Introduction
(ii)
Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.
– Ted Perry, inspired by Chief Seattle (1)
The latest images we’re receiving from humankind’s most advanced cosmic observer, the James Webb Telescope, indicate that we’re part of an awe-inspiring universe. Focusing on just our own solar system, it’s remarkable that 97% of our Sun consists of the two simplest elements in the periodic table: hydrogen and helium. This elementary composition has generated a gravitational field, positioning our planet in such a way that it can foster immense, lush beauty—from unicellular organisms to human beings, who are now capable of observing the magnificence of our planet and the universe in such extraordinary detail.
And so, it prompts the question:
What is the source of this creativity?
This capacity to create complex phenomena with minimal effort stems from a deep simplicity, provided by the self-organizing, self-regulating, and self-healing processes that pervade every level of the universe.
For instance, our bodies regulate various aspects like blood pressure, temperature, enzyme levels, blood sugar, pH levels, etc., without any central command. This self-organizing process is nonlinear, contrasting with the linear model developed through our self-awareness process—a model now becoming too rigid to handle our nonlinear world.
What is meant by a nonlinear world?
As the last decade of the previous century concluded, we stepped into a nonlinear digital era that has brought the recent emergence of AI technology. we are now entering a new age of intelligence where we are experiencing a rate of change that accelerates exponentially as the world grows increasingly interrelated, interdependent, interconnected, unpredictable, and chaotic. This project aims to facilitate our successful navigation through the challenges of this emergent and transformative period by guiding us to recognize a nonlinear, systemic view of life and acknowledging the limitations of the linear model in this nonlinear epoch.
Can you elaborate on these challenges?
There are two key points here: one is a challenge, the other, an opportunity.
The challenge lies with the linear model—an approximation of our nonlinear world. In our self-awareness process, we separated the object from the subject, allowing us to develop abstract thinking that also falsely separated us from the universe. To uphold this illusory sense of separation, we devised a linear model. Our economy, politics, and environmental relationships were subsequently shaped according to this model. However, the dominance of the linear model that once ensured our survival is now threatening it in our nonlinear, digital world.
Simultaneously, this linear model has allowed us to achieve a certain level of awareness and knowledge through technology and nonlinear science. We now understand the intricacies of how the nonlinear, self-organizing system operates. Moreover, we can recognize the limitations of the linear model, as the nonlinear perspective offers guidance on how to navigate the challenges of this emergent, transformative era.
Could you tell us more about this nonlinear view or holistic model?
The nonlinear, self-organizing model is inherent in the universe. We observe this self-organizing process not only in our bodies, but also at every level and scale of the universe: from other species and Earth’s inhabitants to Earth itself, the solar system, and beyond—all are self-organizing.
According to systems theory, since nonlinear networks are the organizational pattern of the self-organizing system, they can provide the essential universal behavioral patterns observed in all living systems. Self-organizing systems are emergent processes operating in the chaotic zone, and nonlinear networks are structural patterns flexible enough to function at the edge of chaos. Theoretical physicist and systems theorist Fritjof Capra explains the essence of the self-organization of living networks as follows:
The essence of the self-organization of living networks is continual regeneration (technically called autopoiesis). The continual regeneration of life in nature (e.g. during the turn of the seasons) is ancient knowledge. What is new in the systems view of life is the understanding that regeneration operates at all levels of complexity, down to the molecular networks of cells. This continual regeneration requires a continual flow of energy and matter (metabolism). So, the regenerative nature of life (autopoiesis) is connected with the fact that living systems always exist in a state far from equilibrium (dissipative structures). (2)
Nonlinear networks consist of both order and randomness. Order ensures structural cohesiveness and clustering, while randomness reduces the degree of separation, making a highly interconnected system that brings unpredictability and flexibility, allowing for operation in the chaotic zone. During this process, these networks embody fractal patterns, enabling network members to synchronize their resources, information, talent, and assets through cooperation and partnership. As such, the entire network accrues a higher content of information, functionality, and intelligence, becoming greater than the sum of its parts. This nonlinear process allows the complex task of communicating a single word from one mind to another to occur with minimal effort. This is the primary source of creativity in the universe.
