by Phyllis Kirk
ASSIGNMENT: Social architecture in the United States 2007. (Star Date [-4] 83930.41) Does this nation's social infrastructure support development of individuals?
A most interesting region of Earthbound humans, this United States. We find a diverse array of technology, arts, and institutions: There is advanced informational equipment that is individual-connecting, people-centered and user-driven.
This nation segregates its wisdom generation as 'old' and puts them in ghettos called nurse houses. Yet they lead other Earth cultures in honoring their environment.
They are the richest nation. They are also the sickest nation and the most violent measured by the percentage of the nation's wealth that goes into medicine and external wars.
Most interesting is this: They are ahead of other Earth cultures in what we call expansive opportunities.
We recommend continued monitoring for potentially meaningful contributions.
Submitted by: Spock, Jr. Science Officer, U.S.S. Enterprise (NCC-1701)
How would you advise Dr. Spock? If social architecture is the framework of society, then the individual person, or the self, is the moving part. Does the U.S. have structures that enhance meaningful lives for individuals? Does the self prosper here?
The small Himalayan country of Bhutan has created a social architecture that gives priority to happiness as a political goal. Bhutan believes that true social advancement only takes place if material and spiritual development occur together. Gross National Happiness, GNH, is a guiding principle in all policies and plans.
If I were born in Bhutan, would my self have a better shot at happiness? Am I in a sense handicapped by being born in the U.S.? If my goal is happiness, is it a disadvantage to be bathed in choice, abundance, technology and glitz?
The self within the social architecture is similar to a loom. The vertical strands anchored to the loom at the top and bottom are like society's framework. They represent the “givens” that we have in our lives: national economy, quality of education and health care, religion, censorship/freedom of information, et cetera. The loom's handheld shuttle that weaves the horizontal thread across the vertical strands represents the individual within the social structure. The threads that the shuttle-self selects are the “chosens.”
The vertical threads, the social framework, do not determine the outcome. They only support the final creation on my loom. They could be the plastic fishing line of a good education, the stretchy rubber bands of a dysfunctional childhood, or the copper wire of an economic depression. They are just fixed strands that I weave my loom's shuttle through. I decide which of the vertical threads I want to engage and which ones I want to pass over. And I decide what I weave into them. I can weave with threads of anger, pessimism and worry, or with ribbons of passion, gratitude and trust. Both the vertical givens and the horizontal chosens create the tapestry that comes from my loom of life.
The self can flourish in the worst social conditions. Viktor Frankl's book, Man's Search for Meaning, came from surviving four years in Nazi concentration camps. There are people every day whose self rises above a negating social structure. Wangari Maathai, an East African woman who's been beaten and repeatedly arrested for her empowerment politics, became a Nobel Peace Prize winner for her Green Belt Movement.
The real question for the self is: What emotions and experiences do I want in my life, and how do I get them? Quantum physics has an answer, and it's called a strange attractor.
In quantum physics, a strange attractor is an invisible point that makes random arrows of energy return to it repeatedly. A strange attractor picks patterns out of the chaos. In that way, it's sort of like the outer layer of the brain, the neo-cortex, which seeks to make meaning out of a mass of random data. A strange attractor shapes things into patterns based on the energy that is programmed into its core.
The strange attractor is a stable constant in whirling change. The self is the strange attractor in the social architecture that gives the soul meaning. As you accept the reality of it and pay attention to how it works, your strange attractor can be one of your self's strongest allies.
I used to be a news junkie. I read local and international dailies, and constantly listened to news. When I went to live in Moscow in 1989, the Iron Curtain was still very much up. Life for Westerners in Moscow in 1989 was almost as isolated as it was for Soviets. International mail, newspapers and phone service was somewhere between impossible and non-existent.
When I returned to the States after three years in Moscow, I lived by choice in a home that was TV- and newspaper-free. I started to understand Mass Consciousness … or perhaps it's Mass Unconsciousness.
