it live in front of an audience, it was easy to forget to breathe and the deep breathing did calm the nerves.

But the biggest problem I had was trying to project my voice loud enough for all the audience to hear, because that took a lot of breath to do, and I had to keep pausing in order to catch my breath. Then about halfway through, I forgot some of my lines from lack of oxygen and had to take some very long pauses to remember them again. Hopefully I was able to be funny and get the joke about a time machine and a Civil War hooker across.

The advice that Jesse gave also helped with my fear of rejection and asking the people in the class for their attention.  I did keep asking myself during the semester "What would a Hero do in this situation?" especially when I got discouraged by the students turning me down and it help give me more determination to keep trying because I knew a Hero would never just give up. That transformation is the essence of moving through the stages of the Hero's Journey and the overcoming of fears to expand the Heroes abilities from facing challenges.

That determination also helped me to take the steps of putting up flyers around the Art building where the students could see them and get their attention so they might get interested in the project

Even so I never did get the hang of doing improv exercises because practicing before hand I could barely handle, but coming up with an idea on the fly was beyond me. When in the Add and Subtract exercise, the only thing I could come up with was chanting at a protest rally for the first time and a preacher doing a sermon to his flock for the second time.

The other thing that I didn't expect when I took the class was a massive drop in my testosterone levels that was a major obstacle to overcome, but being aware of what the symptoms of depression, lack of energy and pain in my extremities was caused by helped some with my attitude for dealing with it, even if it didn't lessen any of the symptoms. Finally taking large doses of Ginko Biloba did a lot balance out the hormone levels and help my brain function better.

But the hardest part of the whole class was having to memorize lines and the Ginko only helped slightly with that. But I kept at it with the determination of a Hero to face the challenge of remembering the lines and that did encourage me to succeed. When we were rehearsing for the final scene, the releasing of tension by our mistakes was the funniest and most enjoyable part.

I liked the final scene more compared to my monologue because it had more action than just telling a joke, since I had to put more passion and desperation in it from being hunted and begging to die a less painful death, which was a more satisfying performance.

It took until the last class before the finals but I did ultimately get one of the students to agree to act in the video for the Kickstarter project. I showed her the DVD that I made and she got up to the clip I put in, where Reese Witherspoon is accepting her Oscar for her role in Walk the Line then she agreed to help with the project when I reminded her about what Jesse said in class about "people being desperate enough for success" and how Reese started just like this when she was an unknown and went to an open audition for The Man in the Moon. Then I told her about the pay scale that I looked up for what they paid members of SAG and she agreed. So I wrote the script and sent it to them. 

 Jesse had a few inspirational stories that he used as examples of how to discipline yourself in habits that would help you to succeed. Hopefully the rest of the class paid attention to them and could apply them to my offer.

I'm not sure how I'm going to use that footage I shot at the Salmon Festival but I'll probably insert some of the shots of the fish going up the ladder and some of the workers harvesting the eggs from the fish.

So that is pretty good progress through the stages of the Hero's Journey for the last four months, much more than I made in the decade previously. Now onto the next chapter that I outlined last May that covered plans for after taking the class.

When the money from the Kickstarter project is raised then plans for the lessons in My Fair Guru can be implemented like an example of how evolution and stages of development continue from apes to people and then from people to angels .

Landmarks on the Path

 By using Esalen as a location to shoot episodes of My Fair Guru, it provides more legitimacy from it's decades long reputation being a center for growth and development.

 

Achieving Communion Plot: Chapter 5

The structure that the environment provides is a focus for a bond in the community of the people filming the show and helps the actors to take the practices more seriously. 

For the audience, that see the actors progress and growth, it provides motivation for those that admire the blondes overcoming the stereotype because they never thought they were capable of it and it inspires them to try also. It is "rooting for the underdog" in the Hero's Journey like in the movie Rudy

 
For those that resented the blondes in the stereotype it gives them incentive to prove out of spite that if blondes can do it then it should be that much easier for others to do it. But it's still showing them examples of the steps along the path in the journey

Besides the beauty of the natural setting and that of the actors with activities like surfing and yoga on the beach, what would gain a following to make it more entertaining would be the rewards for progress along the path and the showing the landmarks that prove that the actors are growing in their journey. The AQAL Map provides ways of measuring that progress and landmarks like the "psychograph" to show where on the journey the person is. 

By tracking "the center of gravity" of where the actors are on each of the lines of development, the stage of consciousness and the level of their ability to take different perspectives they can show their progress and also how much they can cooperate with the other actors to help each with the practices to get them all to accomplish the same goals with the appropriate amounts of progress to reap bonus rewards.