One of the qualities of nonlinear networks is their self-similarity, meaning they behave the same way at any scale—this is the universality of behavior among them. Hence, if you study one nonlinear network and comprehend its behavior, you can apply that understanding to any other network, regardless of scale. By knowing one, you gain insight into all of them. This is the deep simplicity permeating throughout the entirety of the self-organizing universe.
Another unique characteristic of nonlinear networks is the uneven distribution known as power law distribution, which creates hubs within the network—that is, members with higher connectivity and influence over the broader system. When a hub participates nonlinearly within the network, it provides robustness and sustainability for the whole network, including the hub itself. However, when a hub behaves linearly, it makes the whole network unsustainable. We see this in our bodies, social systems, and the Earth network as a whole.
Could you elaborate on your earlier mention that the linear model developed through our self-awareness process?
In brief, we began by mimicking the animals around us, and by distinguishing object from subject, we eventually developed abstract thinking. Now, I don’t need to physically show you something for you to understand it. For example, if I say “Car,” you know what I’m referring to.
This abstract thinking marked the start of our self-awareness process, which, albeit illusorily, separated us from the universe. To protect this illusory separate identity, we embraced a linear relationship characterized by self-assertiveness, short-term gain, domination, and liability management with the web of life. From there, we created a linear perception that we are alone in the world to master and conquer it. And we don’t see our own self-awareness process as a part of the greater self-awareness process of our planet.
Could you elaborate on how the linear model is an approximate model of the natural world?
There are five approximations or assumptions that led us to the linear view of the world:
The first approximation was illusorily separating ourselves from the universe, perceiving our self-awareness process as distinct from the broader self-awareness process of our planet and the universe.
Then, based on the partial stability and order of our immediate surroundings, we approximated a linear model by eliminating the randomness that provides the flexibility of a nonlinear system, explaining it based solely on order and equilibrium. This makes the linear model more rigid and static.
Observing orderly and stable events provided the linear assumption of the proportionality of cause and effect. However, in a self-organizing world operating in chaos, there is no such proportionality. For instance, in the current nonlinear world, a small virus like COVID-19 can drastically impact countless aspects of life worldwide.
With the linear model, we dismiss seemingly insignificant events or causes and assume outcomes result solely from the most significant events (the hubs of the events network) leading up to them. Yet, any event is the outcome of a collective web of interrelated phenomena.
We also linearly assumed that the universe’s geometry can be explained by Euclidean three-dimensions, whereas the real world exists in the fractal dimension: the dimension of chaos and the self-organizing process.
The combination of these five assumptions resulted in a deterministic, judgmental belief system rooted in the certainty of linear logic (analytical thinking), with the ability to predict, plan, and create expectations. To protect this illusively separated identity, the nature of this linear logic became defensive, leading to a bias towards negativity and fear of change, and to linear relationships based in self-assertiveness, short-term gain, domination, and liability management. The dominance of this linear thinking, which was once essential to our survival, now ironically threatens our existence in the rapidly changing, nonlinear, digital world. Thus, continuing to defend the dominance of this defensive model is detrimental to humanity. Through the domination of this linear approximate model, we have become out of sync with the inherent self-organizing process of the universe.
Furthermore, the linear model and thinking led to reductionist science that uses approximated models based on equilibrium or a constant steady-state condition where the whole equals the sum of its parts. Instead of viewing the whole as potentially greater than the sum of its parts, this approach dissects it into different segments or modules, investigates each separately, and then combines them to explain the whole. This linear model gradually developed through our self-awareness process and has been the dominant worldview since the Renaissance.
Could you elaborate on how this nonlinear view has historically developed?
The nonlinear view and behavior have always been inherent in human beings as a natural pattern of the universe of which we are part. We possess a natural tendency for empathy towards other humans, the other inhabitants of Earth, and the planet itself.
Through nonlinear science, we are rediscovering what wisdom traditions worldwide have long understood: that we are part of the whole system and not separate from it; thus, we need to synchronize with the entire system rather than cling to an illusory separation that suggests we are disconnected and alone in this world.
Historically, we communicated this nonlinear view of the world through nonlinear mediums such as mythology, mysticism, and art because linear logic and language were incapable of fully explaining it. However, the advent of the digital world and the development of nonlinear theories such as systems theory, network theory, and cognitive theory have advanced the ability of linear logic to explain the nonlinear world in more detail than ever before.
