Genius in Action -- What's Your Ripple Effect?

In the last several topics, we've explored the notion of a collective consciousness, and of a collective paradigm that is based on the belief that we are not whole; need fixing; and are not fully capable to run our own lives (therefore, those who "know" better than we, should be allowed to make decisions on our behalf -- be it in healthcare, politics, religion, or life).

For specific references, please visit:

Genius Fiddling While Rome Burns -- What Might Africa, The Middle East, and Global Warming Tell Us About Our Personal and Collective Mind?

or

Naked Genius -- Being the Difference We Want to See in the World

We also delved into the notion of our own egos -- and the mythical role in which we cast ourselves as the central (and generally heroic) character of life's story. Several contributors have also proffered the idea that our addiction to our own self importance is one of the primary causes of the continuation of not only our own ego-myth, but also of the collective story of incurable lack (and therefore the need for continual consumption) that has been laid forth as the basis of our modern culture (and the its accompanying justification for a constant-growth economy and profit at the expense of all else).

Hand-in-hand with this notion, we explored the driving urgency that leads many to feel (perhaps stemming from the sense of our own importance and the fundamental assumption that our own view is correct -- or at least most correct) that we must change the world (or alter the collective consciousness).

This idea met with great skepticism by some and the suggestion by others that changing the collective consciousness is not only futile, but unnecessary. Perhaps what we should thus focus on, some suggested, is what we would like to clear up in ourselves. Though we've taken a shallow dive into that topic previously, my hope is that in this new topic we can move beyond concepts, beliefs, and platitudes and share some real experiences that each of us may have had or ones you'd like to create (i.e. I'm looking to move as much as possible into the experiential versus the theoretical).

So here's an invitation:

What is it, you'd like to see the world (i.e. yourself) change, do more of, less of, or do better? What is it that you could do that, without the need to change others, might impact in the most positive way how you experience your life, those in your life, and your circumstances? What is it you could do (or possibly stop doing) to make your life richer, more meaningful to you, and enhance the odds of enriching the lives of those around you as well, should they feel the need to be so enriched?

And lastly, while I'm very interested in what we're already doing that is working, I'm also very interested in what you know would make a significant difference for your life that your not doing; and why you believe you're not.

Oh... and one final note... I'm truly appreciative of all of the ideas, comments, and contributions of everyone who's taken the time to participate actively in this blog. I also know there's a number of people who write me that they are regular readers, but haven't yet commented for a variety of reasons. I definitely respect everyone's right to participate in whatever way is appropriate for them -- and I also encourage anyone reading this blog to comment. We will all most assuredly benefit from more voices and fresh perspectives.

Your ideas, questions, stories, and humor are most welcome,
Christopher

P.S. As always remember that to see the comments in a separate window, click on the "Comments" link. To see the comments in the body of the topic, click "Links to this Post"

Views of those commenting have not been checked for accuracy and do not necessarily reflect the views of this blog publisher or his associates.

Naked Genius -- Being the Difference We Want to See in the World

Well... since this topic is about breaking out of the old paradigm, it seemed appropriate to also take on a new face. Hope this also handles some of your questions about not being to read the previous version as easily.

Now, that said, this topic is a step forward from of our previous two discussions entitled:

Complete Genius -- The Whole Truth

and

The Paradigm Conspiracy

In the last rounds, through all of our various commentary and quite fascinating explorations, the topic has evolved to a recognition that much of our economic, political, religious, social, and healthcare systems are based upon a strongly-held paradigm of "the natural world and we as people are not whole and are in need of fixing and must be kept under control and some form of supervisory management." Many in the previous topics have expressed that this view has led to much of the dysfunction in or societies, as well as the pain and addiction we experience as individuals, families, communities, and in our national and world scenes. Our current world condition, many have suggested, is merely a glaring symptom of this underlying cause.

As has been expressed previously, we are looking to strip away our facades and get philosophically naked together (pardon the imagery). But a level of bare, bold honesty is what we're looking to evolve to next.

As a segue from the last round, I'd like to add the last comments made by BKO, whose profession enables him to see as closely as any of us, perhaps, the effect of the worldview which we've described. He expressed:

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"We can produce great numbers of studies and intellectually parse the data to create stacks of elegant conclusions, but no matter how high we build them, none of them will make us one whit wiser. Smarter perhaps, but not wiser. If we wait to for “proof” [i.e. that we are out of balance and harmony with a deeper reality of holism -- comment by CH] (another one of our cultural addictions), we will fail. Where is that change going to occur? Are the politicians going to do it? Are the corporations going to do it? Are the religions? The universities? The answers to those questions certainly aren’t difficult to see. Conversation is stimulating and helpful, but until we’re willing to start looking at the assumptions we’ve made about the way we live and what we’re entitled to, nothing will change. And if that change occurs, it won’t occur in the distant halls of power. That change will happen right out at the end of our own noses, and it will happen because we got up this morning and grew the balls to say “ENOUGH!”.