Wilber uses the idea that the church can be used as a "conveyor belt" through stages of development but that's not the only thing, since The Hero's Journey can also be used for the conveyor belt purpose to provide the myths and the structure to guide people through the stages and popular culture can show people examples from stories on how to navigate the path of growth.

With "reality shows" able to reach those in the most need of growth, that can change the "dominant mode" of society until it can reach a"tipping point" 

Locations Line up

 When I have gotten all the footage that I needed at Yosemite, the next location to shoot would be at the beach in Big Sur

Achieving Communion Plot: Chapter 4

The beach is a great place to show all the ways that waves, rhythms and vibrations interact. 

Surfing is a great method to get in tune with those rhythms and train your reflexes to act in harmony with the waves and the vibrations of nature.

What would be great would be to have a drone with a camera on it to be able to shoot footage of the actors surfing from the angles that would be available from a drone flying close up to the the waves where the actors are that would show all aspects of what they went through in acquiring the skills necessary in the experience and be entertaining to watch.

The Esalen Institute has a 50 year long tradition of being the "Olympics of the mind, heart, body, spirit, and community, committing themselves to a deeper, richer, more enduring in the fellowship of other seekers." that makes it the perfect location for shooting episodes of My Fair Guru with ten actors attending all the workshops  to show the progress they make in growth and development in Stages, States, Levels and Lines of the AQAL Map.

So the area around Big Sur is the best way to show how all the actors can practice the elements that make up Integral Life Practice because it allows for all the modules to be pursued. 

 
Yoga and Surfing for the Body Module,  the workshops at Esalen for the Mind Module, the expansive vistas and effects of the waves on meditation for the Spirit Module and the community around a campfire on the beach for sharing in the Shadow Module.

Roles Reinforced

 With the funding accomplished to enable the production with the actors hired from wherever is best then the shooting on location can begin.

Achieving Communion Plot: Chapter 3

Since the locations include places like Yosemite, it would be more effective to bring my trailer along to be able to have all the necessities of shelter, food and supplies all in one place that is easily transportable and close to the wilderness areas that will be chosen for the production. It's a lot more comfortable than just camping and easier to hold everything needed.

Taking the trailer along would even allow a green screen studio to be set up inside with appropriate lighting and also have my computer equipment easily accessible as close to the shooting locations as possible to be able to animate, composite and edit the footage to be certain that the production had what it needed while we were there.

The first thing to shoot at Yosemite is the Mist Trail to Vernal Falls since it will give a chance to show the importance of maps to be able to find your way, how to check for landmarks to make sure the map shows is translated to what you experience and how different maps show different information that can be used in different ways.

Some maps are easier to follow but show less information, it depends on how much is needed to reach the destination, then add in the lesson of how this relates to the Scientific Method that following the path from a map is like following the injunction, straying from the path is like checking for falsity to find out if the map is accurate and asking others that have used the map and reached the destination without incident is like verifying the results of an experiment and gotten the same data from a "community of the adequate" 

That shows the need for context because a map of California would be too general and won't give the details of how to find your way around Yosemite and a map of only Curry Village is too specific to show what is outside of it's range to find anything else. In every facet of perception like getting information from shadows, the amount of context is crucial because that knowledge and how to apply it will be the difference between wisdom and mistakes

Context is also important in being able to tell the difference between theory and practice when you can have all the knowledge of the optics that makes rainbows but that won't give you the wisdom that comes from actually experiencing them. 

People could tell you all they want about the double rainbows at Vernal Falls and even show video but that's not nearly the same as experiencing it yourself. I remember when I first saw them and my reaction was profound even if it wasn't as extreme as some others.

Chapters Converging

There are a few more branches that the plot could take after first chapter depending on how committed the actor is or if they'll just  agree to only performing in the video for the Kickstarter campaign

Achieving Communion Plot: Chapter 2


When I've found someone in the acting class that is willing to perform in the video, I'll take them to the spot next to the Nature Center to use the water fall next to the salmon hatchery as a back drop, so that will have some impact for the exercise with the naming of the different shades of green and use the picnic tables for the examples of the different categories to put objects according to different parameters. 

In addition to the examples of things not being only one thing, I can use the fish ladder as an example of the Hero's Journey that the fish take from the hatchery to the ocean and back through all the stages and challenges they face that can be described by the formulas in the the Hero's Journey that I can illustrate in the video. 

It has a lot better chance to have a positive impact on people with better actor than I was even with that good of a background. 