How did this nonlinear view continue to evolve in the modern world, which has been dominated by the linear view?
While it’s impossible to credit all who contributed to the emergence of the nonlinear view, some major contributors stand out. In the modern world, this view evolved within the Romanticism movement, notably in the works of poets like Goethe (with his “Morphology”) and William Blake, as evidenced in Blake’s observation:
May God us keep
From single vision and Newton’s sleep.
– William Blake (3)
This perspective permeated from poetry and art to philosophy through Alfred North Whitehead’s process philosophy, and was eventually popularized by Alan Watts in most of his writings and talks, including The Web of Life:
Human consciousness is, at the same time as being a form of awareness and sensitivity and understanding, it’s also a form of ignorance.
– Alan Watts (4)
In the quest for a unified theory of the universe, Fritjof Capra shifted our focus from physics to life science and from reductionism to systemic or holistic science. He popularized this in his books, The Web of Life and The Systems View of Life. UK journalist Mark Ward also popularized the current concept of chaos in his book Beyond Chaos: The Underlying Theory Behind Life, the Universe, and Everything.
Furthermore, network theorists such as Steven Strogatz (Sync: The Emerging Science of Spontaneous Order), Mark Buchanan (Nexus: Small Worlds and the Groundbreaking Science of Networks), and Albert-László Barabási (Linked: The New Science Of Networks) have played crucial roles in popularizing nonlinear network theory, which offers a mathematical foundation for better understanding the nonlinear view of the world.
How does this nonlinear view shift our linear understanding of the world?
The nonlinear view perceives the world as a self-organizing, nonlinear network. Acknowledging this notion provides a radical paradigm shift towards a unified theory of everything. As this theory delves into the fundamental fabric or pattern of the universe, a deep simplicity becomes discernible throughout this universe. This simplicity is perceivable through the acknowledgment of the universality of this shift, beginning from our body network, extending to societal networks, the entire Earth network, and beyond. Therefore, it not only serves as a guide to navigate the challenges of the current nonlinear digital world but also unifies science and spirituality.
What could the nonlinear view reveal about the essential fabric or pattern of the universe?
The development of nonlinear theories in the last century has significantly altered our understanding of the universe’s composition. One of these theories, quantum mechanics, suggests that the universe is not composed of building blocks (see Fritjof Capra, page 330, The Tao of Physics for details) but consists of dancing energy that fundamentally behaves as a wave. However, when this energy achieves a certain stability or locality, it performs as a particle. This dancing energy carries a pattern of information that is omnipresent. Every creature on Earth is composed of information; information lies at the core of our cells and rattles around in our brains. Every particle in the universe, every electron, every atom, every star, and each of the innumerable galaxies in the heavens, is teeming with information. Consequently, energy and information constitute the essential fabric of the universe.
Quantum mechanics has also redefined our observed-observer relationship by demonstrating that particles alter their behavior when we observe them with certain expectations. This revelation added a cognitive dimension to energy. Systems theory and cognitive theory subsequently introduced the concept that the self-organizing process is a cognitive process capable of creating a whole greater than the sum of its parts. Therefore, when considered in conjunction, these nonlinear theories lead us to conclude that the universe is composed of cognitive energy. According to Max Planck, who was awarded the 1918 Nobel Prize for Physics, “We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent mind. This is the matrix of all matter.” Not only is this “force of existence” conscious and intelligent, but Fritjof Capra also contributes a network-perspective to this cognition-centric universe view: “Life organizes itself in networks, and these networks are regenerative, creative, and intelligent.”
Regardless of whether this energy behaves as a wave or a particle, it carries this inherent pattern of information, allowing particles to participate in nonlinear network patterns and form self-organizing systems. As we start perceiving all aspects of our universe on a large scale as carrying this similar pattern, we can see how everything in the universe synchronously fits together, leaving no gaps. Therefore, we can envision a world that operates automatically, without any central command, much like our bodies that constantly perform simultaneous complex tasks with minimum effort.
Does the nonlinear view provide any explanation that might describe this inherent pattern of information?