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And so, in the spirit of his question, what is it you believe we can do to really address this situation? How can we say "Enough" in ways that will make a difference -- or maybe even more powerfully, as Gandhi said, how can we "Be the difference we want to see in the world" ? What does being a difference look like for you?

We've got a real collection of bright minds here so let's get out of the proverbial box and follow Einstein's axiom in that we cannot solve a problem using the same thinking it took to create it.

Your thoughts? Comments?

Many thanks,
Christopher

P.S. As always remember that to see the comments in a separate window, click on the "Comments" link. To see the comments in the body of the topic, click "Links to this Post"

Views of those commenting have not been checked for accuracy and do not necessarily reflect the views of this blog publisher or his associates.

The Paradigm Conspiracy

Well, it's several days after November 1st... the intended date of re-starting the conversations here... but one additional week of travel held me up.

As I've been out on the road, working with organizations on topics like collaboration, inclusion, empowerment, and thinking more ecologically (is it good for me? my team? the organization? the planet?), I've also been re-reading a provocative book entitled, "The Paradigm Conspiracy." The book's premise (at least as I interpret it) is that there is an overarching paradigm or unconsciously agreed upon foundation of thought that people must be controlled (we must control others or be controlled)... and perhaps even more fundamental a belief that is labeled in the book "The Four Agreements" as being the Great Lie -- that great lie being the belief that we are not Whole -- and that we are separate -- not connected.

The question I'm probing now (which would love your thoughts and input on) is this:

What is your belief regarding our innate Wholeness... our Connectedness. Is it a myth? A future possibility? A fantasy? A longing to reconnect with the womb? Is it healthy? Will it provide us with a fundamental understanding from which to solve some of our greatest challenges (personally and societally)? Or could it be a hindrance?

Please join in. Your thoughts, questions, skeptical notions, and humor are always welcome.

P.S. As always remember that to see the comments in a separate window, click on the "Comments" link. To see the comments in the body of the topic, click "Links to this Post"

PPS. If you're just joining us or would like a view of some of our past discussions, please visit our last posts:

Incomparable Genius -- Treating an Irreplaceable Being

or

Global Genius -- Creative Solutions for a Crazy World

Views of those commenting have not been checked for accuracy and do not necessarily reflect the views of this blog publisher or his associates.

Genius Out of the Box -- Creating the Empowered Patient

We've had a tremendous discussion going on in the topic:

Genius in Action -- Creating a Model for a Community Wellness Center

One of the areas that's come up as fundamental to any wellness model is a designation that's been called, "The Empowered Patient." Others have discussed self-determination and a patient-first focus. This topic is so critical, it seems, to our ability to really contemplate a new model, that I would like to invite us to use this topic area to explore more deeply what this really means in terms of a wellness model.

What is an empowered patient? How might a system be created to truly accomodate and serve this notion? How is an empowered patient different from our current notion as patients or those who serve patients?

Please chime in... I have the feeling we're really getting down to the some of the real bare fundamentals now. Let's see what we can discover together!

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Also remember there's another active topic regarding utilizing our genius to solve social issues. You'll find this topic directly below or by clicking this link:

Global Genius -- Creative Solutions for a Crazy World

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P.S. As always remember that to see the comments in a separate window, click on the "Comments" link. To see the comments in the body of the topic, click "Links to this Post"

Views of those commenting have not been checked for accuracy and do not necessarily reflect the views of this blog publisher or his associates.

Global Genius -- Creative Solutions for a Crazy World

One place where our collective genius could certainly be put to use is in the arena of world, national, state, and local solutions. I'm looking for out-of-the-box thinking in terms of our various challenges and opportunities. How might you go about solving some of the dilemmas we seemed to have created for ourselves as human beings?

Pick your topic. Suggest a solution -- or even the beginnings of a solution. Add to someone else's solution. Suggest an alternative. We've got a creative crowd here, so let's see where our creative experiences might take us.

One request. Allow your solution engineering to come from the deepest, most authentic place in you. Suggest solutions that you feel would create the most profound ripple effect and that would impact the globe in a way that you'd want your children and grandchildren to learn and benefit from.


