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Simplified Anatomy of the
Global Systemic Crisis and
How to Heal Civilisation

The crisis can be briefly described as systemic, self-perpetuating, persistent illusion, suffering & destruction.

This analysis describes some salient features of the anatomy of the global systemic crisis, introducing the anatomy stage by stage then discussing how best to initiate a process of holistic healing that can result in lasting peace and creative flourishing.

Brief Summary

Just as life arises from self-perpetuating creative feedback loops (autocatalytic sets) so too does the global systemic crisis arise from self-perpetuating destructive feedback loops. Fundamental illusions give rise to entrenched delusions, which result in suffering and destruction, which are interpreted and responded to in delusional ways, thus reinforcing a destructive feedback loop of delusion, suffering and destruction. The illusions arise from a single source but give rise to many stages of interlocking feedback loops that form a feedback network.

In theory it is possible that if any single stage can be totally healed and kept healthy then this will feed-through the entire feedback network but in practice this is extremely difficult because all other stages will seek to undermine the healthy stage or will compensate to exclude the healthy stage from the network therefore maintaining the overall destructive feedback network.

To heal the whole feedback network the most effective approach is to identify many stages where positive influence can effectively be applied and heal these as much as possible thereby diminishing the destructive feedback and augmenting the creative feedback. This will begin a healing process and the situation will change slightly, whereon we must iterate this again by identifying many stages where positive influence can be applied and healing these as much as possible. As this process is applied again and again the whole system will go through many phases of a healing process that will diminish the overall destructive feedback and augment to overall creative feedback.  More >

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The Gaian-Ego Hypothesis

This book was started over a year ago but was put aside, however now it feels like the right time to finish it off and publish it. It is mostly finished and will be complete in a couple of weeks. Read it online at www.anandavala.info/GaianEgo/.

Here is a quote of the brief version of the central idea:

“The ecosystem consists of all organisms including ourselves. It is the body of a planetary super-organism that some call Gaia and we organisms are cells within that body, just as organisms are cellular ecosystems. The large scale ecological dynamics involving climate, forests, mountain ranges and oceans comprise the overall physiological processes of that super-organism. The interactions between individual organisms comprise the detailed biochemical processes analogous to those between cells within an organism.

However we humans are rather specialised organisms because our interactions channel information and are therefore analogous to neurological processes. Our human interactions create society and culture which give rise to the mind of Gaia. Our informal culture, composed of individual communication and interaction, is Gaia's subconscious mind. Our power structures and the public discourse, composed of legislation, institutions, mass media and academia, are the conscious mind of Gaia. Mass media, diplomatic channels and telecommunications are the conduit of conscious thought for Gaia.

The feedback loops between mass communication and individual communication form the space in which culture resonates and comes to experience itself. Within this cultural/macro-cognitive scenario a collective ego has arisen that experiences itself as an individual being and uses society as “its body”. Just as within human organisms, which possess a complex self-reflective mind, an ego arises that experiences itself as an individual being and uses the organism as “its body”.

Whilst there are individuals and elites seeking to dominate and exploit, things aren't that simple, they are the most conditioned by the collective ego, which is manifesting through them the most strongly. There is a deeper reason why whole populations allow themselves to be oppressed and have done so for thousands of years. The ego within each of us oppresses ourselves and forms into a collective ego that oppresses us all. This is an emergent systemic phenomenon that is far older and more powerful than anything any small group of humans could create and sustain. All the conspiracies and politics are just symptoms of this phenomenon and not its real cause. Civilisation has gone through cycle after cycle of regimes and revolutions, with great suffering and destruction, and this is perhaps our last chance to break out of that loop and move on to something new.

The more control that the collective ego gains over “its body” the more we organisms become enslaved in a subtle yet all pervasive totalitarian regime. It imposes its perspective and drives the situation in pursuit of its agendas, thereby destroying the fabric of both the society and the ecosystem. Just as the human ego conceives of the ramifications of its abuses as 'ill-health' and 'ageing', so too does the collective ego fail to comprehend the true cause and only seeks to eradicate the symptoms in order to continue pursuing its agendas.

As cells within this collective organism our interactions are its metabolic processes, which make it what it is. If we are unconsciously manipulated we serve the collective ego but if we are aware we support the health of the super-organism. Through communicating our awareness we share it with others and spread the light of awareness. This casts out the shadows of ignorance, which returns the entire system to a state of balance and holistic health.”

Read it online at www.anandavala.info/GaianEgo/

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I have uncovered two fundamental misconceptions that are at the core of the entire approach that I have taken oven the past 12 years.

(1) The most obvious of which is a subconscious assumption that people are fundamentally rational truth seekers, that their destructive behaviour is due solely to confusion and that insights that untangle the knot of confusion would be gratefully received and applied by people to reduce their suffering. This assumption is patterned on the behaviour of my parents during my childhood.