The nonlinear view potentially elucidates this pattern through one of the characteristics of nonlinear networks: self-similarity or universality. The spiral pattern of the golden ratio can be observed in a wide array of natural phenomena: from pineapples, our bodies, sunflowers, and elephant tusks to weather patterns, galaxies, and beyond. Through its spiral pattern, the golden ratio describes this self-similarity in terms of shape in Euclidean geometry. And since the fractal dimension is the dimension of the self-organizing process, the golden ratio could potentially also express the inherent, universal pattern of the overall self-organizing process.
It is plausible that the fractal dimension of the golden ratio can not only offer a blueprint of this spiral pattern that cognitive energy universally contains, but also act as the model conduit orchestrating the self-similar behaviors of self-organizing networks without any central command. Identifying such an elegant description of this inherent pattern could bring significant applications to various scientific and technological sectors.
It seems that describing the universe as cognitive energy capable of self-organization may relate to the “deep simplicity” mentioned earlier. Can this deep simplicity be explained further?
All mystical experiences—including those documented and described in Sufism, Taoism, Zen Buddhism, and many indigenous wisdom traditions and practices—suggest that once we shed the illusory separation and ego birthed from our self-awareness process, we experience a feeling of oneness with the universe. In this shift of consciousness, we enter a state of flow where we can accomplish the most complex tasks with minimal effort. This occurs for athletes and musicians when they are “in the zone,” and for our bodies as they self-regulate with minimum effort. Alan Watts speaks on this state of flow and the Tao Te Ching:
Fundamentally, you see, you can’t get away from it. It’s like a situation in which we are all floating in a tremendous river, and the river carries you along anyhow. Now some of the people in the river are swimming against it; but they’re still being carried along. Others have learned that the art of the thing is to swim with it. And they’re carried along, too. (5)
The dominance of the linear model and illusory separation often leads us to swim against this flow, overlooking the deep simplicity that comes with aligning ourselves in the direction of the flow. Nonlinear science is also shedding light on this deep simplicity. For instance, the fractal dimension—which is the actual dimension of the world—is capable of creating and explaining complex patterns with a simple equation, whereas linear mathematics requires a complex equation to explain a complex system.
Moreover, the nonlinear view perceives nonlinear networks as a pattern of organization within a self-organizing universe. Given that all nonlinear networks exhibit self-similarity or universal behaviors, what is known about one applies to all. Thus, they provide guidelines that can be applied to any network at any scale.
How does this impact spirituality and philosophy?
Given that the universe is composed of cognitive energy, there is an inherent universal potential within the elements of the universe to organize themselves into nonlinear network patterns. This organization creates a whole with higher functionality, an abundance of information, and intelligence exceeding the sum of its parts, capable of guiding the entire network. For instance, a collection of molecules can assemble through nonlinear network patterns to form enzymes, carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids. These elements combine in a nonlinear network pattern to construct individual cells that form organs. These organs collectively participate in interconnected networks (respiratory, digestive, lymphatic, etc. systems) and eventually form the human body—a network of heightened consciousness able to guide the entire system towards a higher cognitive goal or purpose. This model can be scaled to Earth, synchronizing the intelligence of its inhabitants to create a network of superior functionality, information content, and intelligence. The cognitive pattern can further be applied to the solar system and beyond.
The nonlinear view allows us to acknowledge the higher intelligence of Earth and, ultimately, the universe, which guides the system and possesses higher consciousness and purpose. Wisdom traditions involve eliminating the illusory separation of self and uniting with the universe or Earth, thereby connecting directly with that higher consciousness and intuitively accessing the superior intelligence of the larger network, as do other Earth species.
While linear thinking attributes this higher intelligence to a separate divine creator acting from outside the universe, the nonlinear view doesn’t distinguish the creator from the creation. It perceives the universe as a self-creating system capable of generating higher intelligence to guide itself without central command or an external creator, unifying spirituality, science, and philosophy. While linear perception isolates humans in the universe devoid of guiding intelligence, the nonlinear view sees human self-awareness as a component of the planet’s greater self-awareness process. Acknowledging this higher, guiding intelligence could bring hope to humanity.
How else is this project unique in its contribution to our growing acknowledgment of the nonlinear world?
