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Continued from:
Creative Chaos in Coaching and Therapy (1)
You can apply many features of chaos theory to your
subjective experience of objective reality - to your "map of the
world". Your life reflects a complex phase space, with vast enfolded
information, and an organizing principle, human identity. You can change
identity to survive and thrive in a changed reality.
Creative Chaos in Coaching & Psychotherapy (2)
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On the edge of chaos, when nothing makes sense and
everything is possible, miracles can happen. But waiting for a miracle is
rarely enough. Survival requires transformation - a change in identity.
A new identity will generate new values and beliefs, and support behavior
that is appropriate to the changed environment.
Organized Chaos (Martyn Carruthers 2004) |
Chaos & Consciousness
Even simple systems become chaotic as they approach limits.
Rocks in a desert are eroded into unpredictable shapes. Ethics become flexible under stress.
As in the Buddhist Diamond Sutra, chaos can be found in order,
and order in chaos. The organizing principle is the key. The organizing principle
used in Systemic Solutions is an experience of integrity - a stable experience of
connectedness, integration and purpose - an experience of self-as-system that does
not diminish with passing time.
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Diamond Sutra (Buddha) |
Form is emptiness, and the very emptiness is form;
emptiness does not differ from form, form does not differ from emptiness; whatever
is form, that is emptiness; whatever is emptiness, that is form. The same is true
of feelings, perceptions, impulses and consciousness. |
When approaching integrity, most people describe a predictable
series of non-ordinary realities that seem to represent undifferentiated consciousness.
As in chaos theory, these experiences can be characterized as non-linear,
self-generating and self-organizing. (Some people liken these experiences
to fractals, describing endless complexity within tiny details of experience.)
Soul of Soulwork . Psychobiology
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Transformation in Chaos
- Recognize your goal or crisis
- Evaluate your "model of the world"
- Define exactly what you want
- Experience your emotions
- Examine your limits
- Experience your identity
- Enter paradox and confusion
- Experience complexity and chaos
- Let a renewed identity emerge
- Enjoy renewed consciousness
Bifurcation (Moving fractal) |
Chaos is fundamental to life - and to death. Sooner or later chaos
will force you beyond your limits - and you either evolve or disintegrate. A
crisis presents an opportunity to dissolve old habits and create an identity
better adapted to your changed environment. If you adapt, you survive. If you
adapt well, you thrive. If you do not adapt, you suffer and perhaps die. Within
chaos, between sanity and insanity, you can regenerate your identity, beliefs and behavior.
Although associated with health and healing, our systemic
coaching makes no heroic searches for cures. Soulwork does not try to
"get rid of" symptoms. If you behave in ways that create suffering,
you can choose to change the "you" that chooses your behaviors.
If instead you can assimilate the phase space that contains
both chaos and order, you can manifest an identity - a "new you" - in
alignment with your chosen mission or purpose. (This is easier to demonstrate than to
describe!)
Human Identity is a Process
Every Hawaiian knows that the volcano goddess, Pele,
destroys old land to create new land. Many governments are created in
revolutions. Order can be renewed in chaos.
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Nonlinear Dynamics |
We are open systems in constant interaction with our environment.
While closed systems can reach equilibrium, open systems allow unpredictable oscillation
and stability. Open systems are organized by attractors, which can provide
identities within sufficiently complex systems. |
If, in a complex system, an identity (organizing
principle) becomes obsolete, the system degenerates into chaos - unless
or until another identity emerges. In a human system, a different
identity will differently evaluate relationships, find different solutions
and differently control behaviors.
If you are afraid to let go of your beliefs, or if you
identify with your beliefs, they become your limits. If you are
comfortable only within your beliefs, you may fear whatever
might move you beyond them. But stability is temporary. Sooner or
later, life will push you into unknown territory.
Chaos coaching does not defend you against complexity -
instead it accelerates and intensifies your movement through chaos. If you
abandon your old limits (phase transition) - you lose yourself to
gain a new sense of life. A new identity (strange attractor) can
organize order in chaos. Your new reference experience of self, your
new identity, can re-organize your relationships within your environment.
The I of the Cyclone
As tiny differences in initial conditions can lead to
enormous differences in effect, creating a seed of a new human identity
is a significant event. A question to initiate transition can be,
"What do you want?". Answers can lead, step by step, to a
core desire ... a life goal ... a mission. Then transformation makes sense.
Fulfillment is worth any effort. If you have a mission to fulfill, you will
always take the next step.
Images of fractal shapes illustrate the manifestations
of strange attractors within complex environments. Your new identity can
organize an infinite number of potential behaviors, which can unfold
following the patterns of your identity.
Your identity organizes your behavior within your
environment, until your identity reaches its limits. When that crisis
occurs, you either regenerate a core identity or you suffer the consequences,
which may be result in disease, depression, anxiety or rage ... or even the
cessation of identity in suicide.
Common consequences of clinging to limiting beliefs include:
- Age Regression: You demand that the world follow your childish expectations
- Emotional Stress: You experience overwhelming anger, sadness and fear
- Relationship Chaos: You develop toxic relationship and communication skills
- Addictions, Compulsions & Obsessions: You attempt distraction and escape
- Depression: You retreat from a life that does not make sense
- Relationship Bonds: You identify with other people's limiting beliefs
- Lost Identity: You lose access to and use of your core identity
- Identifications: You identify with another person
- Identity Conflict: You embody a conflict between two or more other persons
Chaos coaching can guide you through this. As in a super-saturated solution,
a seed crystal of your congruent desire provides a nucleus for a new
core identity - a new organizing principle for the conscious life that you automatically
express in your thoughts, beliefs and all parts of life.
If you rebuild your identity while focused on a well-formed outcome,
a congruent life goal, your "new identity" can focus your behavior on
your chosen mission.
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"On the the next steps, I experienced confusion,
disorientation and my sense of "me" was like sugar dissolved in water.
I was totally "here", feeling connected to all people.
I experienced an almost unbearable sense of potential in which everything,
absolutely everything, was possible. I felt that I was assisting my own birth." MT Boston, Mass
Unexpected Fractal Patterns (Martyn Carruthers, 2004) |
Altered States
As tiny differences in initial conditions can make vast
differences in the subsequent behavior of a system, care is taken to
focus on a single, positive, congruent goal. Focusing on two conflicting
goals can produce two attractors ... in conflict (identity conflict).
Focusing on somebody else's goal can produce an attractor based on that role
model (identification). A negative goal (E.g. "I don't want ...")
may not produce an attractor (lost identity).
Your journey leads to a sense of connectedness and integration,
the Soul of Soulwork. You are not separate from the universe, you are
part of it. You reflect the whole and you are connected with the whole.
Many people describe this experience as transcendental.
You can make space for a new identity and for new life
patterns that support your chosen mission.
| During a phase transition, chaos can manifest a new core identity.
After this timeless moment, you may perceive your old beliefs as strange memories. You can
create new ways to interact with your environment, in alignment with the crystalline
seed of your new identity - your congruent purpose or mission. The patterns set
by your new identity spontaneously appear throughout your behavior.
Fractal Loops (Martyn Carruthers, 2003) |
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We invite you to join us in this technology of consciousness.
Chaos Theory - part 1 . Soul of Soulwork . Psychobiology of Soul
Note: Our focus on multiple relationships in complex systems can complement the pre-systemic
fixation of trying to understand the world by statistical evaluation.
We offer effective coaching, coach training and mentorship.
We train people to coach individuals, partners and teams to resolve emotional,
educational and relationship challenges.
Plagiarism is theft. Copyright © Martyn Carruthers 2005-2010
All rights reserved
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