I began to realize: First, that the news I had thought was critical to my life wasn't; and second, what I needed to know came to me in interesting and unpredictable ways. Somehow I was getting exactly what was valuable to me.
The most significant example of this happened last year here in San Diego. At a stoplight with a city bus on my left, I glanced up and saw a TV in the bus. Scrolling across the monitor was former President Clinton's quote honoring Rosa Parks who had just died. Rosa had lit the candle of the civil rights movement in the U.S.; I was touched by her parting. Something knew that I would want to know, and it gave me that special moment.
I accept a scientific explanation that goes something like this: My interest in Rosa Parks created a Rosa Parks neural network in my brain. That network carries the electrical charge when our brains have a recurring thought. My Rosa Parks brain pattern is continually active whether I am thinking about her or not. The Rosa pattern in my brain attracts Rosa information from my environment.
Some indefinable source in me draws to me what is beneficial for me. Hmmm … sounds like a strange attractor: an invisible point of energy that keeps drawing itself back to itself out of the atmosphere.
I remember when it sounded quite impossible to me that the energy in the universe was set up to cater to what Phyllis wanted. But I'm now a fan of the Red Queen.
Why, sometimes I've believed as many as
six impossible things before breakfast.
–Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, 1872
Knowing that I have a strange attractor allows me to operate in the world in a different way. When I get up, if I want chocolate truffles from the universal candy store, I turn my internal dial to chocolate truffles and turn up the volume for a bit. Then I stop thinking about it and go on about my day. If I find myself surrounded by lime gummy bears, I just keep on walking, gently holding chocolate truffles in the back of my mind. Expectation without yearning. Kind of a Zen thing.
Before I knew about my strange attractor, my way of getting truffles out of my environment was exhausting:
1) Yellow pages
2) List candy stores
3) Call them all:
a. Chocolate truffles? Brand?
b. Read the ingredients.
c. Where are you? Hours?
4) Go test truffles. But don't buy till I've sampled all, so I'm sure to get the best.
My strange attractor eliminates all that. Whatever truffles show up are the beneficial ones for me because they match my chocolate truffle broadcast.
What does this mean in practical terms? It means that before I do something, I get clear about what results and emotions I want. Then I program my strange attractor with those images and feelings.
Now in my wisdom years, I know the emotions I want and the ones I don't. I don't want poverty or spiritual deprivation, violence or pessimism. Know they exist. Don't choose them.
I just keep putting energy into the ones I want: easy healing; delightful learning; delicious relationships; awesome dancing, beauty and music. And I want creativity that is filled with doing good, making money and having fun. I pay attention to what I do want. The simple act of focusing on it gives it energy. Energy vibrates. Vibrations attract. Use energy to program your strange attractor and guess what shows up?
I have also learned to ignore those things I do not want in my life. Two people can stand in exactly the same spot and have opposite experiences. One looks down, sees litter in the gutter and bitches about the pollen. The other looks up, sees purple orchid trees and fairy dust floating through the air. You make your choice.
Within the framework of U.S. society, it's all available: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Our magnificent self's built-in strange attractor is our touchstone. We can bring into reality the tapestry of our dreams … right here in this awesome candy store of the United States.
As Spock said, the U.S. is a most interesting nation to observe. It's even more entertaining to live here. As far as the self is concerned, the candy store is just the drama in the background. Viktor Frankl, Rosa Parks and Maathai Wangari prove that the self can transcend and transform any distracting dramas.
If you live in Bhutan, the chocolate truffles of happiness are front row center. If you live in the U.S., you can sample a thousand aisles on your way to the truffles. Either way, your self will get you there if that's what you've programmed into your strange attractor.
Author of The Magic of Quantum, Phyllis Kirk, J.D. is a recovering lawyer now practicing spiritual law, wisdom and wealth. www.themagicofquantum.com. Her favorite forms of social architecture are: OdeMagazine.com, ShaktiRising.org, SpiritualCinemaCircle.com, WhattheBleep.com, TheSecret.tv, and Argentine Tango.