This project is unique in several aspects. First, it focuses on the nonlinear network as the pattern of organization for self-organizing systems. As nonlinear networks are mathematical patterns, they do not deal with substance, allowing them to encapsulate the essential behaviors of the self-organizing process. Second, the project uses our body as a metaphor to identify human disconnection from the ongoing self-organizing process and how to reconnect. Lastly, due to the universality of nonlinear networks, the method of reconnection found in our bodies can apply to any network at any scale. This could be our planet network or our social networks, bringing a powerful universal application and deep simplicity to this perspective.
Can you tell us how applying this view to our body as a metaphor can help us understand how the self-organizing system works? And can it shed light on the root of our disconnection from the self-organizing universe?
When observing our body network, we can see how the brain, a major hub within the body network, works in synchrony with the whole body network via nonlinear relationships of cooperation, partnership, and asset management. This cooperation allows the system to accomplish the most complex tasks with minimum effort. However, when the linear model dominates the brain, it creates an illusory separation between ourselves and the universe, and between the brain and the rest of the body. Consequently, it applies a linear relationship (self-assertiveness, short-term gain, domination, liability management) to the entire body network to satisfy its short-term addiction to information or any other substance. Our disconnection with nonlinear relationships starts within our body network and extends to any network we participate in—human networks, interactions with other inhabitants of Earth, and even the whole Earth network. This disconnect is the root of unsustainability in our social, economic, political, and environmental activities. This powerful application is explored in more detail in this section of the full manuscript. Since all nonlinear networks share universal behaviors, what we learn from one system can be applied to any other.
How does the domination of the linear model manifest and how can we train our brains to think in a nonlinear, or systemic, manner?
Our brain, a self-organizing system, can be trained to operate in a nonlinear fashion by observing our thoughts and behaviors with nonlinear values (6). By viewing challenges as opportunities and cognitive processes with the potential to teach us something greater, our observation acts as a positive feedback system to reorganize our brain. This process can enable the synchronization of the left and right hemispheres of the brain, overcoming the dominance of the left-side (which is more analytical, materialistic, and masculine). This allows activation of the right-side (more intuitive, spiritual, and feminine) and fosters cooperation between the two hemispheres. This can unlock the optimum potential of our brain, freeing us from the domination of the linear model and its restricting influence in our bodily as well as social and environmental activities. After all, the brain, the most complex matter in the universe, has received a significant investment from Earth’s resources for its development. However, the linear model’s dominance hinders its performance and limits its potential. In the full manuscript, we discuss the universality of transitioning from a dominant linear to a nonlinear approach for addressing political, economic, and ecological challenges.
What impact does the nonlinear view have on our cognitive network?
Recent discoveries challenge the previous linear assumption that the brain is the sole cognitive center of our body. It’s now understood that the entire body is a cognitive network, with the heart not merely functioning as a pump but also as a major hub that intuitively connects us to the universe. Psychophysiologists John and Beatrice Lacey, along with neurocardiologist Dr. J. Andrew Armour of the University of Montreal, refer to this relationship as “the heart-brain.” Alan Watts suggests the Tao Te Ching refers to the heart as a “psychic center.”
Scientist and author Gregg Braden summarizes many of these findings:
We’ve been conditioned to believe that the heart is merely a pump that circulates blood throughout our bodies. While this is true, pumping blood might be the least significant of the heart’s functions. It also communicates information to the brain that instructs the rest of the body in how to function. These instructions originate in the heart, through its neurons. The heart produces hormones in our bodies in ways we didn’t fully understand until the early 1990s. In 1991, researchers discovered 40,000 specialized cells in the heart—a neural network that we regulate through our feelings about our relationship to ourselves and the world. (7)
The body network consists of several subnetworks, including the respiratory, circulatory, immune, central nervous, muscular, and skeletal systems. All these systems are cognitive, according to Santiago Theory. As the brain illusorily separates itself from the body network, it also detaches from the cognitive network. The dominance of linear thinking has led us to believe that the brain is the only component of this multi-system cognitive network. However, overlooking the heart’s potential beyond its mechanical functionality inhibits our intuitive connection to the higher network of Earth. This deprives our cognitive network of its full potential and hinders our ability to connect with others through empathy, feeling, and heart-to-heart interactions. The domination of linear thinking blocks this connection with past experiences and judgments. Transitioning from a linear to a nonlinear model can help us synchronize our entire cognitive body network, thereby unleashing its tremendous potential. After all, Earth and the universe have invested heavily in creating this cognitive network; it would be wasteful not to allow it to fully emerge.