Let the solutions begin!

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As a reminder, we have two other active topics still in motion:

Genius in Action -- Creating a Model for a Community Wellness Center

Exotic Genius -- Your Wildest, Most Daring or Memorable Creative Experience

Feel free to dive into those discussions as well.

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P.S. As always remember that to see the comments in a separate window, click on the "Comments" link. To see the comments in the body of the topic, click "Links to this Post"

Views of those commenting have not been checked for accuracy and do not necessarily reflect the views of this blog publisher or his associates.

Genius in Action -- Creating a Model for a Community Wellness Center

After a lot of discussion, collaboration, expression of thoughts and ideas, we're now poised to take our ideas regarding a new healthcare paradigm and put them into a definitive form. The purpose of this experiment is to create a vision that is well-enough defined that someone could, if they so desired, actually put it to use or at least utilize it to provide a significant inspiration for what they would like to create in their own town or community.

I know that putting things to form can be a little tricky and so I'm going to layout a methodology here that I realize is a) not perfect; yet b) is based on an attempt, at least, to be sensitive to the various styles and approaches to which the group who's come this far on this endeavor, seem to respond well. If the approach I'm using isn't ideal for you, I hope you'll pardon its less-than-ideal nature, and share your thoughts, ideas, and visions with us anyway.

The form I'd like to use is the following:

For each entry you make, please choose an area of the vision upon which to focus (i.e. focus on an area like one of the following: the exterior appearance of the center, the underlying philosophy, the various fields of service that would be available, the interior space, how the center handles its financial needs, patient education, community outreach, etc.).

There are numerous areas from which to choose and many not named here. There are also a variety of ways of naming categories that might provide a new linguistic angle that will have us see or think of the area differently or in a totally new way. I want to strong encourage us to feel free to be very creative in this regard.

Since I would like to combine our work into a single document at one point that I'll re-publish on this site as a collective work, I'd like to ask for a small favor. At the beginning of your comment, simply begin by labeling the area your particular post will address as follows:

INTERIOR SPACE:

I see an interior space that is... (or whatever language you'd choose).

The primary point is that the focus area will be in caps and that the commentary will be 2 spaced lines below. This will allow for all of us to easily read through comments and find the material we're looking for and it will allow me to capture the content later and be able to work with it much more easily in order to prepare a collective piece to re-publish here.

One last detail. Rather than disagreeing on someone else's contribution... just add your own vision about the same area. What we're going to do is look for an additive process... or a collective process. Someone may write a vision you think is totally wrong. That's okay. Just describe your vision of the same category in your commentary. Later, we'll take a look at the various versions of each area and see what we feel accomplishes the overall vision the best.

Remember, we're looking to accomplish a couple of goals with this process:

1. Create a well-defined, exciting, invigorating, fresh, practical, and solution-based, vision for a wellness center; and

2. We're looking to have fun in the process (we don't have to create the perfect vision... just something that provides a good springboard).

I'm very enthused to see where we can take this together. We've assembled some good minds with good intent. Feel free to invite others to this process and contribute to as many different areas of focus as you'd like as many times as you feel would be useful.

Let's create something amazing together!

Thank you,
Christopher

P.S. As always remember that to see the comments in a separate window, click on the "Comments" link. To see the comments in the body of the topic, click "Links to this Post"

Views of those commenting have not been checked for accuracy and do not necessarily reflect the views of this blog publisher or his associates.

Tapping into Our Genius with Unbounded Creativity

This is one of two topics that emerged from Step Two of our previous exercise on collaboration (the second on topic, which is on healthcare, can be found direclty below this topic). During that discussion, Anonymous offered some thoughts that resonated with most, if not all of the group. The comments were in regard to how we unconsciously limit our options regarding solutions by falling prey to the habit of choosing from artificially derived polarities:

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"My main concern is that we are all blindfolded, and ready to march to the beat of a drum which has yet to materialize. At this point I think we'll all march to ANY beat just to avoid the unpleasantness of our own discomfort, and that concerns me.

"My experience has been that when creativity is "led" and "guided" in ANY direction, the vacuum created by the polarization itself is enough to effectively kill any REAL and new way of thinking. And I believe we are finding ourselves in that kind of a situation as we are soliciting (or, as the case may be, solicited to supply) the already known opinions on an ill defined and ambiguous issue. "

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Anonymous had, in fact, unveiled part of the purpose of the exercise -- to allow participants in the exercise to have a direct experience of the futility that results from attempting to create solutions from polarized positions (which inherently limit our options -- see Step Three of the exercise below).