So the thing is that if I can convince at least one actor to help me with the video then they can do a much better job to convince everyone else. Especially because it's a lot more difficult to convince strangers on the internet to put their money into something than it is to convince someone that you've gotten to know in person to put some time and effort into help with a project.

But getting an actor to show how sincere the people are that want to project to succeed so that it can be made would go a long way to convince those strangers to put money in it.

After putting in the graphics and editing the video together to fit in with the other details on the project page, the next thing would be to promote the campaign to get donations. Hopefully the other people in the class would help spread the news on social media among their friends and the actor that appeared in the video would have a good reason to get the word out about it, like the other film and video projects that get featured and were funded

That's where the branches in the plot come in when the project is funded, would the actor be willing to go on to perform in the next phase of shooting on locations at Yosemite, Big Sur and Vasquez Rocks? Also when there is more money to hire more qualified actors should that be considered instead? What would be the amount of dedication of those who were in it from the start? Would that be of more benefit to the project than the qualifications and experience of professional actors?

Plots Coalescing

 After writing that journal on 12/21/2007 almost a decade ago, I think I finally worked out how the plot fits together for the end of the auto biographical trilogy called Achieving Communion. At the end of the second part, called Attempting Symmetry, I'll have the Naked Angel finished and ready to be put into practice.

Achieving Communion Plot: Chapter 1


Then I'll enroll in an acting class at Butte College to find a student that is willing to help me film the video for the Kickstarter and Indegogo campaigns to raise the money to produce the movies, reality TV shows and video games. Krys took the Principles of Acting class when we were both going to Butte and she told me all about the assignments and she met someone there that became her friend outside of the class. Because of the nature of the class in cooperating on acting in scenes together it should be easy to get a chance to explain the opportunity to make a video with others in the class.

 
I could get to know the students for a while before finding out if any of them would be willing to help me with the video.  I could show my business card and use the DVD I made for The Writer's Nightmare and Affirmations with Animation as examples to show any of the students of the kind of work I do and a DVD of video clips to illustrate the idea for the Naked Angel. Using text animation to introduce the problems I had with the other DVD and the need to raise money to get better production quality so he first clip would be to show how kickstarter works to raise money from crowdfunding and why a video is necessary 

The next clip on the DVD would the example of the blonde stereotype and how that narrow view of only certain traits to describe the whole personality requires a dependence on binary choices that something has to be only one thing or another to restrict simple choices.  Blondes can be more than fun and more than dumb. Just because they are beautiful, doesn’t also mean that they can’t be smart since the aren’t mutually exclusive showing how false the stereotype is.

Using video clips from Legally Blonde would illustrate an example of Elle Woods showing how wrong that idea is and prove that concept of people being more than one thing at a time, so there are many more options than only binary. Legally Blonde also shows the transformation of Elle Woods from experiencing her growth from a sorority sister that put marriage to the wrong guy as a priority for herself to a lawyer that put serving justice as a priority for others that will help introduce the concept of the Heroes journey to transcend to a larger identity and include more depth from growth.

Then a clip on the DVD to show a couple of exercises that I want to put in the video for the Kickstarter campaign that I need an actor for. I'll show them clips from Maybe Logic with Robert Anton Wilson to give example of how there are more options than exclusively being one thing or another, with some motion text and a clip from Brain Games to show how perception can be fooled unless that is taken into account and adapted to it.

 

After that I'll be using video clips from My Fair Lady would show another example of the Heroes Journey and the transformation that Eliza goes through from a poor, simple flower girl struggling to survive to an educated well spoken lady with the expanded options of a duchess that highlight the stages of growth and clarify the reasons behind calling the reality TV show My Fair Guru with the steps along the Heroes Journey of Answering the Call, the Mentor, Central Ordeal and Returning the Elixir.

Then adding video clips from The Next Karate Kid includes Zen lessons into the Heroes Journey with Julie going through a transformation to integrate self discipline, balance and harmony into her life through practicing martial arts. This example shows how meditation and examples of Zen paradoxes fit into the journey to transcend and include more aspects than just simple binary fragments. The expanded awareness of surroundings with avoiding the sandbags blindfolded, the reflexes in harmony with catching the arrow and the visualization of the Zen bowling.

In order to show the path of the journey it is necessary to have a map to show the landmarks along the way. That's what the Integral Map is for to show "all quadrants, all levels and all lines" along the way to track of the progress in the development of evolution.