But it seems like this linear model that we created in our self-awareness process was a waste. How could the universe, with its remarkable ability to accomplish the most complex tasks with minimal effort, create such a wasteful process?
This question is intriguing, as labeling our linear model’s current unsustainability as a “waste” arises from the negativity inherent in the linear view itself. Linear thinking regrets the past and worries about the future, leading at best to partial solutions for the challenges of this nonlinear era, instead of focusing on the present and its own potential achievements to develop holistic solutions that align with the whole. The linear view assumes our self-awareness process is not part of a larger process, fostering the belief that we are alone in this endeavor to master and conquer. Therefore, linear perception sees this self-awareness process as a failure or a waste.
However, the nonlinear perspective of the world perceives our self-awareness process as part of the greater self-awareness process of the cognitive, self-organizing Earth. It’s true that we have used most of Earth’s resources, and it’s easy to judge this as wasteful from a linear perspective. Yet, the nonlinear view acknowledges that we have converted these resources into information and technology that facilitate a more detailed understanding of this universal, self-organizing process, demonstrating that even within our bodies, this system is a continuous process. By recognizing how we’ve deviated or disconnected from the larger process, we can now reconnect with this extraordinary, inherent, self-organizing process of the world.
The linear model is not only becoming aware of its limitations but has also advanced to a level where it can describe in great detail how this nonlinear world works. Through this understanding, Earth itself is becoming self-aware. By adopting a nonlinear view, we see that our self-awareness process and the development of the linear model were not wastes, but rather integral parts of Earth’s self-awareness process.
We now possess sufficient knowledge to realign with the greater self-organizing system by acknowledging our achievements and sharing our resources in cooperation and partnership with each other, other inhabitants of the Earth, and Earth itself.
What is the nonlinear perspective on the current state of the digital world?
The linear model excels in equilibrium. However, when a system operates far from equilibrium, it becomes unproductive and unsustainable.
Since the last decade of the twentieth century, we've utilized the nonlinear network of the internet to conduct many of our activities, ushering us into a new, nonlinear, digital era. With everything becoming nonlinear by nature, we are witnessing an accelerating rate of change, causing unpredictability and chaos, alongside increasing interconnectivity, interdependence, and inseparability.
These developments pose challenges to our current linear model, indicating that we are in a transformative process of emergence. For instance, the coronavirus pandemic has shown there is no proportionality between cause and effect in our human network (as something so small can have such a vast impact throughout the network). This is a sign of the human network being in a chaotic zone. And as the linear judgmental system is based on the proportionality of cause and effect, it is becoming less productive to rely on the linear model.
Furthermore, we are observing the degree of separation in the human network lessen; it used to be a maximum of 6 degrees and is now less than 3 degrees and decreasing daily. All these signs indicate that we are in the chaotic zone: the fractal dimension that is the zone of emergence. Thus, we can conclude that humanity has entered an era of emergence.
From the nonlinear perspective, we see chaos as an emergent process of cognitive transformation, embracing it as a creative opportunity to ascend to a higher level of consciousness and understanding, enabling us to synchronize with the inherent self-organizing process of Earth. The nonlinear view focuses on achievements rather than liabilities, fostering positivity, creativity, peace, and hope.
This chaotic era necessitates a significant paradigm shift that begins within our personal body network and extends to all activities and networks we are involved in, at all scales. Fortunately, this nonlinear worldview provides all the characteristics of change necessary for us to navigate this chaotic and unpredictable process successfully and emerge with humanity’s highest cognitive, spiritual, and rational potential.
To achieve this, a change in perception is required for us to see our self-awareness process as part of Earth's larger self-awareness process. To align with this new paradigm, we must transition from linear rigidity to nonlinear flexibility, complexity to simplicity, substance to pattern, and separation to interconnectivity. Our relationships must evolve from self-assertiveness to integration, domination to partnership, competition to cooperation, and from hate to love. Our values will shift from consumption to conservation, quantity to quality, and liability management to asset management. And our thinking will transition from judgment to observation, analytical to intuitive, negativity to positivity, blame to acceptance, anger to tolerance, vengefulness to forgiveness, violence to peace, and hopelessness to hope.