(2) The other fundamental misconception was the subconscious assumption that I myself am a rational truth seeker.

By playing the game of rational truth seeker I have encountered many profound insights but these now cause me to see through the entire game and to clearly see who the game player is and what their true agenda is. The enquiry has delved deep into the core issues; using systems thinking to reorient away from culturally clichéd misconceptions and arriving at issues such as naïve realism and ego defense mechanisms. At this point it becomes clear that the entity that is seeking is the ego and that the ego has extreme difficulty in applying profound insights about the ego to itself. The entire process in which the ego pretends to be a rational truth seeker is an ego defense mechanism, hence the ego will play this game whilst ever it suits the ego, but as soon as the enquiry starts to undermine the position of the ego it will employ other defense mechanisms to subtly but ruthlessly disrupt the process in order to protect itself.

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General systems are naïve realist and it takes a high level sentient awareness to overcome this.

The table below describes the ramifications of naïve realism and unified realism as evolutionary forces. Each row of the table follows on from the preceding row, thus evolving toward the bottom of the table. We see that naïve realism produces successive levels of illusion which build up through meta-system transitions into higher level systems, which are driven by conflict and fear. Whilst unified realism remains firmly connected to reality thus there is no proliferation of illusion and the situation remains unified and at peace.

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The following table maps out the ramifications of naïve and unified realism in different contexts. Each row can be read as:

“In the context of ________ naïve realism leads toward ________ whilst unified realism leads toward ________.”

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In a recent conversation here on NCN I indirectly learnt a great deal. Even though it was not what one would call a functional conversation it was nevertheless a very interesting experience...

Below is an article compiled from my part in the conversation. It addresses many issues that are central to the conduct of a progressive discourse, which can result in cooperative solution seeking that is grounded in reality and can be genuinely effective even in the face of cynical attacks and denial. These are just thoughts on the matter.  More >

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I have been thinking a lot about Naïve Realism lately. It is a profoundly important concept to understand if people wish to safe-guard both their individual and collective sanity.

It came to my notice that the Wikipedia article on Naïve Realism was only a few paragraphs long, not referenced, quite biased and VERY misleading. So I rewrote the article using many quotes from philosophical and scientific sources with full references to map out the progression of our understanding of what it is and how it applies to our lives, the world and everything that we experience.

The new article is posted below but it will keep evolving (wikipedia version).

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Here are some informative and uplifting insights about the current process of global transformation, in the form of excerpts from an article in a recent World Goodwill newsletter.

It is also related to articles of my own about global awakening.

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Commonsense, Fascist Regimes and the Ego

Whilst talking about commonsense realism and truly overcoming it, are two very different things it is still very useful to talk about something when there is extreme misunderstanding about it.

To give an example - talking about the dangers of smoking and actually quitting are two very different things however if a person believed that smoking was totally natural and normal and there was no reason to quit then first they need to overcome that illusion before they have any chance of actually quitting and becoming healthy. Talk can be a vital preliminary to actually doing.

So I'll clarify commonsense realism a little more by talking about commonsense in general. Commonsense is just a blanket term for whatever unquestioned belief system is dominant at the present time.

At various times it has been commonsense to keep slaves or to beat children or to oppress women or to carry a sword or to wear high heels or to smoke cigarettes. Commonsense is a collective trance that changes over time according to its own dynamic.

Furthermore, civilisation is a communal understanding and commonsense is the foundation of that understanding. It is a subtle dogma that maintains a regime. See The Gaian-Ego Hypothesis and Collective Meditation to Counter the Collective Ego.

Every regime has its dogma which is a set of beliefs that are protected from reason by a culture of denial. The nature of a regime is determined by the nature of its commonsense.  More >

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Psychological Manipulation

This is an excerpt from the e-book The Gaian-Ego Hypothesis. Throughout the 20'th century vast resources and great minds were employed in the research and development of psychological manipulation. For example, the CIA's program of research in behavioural modification called MKULTRA [FR, FR]; it was a top secret project and little is known of its real depth and scope but some indication of the nature of this project can be seen from this archive of almost 20,000 pages of declassified documents [FR], also see these other archives [FR] and here is some information on Russian efforts [FR]. Such projects were a major initiative throughout the 20'th century because the technology became available and the motivation was irresistible. When the minds of the masses are ideologically placed in the centre of power, research into the technology of mass manipulation became critical and enormous effort was expended in perfecting the science of manipulation. With trillions of dollars of vested interests and the power of vast nation states dependent on the minds of the population through their spending and voting choices, a means had to be found to control the minds of the population, this is simple pragmatism and market forces. The motivation is obvious, who would let their corporate empire and imperial aspirations be left to the whim of the masses? Especially when it is certain that competitors will be vying for control; every sensible power broker had to get involved or otherwise be left behind. It essentially became an arms race in psychological weapons that can be used against the population.