Attempting to expand to a wider audience for a deeper impact

Putting efforts into developing my own style that I'm happy with, doesn't always coincide with what others might find valuable. I know some of my work appeals to at least some people that I've heard from, so I have some fans out there but my a lot of my attempts to spread my art to an audience online don't seem to be reaching enough of those that could be fans.

So now that Mom has moved to Paradise, I figured that could be an opportunity to share our interest in art together and also to try and expand the audience for both of us. I looked up the Paradise Art Center and we joined. They have a members show in September so I had a couple of posters printed at Cafe Press to display there. 

Unfortunately the costs of getting them printed is not worth selling them directly through the Paradise Art Center so, the idea is to show examples of my work to more people so that once they are exposed to the kind of art that I do they will be interested in seeing more. 

I left a bunch of my business cards there with my contact info and address to this blog so people can order prints from Cafe Press and that way the manufacturing and shipping costs are part of the price instead of having to cover it by retail which is a lot more inefficient. It also gives people a much wider range of options than buying them directly from the gallery since Cafe Press offers many more products to print the designs on. Plus that way I can do custom designs to order, if they tell me what kinds of ideas they have in mind.

After all that worked out well for the lady who wanted bumper stickers, yard signs and t-shirts custom designed because I was able to design just what she wanted then it was easily produced and delivered to her

I'm not sure what kind of audience that the Paradise Art Center has, but hopefully it can get more people talking about my art and maybe more chances for networking with artists. At the very least Mom and I can share getting more exposed to the art scene there and having fun interacting with the artists there.

A new direction in Reality TV shows

Maybe a better way to get people interested and spread the idea of ILP to the masses would be to get a show TV about it. That way I could get them to start off studying the background of Integral Life Practice and make the ideas popular for more people to follow while highlighting the need to practice and apply the ideas to fully grasp them.



In order to show the benefits of Sangha and the effects that community has with the lower quadrants, I could have a "Reality TV Show" with a group of actors called "Can you become Wiser than a Guru?" They could go and take classes in Integral Transformative Practice at Esalen Institute in Big Sur and I could record their progress to show how much the lessons they practice affect their stages of development and give prizes for the amounts they all grow in levels, lines and states of consciousness. That follows the My Fair Lady" theme of the film as well to show the progress in growth.



Instead of having them compete against each other, I could have incentives to cooperate with group benefiting as each member makes progress like prizes for the all of them as the individual grows and prizes for the most growth for the group overall. That gives more of a drama on the positive side of accomplishing goal with teamwork and sharing with a community that uses the different talents of it's people to achieve their tasks to find their path.



As part of the practices, the contestants could have yoga and surfing classes to teach the lessons of balance, harmony with nature and connecting with the rhythms of life. That could teach them the lessons of being able to maintain that unstable state as more than just a "peak experience" and expand it into a "plateau experience" that can be extended longer than the ride of a wave.

"Or, perhaps the answer is only with them when they're riding -- balanced upon the waves. Like electricity through copper wire. Disconnected from the source of power, the copper has no memory of the current. But, atop the perfect wave, the surfer connects the circuit, perfectly balanced with nature, with God, with creation, the wind, the sea, even the fish. Solid state technology. Feet to board, board to waves, a flawless connection. A strong current, uncountable volts, ungaugeable amperage. Bliss, peace, nirvana, rushes through the surfer like a melody through the holes of a flute, along the frets of a guitar, upon the vocal chords in the larynx. But is gone when the vibrations stop. On the shore, the surfer is left with no verbal or written way to explain the happening, the event. He or she struggles hopelessly inventing words like, gnarly, tubular

They've obtained nirvana, but it isn't a stable state. In fact it is the exact nature of nirvana to be unstable. Nirvana is the nonexistent border between two other stable modes. It doesn't exist while you're standing in either of the modes, you have to have one foot in each. Nirvana isn't flying, it isn't the clouds, it isn't the plane, it's the turbulence. It's the yellow circle of the traffic light. Only, you have to remove it from the signal. Then let speeding traffic decide when the green will turn to red -- that's nirvana. It's not stable by nature. Achieving nirvana MEANS a skilled flirt with disaster. Surfers know that. Surfers know true enlightenment."

Applying the Hero's Journey to the Treasure Hunt

I was reading about the mythic structure of "Hero's Journey" so that I could apply it to the "Hunt for the Chakra Jewels" DVD to try and make the story behind the treasure hunt more compelling. I got a good guide about how to apply the archtypes and motivations from a book called "The Writer's Journey" with tips about putting the stages of the journey into 3 Acts and how to put the high points of the stages into dramatic plot points to sustain interest throughout the 3 Acts. That is a better framework to making the story more cohesive throughout all the stages of the Hunt. Also making the puzzles and clues relate better to the story if they are put into parts of the journey.