The response, however, to these comments showed a real curiosity and desire to explore what became referred to as "unguided creativity." I've referred to it in the topic heading as unbounded creativity, but whatever we choose to call it, the real opportunity I'd like to invite us to take with this topic is to explore the freedom of creativity... to describe what that's like for you... what do you create or innovate, and to explore how to more fully and more readily access the creative state (or perhaps be aware that it's always present). So jump in... create... explore... wonder out loud... share your perspectives and your perplexities. And thanks to Anonymous and everyone who responded with such enthusiasm and thus led to this topic.

P.S. As always remember that to see the comments in a separate window, click on the "Comments" link. To see the comments in the body of the topic, click "Links to this Post"

Views of those commenting have not been checked for accuracy and do not necessarily reflect the views of this blog publisher or his associates.

Collaboration -- A More Sure Path to Genius?

The question we're posing here has been asked and hinted at throughout the last blog topic, in particular. And then, Annonymous posted the following comment, which I'd like to use as the springboard into the topic of genius and collaboration:

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"Chris suggested, in an earlier blog entry, that we consider our so-called collective consciousness. According to Chris, we all possess and own this entity. And I agree with Chris (and Jung) about the existence of such communal intelligence property (I also believe that the stated fear and mistrust of the concept is real and present in our thinking).

Chris then asked, in a later blog, the following question: "(Or) is there something (or some perspective or wisdom itself) beyond ethics (and thus possibly sourced by genius -- or the whole) which possibly enables a more holistically balanced manifestation of genius?”It seems reasonable to (in response to Chris’ question) suggest that maybe the “higher ethic” or “wisdom” is simply the act of considering the collective consciousness before the personal intellect (or genius)?

Wouldn’t that create what he called a “more holistically balanced manifestation of genius?”In light of MM’s latest entry, I have personally decided to look at trans generational intelligence, thought, and genius as parts of that greater collective consciousness. Consequently then, knowledge and wisdom and truth about old AND new ways of navigating through this territory called life (and its limitations), becomes a process greatly enriched by ALL contributions and contributors. No matter which generation contributes the knowledge."

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In light of Annonyomous' questions about generational collaboration, I'd like to expand that notion to include any perceived barriers that might seemingly separate us and invite us to consider the following questions:

Is the act of collaboration, in a very real way, a surrendering of the ego? A realization that by combining our ideas, talents, etc. with another (or others) we will be able to create something beyond our own immediate ability?

As we begin to consider those questions, I'd also like to clarify a distinction between toleration, cooperation, and collaboration. (I'm slowly learning from MM to be concise):

Toleration: Putting up with (learning to cope) with someone's differences.

Cooperation: Working together because we have to (because circumstances or potential consequences of not cooperating) without being willing to consider giving up our point of view.

Both of these, while not optimum, may gradually lead us to trust more in the involvement and participation of others and thus take us toward...

Collaboration: Proactively seeking out the involvement, ideas, and participation of others because we want to (realizing that not only do we perhaps need to, but that our idea will be better for it, that adding or combining other viewpoints and dealing with differences drives innovation and creativity (in essence it approaches differences as assets).

Because of its very nature (actively including more perspectives than my own and trusting in the inherent value of those additonal prespectives) and the mindset required to utilize collaboration, it seems that collaboration will certainly increase the odds that we are better able to understand the ramifications and ripple effect of our actions.

I'd like to suggest that, while toleration and cooperation may be better than their opposites (exclusison and unresolved conflict), that these approaches do not net the benefits described by MM in their description of how they learn collaboratively, nor do those approaches fully take advantage of the increased perspectives and exposure to the whole created by accessing the intelligence across the divides of generation or other differences (as reflected by Annonymous' suggestion).

So... if collaboration, as defined here, creates a greater opportunity to generate a more expansive thought process (and more lanes of access to the collective intelligence and thus a more potent dose of genius)... and, if utilized with practice, generates a higher level of creativity and innovation (which a number of studies indicate that it does)... what can we do to intentionally be more collaborative, model collaboration, promote collaboration, etc.

(I'd invite us to consider real examples that, without sharing things you deem too personal, give us a more clear glimpse of how we might all learn to better access this modality with more confidence and intentionality.

Lisa Lee suggested that anything that does not utilize this more inclusive approach may, in fact, no longer be considered to be genius at all (but instead, short-sightedness). That's a very thought provoking suggestion. What if we no longer gave credence to intelligence used short-sightedly?

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Views of those commenting have not been checked for accuracy and do not necessarily reflect the views of this blog publisher or his associates.