Can this nonlinear perspective predict how the paradigm shift will emerge?
While it may not be possible to predict this shift precisely, it’s important to remember that it will begin in the brain, the hub of our cognitive and whole body networks. Thus, the first beneficiary of the paradigm shift will be our brain itself. As the left (linear) and right (nonlinear) sides of the brain cooperate and consciously participate in systemic behaviors, we enhance the quality of information processing within our cognitive network.
The second beneficiary is the individual’s body network, experiencing holistic elevation, physically, mentally, and spiritually. With the universality of nonlinear network behavior, we can metaphorically apply this shift process within our bodies to other networks at different scales. Considering Earth as a network, humans, though a small portion of the entire planet network, are the hub that utilizes the most resources and exerts the most domination over the rest of the network’s inhabitants. As with any hub, when acting with linear perception and relationships, it precipitates the whole network’s unsustainability. By shifting to a systemic relationship, we can bring stability to Earth’s entire network.
Within the human network, only a small fraction lives within circumstances that allow them to think beyond their daily survival needs. Among this segment, we can view intellectuals as a hub. Nested within this network is another hub, composed of system thinkers who acknowledge and assert that we are in an era of emergence requiring a paradigm shift, along with spiritual thinkers who intuitively sense this shift but might not fully recognize the system thinkers’ accomplishments in defining the paradigm shift’s characteristics.
Among these system thinkers, another hub exists: those who are highly connected with broader networks and possess a profound understanding of this emergent process. They are the thinkers who have already communicated the understanding that our planet is a living, self-organizing system and have identified a living system’s essential behaviors.
These thinkers could potentially apply nonlinear relationships among themselves to create a community of harmonized system thinkers, greater than the sum of its parts, by collaboratively enriching, distilling, and delivering this knowledge to the global system thinker’s network. By bridging the conversation with hubs within the larger spiritual network, we can synchronize networks to create a whole greater than the sum of its otherwise separate parts. Eventually, this knowledge will become a crucial part of the collective consciousness of the human network and our planet.
This paradigm shift offers a hopeful, creative, peaceful, ecologically harmonious framework to navigate a nonlinear, chaotic, digitally integrated world. Eventually, this concept will inspire the younger generation and women-led networks, providing them clear, positive, and practical guidance to successfully traverse this era of emergence.
What’s the final message of this project?
Earth is a cognitive, self-organizing, self-regulating, self-healing living system. The current changes in the intensity and frequency of Earth’s weather patterns are part of Earth’s self-healing process. Through the nonlinear view, we can align ourselves to support and nurture this self-healing process rather than contribute to its destruction. Through these new patterns, Earth is simply instructing us to treat it as it treats us, saying, “I provide you with a smooth journey around the solar system for 365 days a year, offering you beautiful scenery, nourishing food, and everything you need to survive and thrive without any expectations. All I ask is for you to treat me the same way.”
This behavior is rooted in unconditional love, a message inherent throughout the universe. It’s shared in The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell, throughout mystical experiences in human history worldwide, and reflected in the poetry of Rumi:
عقل گوید شش جهت حدست و بیرون راه نیست
Reason says the six directions are our limits
And there is no way beyond these
عشق گوید راه هست و رفته ام من بارها
Love says there is a way;
I have taken it many times. (8)
Footnotes:
https://www.washington.edu/uwired/outreach/cspn/Website/Classroom%20Materials/Reading%20the%20Region/Texts%20by%20and%20about%20Natives/Texts/8.html
Email in conversation with Frijof Capra, 24 Oct. 2022.
William Blake, Letter to Thomas Butt, 22 November 1802. Quoted in Geoffrey Keynes (ed.), The Letters of William Blake (1956).
“The Web Of Life Alan Watts.” YouTube, https://youtu.be/_q6U4dgK8TY.
https://www.organism.earth/library/document/swimming-headless
Cooperation, partnership, non-judgment, focusing on positivity, and asset management
Gregg Braden, From Surviving to Thriving, humanitysteam.org, accessed 28 Nov. 2022.
Here “the six directions” refer to up, down, north, south, east, and west. https://rumi-poetry.blogspot.com/2013/02/