I figured I could use the archtype of the Herald as the representative of the Gamemaster and that would be a better name for character. So that the 1st Act would be the stage of "The Call to Adventure" and the hook to get the people that bought the DVD to identify with the cause of embarking on the quest and interested enough with the story to put some effort into solving the puzzles.



I can use the Angel of Death in the Tarot Card as a archtype of The Shadow to show the fears and hestitations to the Hero would have to take up the challenges to clarify the stakes of trying to transcend Death. The hazards of leaving the Ordinary World and entering the Special World with all the rewards to be earned making the effort worthwhile.



I could also use The Empress Tarot card as an archtype of the Ally to aid the Heroes that buy the DVD to impart gifts that help them on their quest and the Justice Tarot card as a Mentor to give them training in the rules of the Special World of the treasure hunt. That will help sustain the interest over the length of the hunt since it will maintain the dramatic tension over the 3 Acts because the hunt will include all the stages of the journey when I give all the characters and archtypes an arc of progress to follow



I can put the stages of Act I on the DVD, Act II in the search for the Keys and Act III opening the locks and finding the prizes. The DVD will include the stage "The Call to Adventure" then the webpage with the chakras clues will include "The Refusal of the Call" stage and buying the stuff at CafePress will be the "Crossing of the First Threshold" stage with the Temperance as the Shapeshifter and the Star Tarot card as the Trickster archtypes providing the roles of the Threshold Guardian as tests to show commitment to the quest



The book goes into some detail about the origin, purpose and value of cathersis that is what I think is important to give the treasure hunt a more compelling purpose than just winning the prizes

The Benefits of shifting to Integral Ethics

With the current economic crisis finally showing the failure of the "greed is good" strategy of only focusing on the bottom line for short term profit while ignoring the responsibilities of more than selfish interests. Perhaps it is time for more people to embrace a more efficient ehtical system that includes more options in order to get the economy working again with a lot more long term stability.

Hopefully this will point out how inept and mistaken the strategies of being selfish are and the consequences of the disease of Boomeritis when people only focuse on one side of the situation and forget the balance of the other.

For example in the field of Health Care, when HMOs focus only on the profits of the business then services they are supposed to provide suffer from neglect in quality for their customers because they are only concerned with the least cost, not the value the the customers are getting.

The people on the business side get rich, but the customers undergo substandard service which impacts their health and so the HMO become parasites that feed off the host of their customers but ultimately kills them to move on to others.




In the practice of considering only one side of just Depth, The Borg are the ultimate facists since they oppress all holons below them and adapt them to serve their purposes. The Borg take pathological hierachies to an extreme because they are too arrogant to allow themselves to be part of another whole, they only want to be just a whole period. They don't consider anything to be larger than themselves or share in the communion with fellow holons in the hierachy, they just want to dominate them with their own agency. The Borg focus on only power replaces communion, domination replaces communication and oppression replaces reciprocity. Any attempt at balance that doesn't fit their narrow idea of perfection is considered irrelevant.



I think a good way to get people interested in the video game would be to highlight the benefits of applying the Integral Life Practices to everyday situations. By having exercises, puzzles and quests to motivate the players to explore the Basic Moral Intuition by figuring out how to implement different degrees of the Depth and Span of Holons, it will give the practice in going beyond the usual reality tunnels of black and white choices to give them experience in choosing between more options.

In the MMORPG they could start out as holons at low level of matter like atoms and develope their characters through each successive level of complexity making choices of the 4 drives of holons along the way then as instincts of life and different degrees of Depth and Span are developed they could make choices based on the Basic Moral Intuition to practice what they are like at each level of perspective. So that when the more inclusive levels of consiousness and greater depth are achived they have more and more options of Depth and Span to choose from.





Ken Wilber’s Twenty Tenets are:

1. Reality is not composed of things or processes, but of holons, which are wholes that are simultaneously parts.
2. Holons display four fundamental capacities:
a. self-preservation (agency)
b. self-adaptation (communion)
c. self-transcendence
d. self-dissolution
3. Holons emerge.
4. Holons emerge holarchically.
5. Each holon transcends and includes its predecessors.
6. The lower sets the possibilities of the higher; the higher sets the probabilities of the lower.
7. The number of levels which a hierarchy comprises determines whether it is ‘shallow’ or ‘deep;’ and the number of holons on any given level we shall call its ‘span.’
8. Each successive level of evolution produces greater depth and less span.
9. Destroy any type of holon, and you will destroy all of the holons above it and none of the holons below it.
10. Holarchies co-evolve. The micro is always within the macro (all agency is agency in communion).
11. The micro is in relational exchange with macro at all levels of its depth.
12. Evolution has directionality:
a. increasing complexity.
b. increasing differentiation/integration.
c. increasing organization/structuration.
d. increasing relative autonomy.
e. increasing telos.