A degree of social conditioning is vital and leads to social cohesion but when it ceases to serve society and starts to dominate and manipulate society it starts to destroy society and to erode the very foundations of our civilisation.  More >

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Gaia or the Man Machine?

This is an excerpt from the e-book The Gaian-Ego Hypothesis. Also see The Man Machine - Organisms to Organisation, Consciousness or Materialism and Survey of the Central Idea.

Some have countered the idea of the planet as a holistic organism with comments such as: "But the question for us as individuals is: do we want our descendants to become like the cells of organs, organs which in turn comprise some larger entity - that is, totally dependent on the functioning of our civilised system as a whole, mere cogs in wheels? Is it inevitably to this end that the human pattern, like the metazoan and the social insect patterns before it, had to evolve? Lastly, if we should not want to evolve this way, are we still able to halt the trend that is already in progress, and if so how?" [FR].

W. D. Hamilton [FR], the author of this comment was a leading evolutionary biologist who was a forerunner to sociobiology and the scientific study of society as a natural evolutionary phenomenon. But in subtle ways, like most of his contemporaries, he was caught in a mechanistic view of the world and didn't have enough systemic insight to comprehend what it means to form a collective organism out of ourselves. Through collective integration we cannot but help form a super-system of some kind, we implicitly recognise that fact through the word 'civilisation'. It is the nature of systems to integrate and create super-systems and we are not beyond the fundamental systemic 'laws' of the cosmos. The only way to avoid creating beyond ourselves would be to cease all communication and cooperation and become isolated individuals or small fragmented tribes living close to nature, but for that the population would need to be massively reduced, the ecosystem massively regenerated and strict prohibition of all cooperation must be enforced. But in our current situation it is the case that for a long time we have already been "totally dependent on the functioning of our civilised system as a whole". We have already become sub-systems inextricably integrated into a super-system. But the important question is what kind of a super-system do we create out of ourselves, will it nourish us or devour us?

That depends on what ideas flow through our minds, what ideas flow through the culture and the way that we structure ourselves and come together in order to interact and integrate. These factors determine whether we create a fascist machine that enslaves us as "mere cogs in wheels" or whether we create a vibrant healthy living organism that can thrive and glow with health, where its health is our collective health, its intelligence is our collective intelligence and its joy is our collective joy.  More >

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A Psychological Perspective on Civilisation

This is an excerpt from the e-book The Gaian-Ego Hypothesis. As background to this essay see the related essays on Psychological Manipulation and the The Man Machine - Organisms to Organisation.

The process of constructing energised thought forms is the creation of conditioned stimuli or symbols that arouse an inner response. It is a cultural memetic technology that is the core technology with which civilisation has been built. A system of coordinated symbols, in the old language, is called an egregore and in the new language, it may be called a paradigm. Once conditioning has been imprinted in a population it provides hooks in people's minds by which influence can be exerted, either by the people themselves or by external power structures. It unleashes and harnesses the power of the subconscious mind, thus it is a very powerful technology.

Once these hooks are in place they can be subtly manipulated and turned to different purposes. For example, the rhetoric of "freedom and liberty" may have been imprinted to encourage people toward personal freedom and liberty but once this becomes a conditioned stimulus and it becomes a strong egregore/paradigm it can be gradually distorted. This may take place within the context of an authoritarian discourse so that it implies collective freedom and liberty through greater strength, 'security' and authority for the governmental system, which in turn promises to provide personal freedom and liberty, but in order to do so it must impose measures that ultimately destroy people's freedom and liberty.  More >

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This is an excerpt from the e-book The Gaian-Ego Hypothesis that relates to the evolution of systems from organisms to organisations via the agency of human civilisation. Also see this Psychological Perspective on Civilisation and Gaia or the Man Machine?

Organisational Governance

First some basic terms and concepts before we get into the systemic history of human civilisation. All organisations have both an informal and a formal structure. These are concepts from the systems theory of organisational structures, which I will briefly define. They are two parallel systems of governance within any organisation. The informal structure within a society is the original organic level of governance, its main communication mechanism is the 'grapevine' and its code of conduct is traditions, norms, taboos and so on; it can be anarchic such as a group of friends or it can be highly structured such as a tribe that has well defined roles and power relations. The formal structure of a society is a later outgrowth that institutionalises the basic nature of the informal system of governance and extends it over a broader reach. Its main modern communication mechanism is mass media and its main code of conduct is legislation.

In any organisational structure these levels of governance exist to varying degrees. It is most commonly analysed within corporate cultures so I'll first discuss it in this context. Too often the system is envisaged from the perspective of the formal structure so the culture becomes authoritarian; the staff are objectified as the corporation leverages it control and pushes for productivity but due to the ignorance of the nature of the organisational system the formal structure abuses the informal structure leading to stress, low morale, lower productivity, absenteeism and staff turnover. These are then naively blamed on the staff and tighter controls are implemented thus worsening the situation [FR].  More >