According to Wilber, the Twenty Tenets are an attempt to summarize and draw some basic conclusions from dynamic systems theory and the contemporary evolutionary sciences. Calling them "tendencies of evolution" or "propensities of manifestation," the Twenty Tenets operate throughout the three great domains of evolution: the physiosphere, the biosphere, and the noosphere (or matter, life, and mind).

In his presentation, Leonard pointed out that what is both significant and striking about Wilber’s Twenty Tenets is that they describe regularities stretching from the big bang all the way up to exalted spiritual states of consciousness in humans. Here are some are some of the highlights:

Basic Terms

Wilber uses the terms "holons" and "holarchy" throughout the Twenty Tenets. The author of The Ghost in the Machine (1976) Arthur Koestler originally coined the term "holon" to refer to that which is a whole in one context but simultaneously a part in another. For example, the word "bark" is a whole because by itself it has a recognizable and independent meaning. However, in the sentence "the bark of a dog" the word "bark" has a context-specific meaning, which would be different in a separate context, such as "the bark on a tree." The word "bark" thus can be both a whole by itself and a part within the larger context of a sentence. "Holarchy" refers to the embedded nature of holons. For example, the whole sentence "the bark of a dog scared me" can simultaneously be part of a yet larger whole, such as a paragraph. And, in turn, the paragraph can be part of an essay, and so forth.





Tenet 1

Reality is not composed of things or processes, but of holons, which are wholes that are simultaneously parts of other wholes with no upward or downward limit. Since reality is not composed of wholes nor of parts, but of whole/parts, then this approach undercuts the old argument between atomism (all things are fundamentally isolated individual wholes that interact by chance) and wholism (all things are merely strands in a larger web). For Wilber, both of these views by themselves are incorrect. This approach also undercuts the argument the materialists and idealists. Reality is not composed of sub-atomic particles (materialism) nor is it composed of ideas, symbols, or thoughts (idealism). It is composed of holons. According to Wilber, holons can be expressed in material, spiritual, or purely abstract terms. Take mathematics, for example. The various paradoxes that have arisen in Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorem take us into an irreversible, ever-expanding, no upper limit mathematical universe. The totality of mathematical sets can’t be completely determined. If they could be, we could take that a set and continue to generate still larger sets from it. Sets are arranged in a transfinite hierarchy. In mathematics, what we see as today’s wholes may very well become tomorrow’s parts.

Tenets 2 a,b,c,d

2 a: Self-preservation (or agency). A hydrogen atom in a suitable context can keep on being a hydrogen atom. It displays self-preservation in the simple sense of maintaining identity or agency across time. And maybe that is quite remarkable when you think about it. A holon in a living context is an even more remarkable, sophisticated agency. The term autopoiesis refers to how a holon maintains its pattern or structure even as its material components are exchanged. It assimilates the environment to itself. In short, holons are defined not by the stuff of which they are made but by the pattern they display.

2 b: Self-adaptation (or communion). A holon functions not only as a self-preserving whole but also as a part of a larger whole. The partness aspect of a holon is displayed by its capacity to accommodate, to register other holons, to fit into its existing environment. Even electrons accommodate themselves, for example, to the number of other electrons in an orbital shell. This is not to imply that taboo word "intentionality." It is just the capacity to react to the surrounding environment. So, think of these two opposing tendencies—agency and communion: agency as the self-preserving, self-asserting tendency which expresses wholeness and relative autonomy; and communion as the participatory boding, joining tendency which expresses partness in relationship to something larger. An excess of either tendency can deform or kill a holon, whether the growth of a plant or of the patriarchy.

2 c: Self-transcendence. When an oxygen atom and two hydrogen atoms are brought together under suitable conditions, a new and in some way unprecedented holon emerges. This is not just a communion, adaptation, or association. It is a transformation resulting in something novel and emergent. This is what Whitehead calls creativity, the category necessary to describe any other category. This transcendence can result in small or quite large steps in organic evolution in what is called grade. Here, Darwinian gradualism is replaced by Simpson’s quantum evolution, Eldridge and Gould’s punctuated equilibrium, and Michael Murphy’s evolutionary transcendence. In any case, self-transcendence means nothing more or nothing less than that the universe has an intrinsic capacity to go beyond what came before.

2d: Self-dissolution. Holons that are built up through vertical self-transcendence can also break down. When holons dissolve or become unglued, they tend to so along the same vertical sequence along which they were built up.

Leonard pointed out that there is a constant tension among the above four tendencies. For example, helium may be called inert, but a different description is that helium does not want to join into communion (tenet 2b) with other elements.

Tenet 3

Holons emerge. Owing to the self-transcendent capacity of holons, new holons emerge. Sub-atomic particles, atoms, molecules, polymers, cells, and so on, the emergent holon is in some sense novel. They possess properties and qualities that can’t be strictly and totally deduced from their components, and therefore they and their descriptions can’t be reduced without remainder to their component parts. Emergence always means indeterminacy is sewn into the very fabric of the universe. Quoting from Sex, Ecology, Spirituality (p. 47) Leonard read,

Emergence is neither a rare nor an isolated phenomenon. As Varela, Thompson, and Rosch summarize the available evidence: "It is clear that emergent properties have been found across all domains—vortices and lasers, chemical oscillations, genetic networks, developmental patterns, population genetics, immune networks, ecology, and geophysics. What all these diverse phenomena have in common is that in each case a network gives rise to new properties. . . . The emergence of global patterns or configurations in systems of interacting elements is neither an oddity of isolated cases nor unique to [special] systems. In fact, it seems difficult for any densely connected aggregate to escape emergent properties." (Francisco Varela, et. al., The Embodied Mind, pp. 88-90.)

Tenet 4

Holons emerge holarchically. That is, hierarchically. That is, as a series of increasing whole/parts. Organisms contain cells but not vice versa. Cells contain molecules but not vice versa. Molecules contain atoms but not vice versa. That "not vice versa" at each stage is what constitutes unavoidable asymmetry and hierarchy/holarchy. Each deeper or higher holon embraces its junior predecessors and then adds its own new and more encompassing pattern or holon. This is Whitehead’s famous dictum, "the many become one and are increased by one." Quoting from Sex, Ecology, Spirituality (p. 49) Leonard read,

Bertalanffy put it very bluntly: "Reality, in the modern conception, appears as a tremendous hierarchical order of organized entities, leading, in a superposition of many levels, from physical and chemical to biological and sociological systems. Such hierarchical structure and combination into systems of ever higher order, is characteristic of reality as a whole and is of fundamental importance especially in biology, psychology and sociology." (Ludwig Bertalanffy, General Systems Theory, pp. 74, 87.)

It is this idea of hierarchy and holarchy that has put Wilber at odds with the deep ecologists and ecofeminists.

Tenet 5

Each emergent holon transcends but includes its predecessors. Each newly emergent holon preserves the previous holons themselves but negates their separateness or isolatedness. As Hegel said, "to supercede is at once to preserve and negate." In other words, all the lower is in the higher but not all the higher is in the lower. Hydrogen atoms are in the water molecule but the water molecule is not in the atom. We might say the water molecule pervades or permeates the atom but it isn’t actually in it. Just as all of the word is in the sentence but not all the sentence is in the word. The higher holon preserves the lower, but it does somehow limit freedom. Once in a sentence a word can’t take on alternative meaning. Once in a molecule the hydrogen atom can’t go flying around in space and become part of a proto-galaxy.

Tenet 6

The lower sets the possibilities of the higher; the higher sets the probabilities of the lower. Even though the higher goes beyond the lower level, it does not violate the law or pattern of the lower level. It can’t be reduced to the lower level or determined by the lower level, but neither can it ignore the lower level. Your body follows the laws of gravity. Your mind follows other laws, such as those of symbolic communication and linguistic syntax. But if your body falls off a cliff, your mind goes with it. Clearly, the lower sets the possibility of a large framework within which the higher has to operate, but to which it is not confined. As for the higher restricting the possibility of the lower, here is how Sheldrake puts it (Quoted from Sex, Ecology, Spirituality, p.55),

At every level, the fields of the holons are probabilistic, and the material processes within the holon are somewhat random or indeterminate. Higher-level fields may act upon the fields of lower level holons in such a way that their probability structures are modified. This can be thought of in terms of a restriction of their indeterminism: out of the many possible patterns of events that could have happened, some now become much more likely to happen as a result of the order imposed by the higher-level field. This field organizes and patterns the indeterminism that would be shown by the lower-level holons in isolation. (Rupert Sheldrake, The Presence of the Past, pp. 120-121.)

Tenet 7

The number of levels which a hierarchy comprises determines whether it is ‘shallow’ or ‘deep;’ and the number of holons on any given level we shall call its ‘span.’ Let us arbitrarily assign atoms a depth of 3 (since they contain components of at least 2 previous levels). Let us imagine a time in the early universe when there were only atoms and no molecules. In that case, we can say that atoms have a small depth but an enormous span stretching through the existent universe. Thus depth equals 3 and span equals zillions. When molecules first emerged, they had a depth of 4, but initially a very small span. When there is greater vertical dimension to the holon, then there is greater depth to that holon.

Tenet 8

Each successive level of evolution produces greater depth and less span. The greater the depth of a holon, the more precarious its situation. Since its existence depends on the existence of a series of other holons internal to it, and since the lower holons are components of the higher, there can’t be more number of the higher than there are number of components. The number of water molecules will always be less than the hydrogen and oxygen atoms in the universe. The number of cells in the universe will always be less than the number of molecules in the universe. Also, the span of mental holons is much less than the span of living holons. This is called the pyramid of development. Addition 1 to Tenet 8: The greater the depth of a holon, the greater its degree of consciousness. In the case of the simplest holons, Wilber is not referring to consciousness as humans experience it, but is following the lead of major theorists, such as Spinoza, Leibniz, Schopenhauer, Whitehead, Aurobindo, and Schelling, who explicitly recognize the "within" of the universe. Whithead’s prehension, for example, is a sort of rudimentary consciousness. This extends all the way up to high spiritual states, and this makes it an extremely ambitious scheme. One that can’t be proven by our present methods of science.

Tenet 9

Destroy any type of holon, and you will destroy all of the holons above it and none of the holons below it. This is an important tenet because it provides a simple test as to where in the holarchy any holon stands. Let’s again take our familiar holistic sequence, sub-atomic particles, atoms, molecules, cells, and so on. Here each member includes its predecessor(s) but not vice versa. And thus each successive number is indeed more encompassing or thus more holistic. If we destroyed, for example, all the molecules in the universe, we would also destroy all the cells in the universe—all the holons above molecules. But atoms and subatomic particles would or could still exist. None of the lower holons would have to cease existing. For this tenet, Wilber introduces two words representing two qualities that operate in an inverse relationship: fundamental and significant. The more fundamental a holon is, the less significant it is and vice versa. That is, the less depth a holon has, the more fundamental it is to the cosmos, because it serves as a component to so many other holons. Atoms, for example, are very fundamental because molecules, cells, organisms, life, and mind, and higher states, all depend on them. At the same time, the less depth a holon has the less significant it is to the cosmos because it embraces as its own component so little of the cosmos. Primates, as a counter example, are not very fundamental holons because neither atoms nor molecules depend upon them, but they are very significant because they represent and contain atoms, molecules, and cells. They signify more of the cosmos.

Tenet 10

Holarchies co-evolve. Holons don’t evolve alone, because there are no alone holons (there are only fields within fields within fields). This principle is often referred to as "co-evolution," which simply means that the "unit" of evolution is not an isolated holon but a holon plus its inseparable environment. Even though an individual holon exists inseparably within its social environment, its defining factor is its own particular form or pattern. To the degree that we can reasonably recognize that pattern, we will refer to an individual holon. Its environment we will call the social holon.

Tenet 11

The micro is in relational exchange with macro at all levels of its depth. Take a human being as an example using the three levels of matter, life, and mind. All these levels maintain their own existence through a network of relational exchanges with holons at the same depth in the environment. The physical body exists in a system of relational exchanges with other physical bodies in terms of gravitation, material forces, energies, light, water, and so on. The human race reproduces itself physically through food production and consumption. Humanity reproduces itself biologically through emotional-sexual relations organized by family and appropriate social environment and depends on a whole network of other biological systems. Finally, human beings reproduce themselves mentally through exchanges with cultural and symbolic environments, the very essence of which is the relational exchange of symbols with other symbol exchangers. In short, as holons evolve, each layer of depth continues to exist and depend upon a network of relationships with other holons at the same level of structure and organization.

Tenets 12 a,b,c,d,e

At this point in his presentation Leonard opened up the floor to the other participants for questions and conversation, and thus he did not cover the last five of the Twenty Tenets in detail. Briefly, those last five are:

Evolution has directionality:
a. increasing complexity.
b. increasing differentiation/integration.
c. increasing organization/structuration.
d. increasing relative autonomy.
e. increasing telos.