Peter E. Pflaum, Synergy site

Peter E. Pflaum - Golden Globe -
The Synergy Network Wiredbrain ppflaump@cfl.rr.com

RE: Inside out

What we feel, think, desire, need, and perceive comes from the

inside out. We like to believe we can be objective.
There sure is

an objective reality out "there", what ever our attitude about

"it" maybe.
There are laws of the universe that are unaffected by

our belief systems. Because there is an objective world does not

mean we know much about it because we are humans, a species on

small planet with inflexible biological characteristics.
The

organism is alive and very interactive.

Ergonomics is a primitive science of adjusting technology to what

we are as people. We need to thing in "general systems" and

social psychological (as if there was anything except social

psychology) terms about the ergonomics of the information

revolution.
The "laws of free markets" are a kind of natural

force over which we as individuals and even organized societies

have little control.
The world of information is growing so fast.

Maybe too fast.

We think with our whole electrical chemical systems just like a

bacterium.
The higher senses and language functions are layered

on a billion years of biological information process equipment.

Information is survival. Information is how live finds meaning,

nutrition and reproduction.
The information processing capacity

of a virus is quite amazing.

One of the sillier mindless slogans was "biology is not destiny",

meaning women were not limited by their physical being. How

silly, since we all are, and we find the meaning of life and

moral purpose in being what we are, not what we may think we

are.. or are told we are, or the cultural setting say we should

be, but BEING in the more traditional sense. If we have a sense

of being it surely is physical and living not an idea but a

feeling , which is the gestalt . Sometimes I sits and thinks, and

sometimes I just sits.

As technology expands and reforms our information processing

systems it changes the nature of survival. Evolution is applied

information systems.

Inputs, process, and outcomes. Positive feedback and you get

more, negative and you get less. Living creatures seeks goals

that are set by the information networks and their systems of

perception and processing. As we change in process from speech,

body language, tone of voice, familiar faces in a known context

we change the very nature of people.
The biological ruts are deep

(Sociobiology) so our dynasty and destiny is our biology.

Human work and live best within small groups (LT. 80) which are

stable so everyone gets to know everyone else and they share a

"vision".
The collective reality become strong and there is

synergy, the whole is more than the sum of the parts. Human

groups become dynamic information systems if they share goals

seeking behavior and identify a common interest, feeling.

passions. wants, needs, desires, thoughts, language, context,

vision, seeing things in a common way.
The dilemma is that this

quick becomes includes "small town" barrier to new information

and change.
The balance between the collective and the

individual, between stability and change is a difficult balance.

Thai's life.

THEREFORE, the Ergonomics of work groups require small, stable,

sets of individuals.
The technology allows us to share with

Blaine (I have an 8 year old with that name ) in Spain (they just

returned for seven weeks with grandmother in Javea, Alicante) but

if I don't "know" him and we are each working only for our best

interest, and to take the credit and pass the blame to Blaine in

Spain, in an organization that doesn't know us, or care about us,

it is not going to work very well if at all, regardless of the

technological wonder.
The history of technology transfer and

adaptation is that social goals come first. What is the human and

evolutionary advantage of the new way. Clearly in military

technology, kill or be killed. In non lethal technological-social

systems, economic advantage, merge or be merged.
The groups that

can produce "distance" synergy have a great evolutionary

advantage.
The power of "real" work groups working at a distance

is very great and very difficult.

That is the experiment I am working on. Actual human groups

working, loving, hating, hiding, opening up, talking, really

talking about what's inside. From inside out. Sharing a world

view, and being complex seeking human creatures in all their

wonder and wondering.

Psychology is the only base for all social science and theory.

Recent research has described the mind and the "ID" (Brain

structures) in new ways. It's more than Freud ever could have

conceived and the dynamics are not Newton's or Maxwell's but

Plank's quanta.
The inter-play of dynamic energy fields. This

leaves the door open a crack for para-psychology, ESP, etc.

The left brain is busy "making up" reality to explain and justify

our needs, passions, wants, desires, fears and other emotional

content and feelings. Emotions and feeling are in the body first

- anger in the shoulders, fear in the belly - (see Benison
The

Stress Response) In sleep, when the left brain is relaxed, (but

still active) we can come in touch with the reality of

body/knowledge or what I have called the "dream-time".
The

dreamtime (
The last Wave Movie of Peter Weir) is the source and

the origin of "people", our laws, customs, love and hates, what

we are as humans. When we loose contact with the dream-time,

contact with our bodies and ourselves, pay no attention to the

natural world around us, we are in deep do-do. Wake-up (Tart) PAY

ATTENTION the Sufi, Gestalt, BioEngerics, Yoga, Zen all explains

states of conscienceness, and how people can be described as

sleep walkers - coming into a darken room and see taking shadows

for reality. Is Clinton, our anchors and T.V. people talking

shadow or a "real" people ? See we don't know and confuse T.V.

land for our clan territory. It's the way we are built. Myths and

fairy tales are the foundation of human being as describe in

Joseph Campbell's 1000 faces and by Carl Jung. ( About Neo-Plato,

Socrates and the Interior Writing, Hermantic and Freemasons which

is American Founding culture and other Sufi teachers, see A Story

in the files, not everyone can understand or benefit from

everything - there are secrets )

The infant child "bonds" with mother biochemically. Love is

chemistry and much as neurology. It was just the neurologist and

bio-chemist didn't talk to each other.
The immune system contains

learning and thinking in a different but profound way. Perhaps,

profound knowledge is "body" habits, as suggested by ancient

educational practice (Sufi, Zen, Hatha Yoga, Christian traditions

such as the Jesuits, and the British Public School).

Jane ? presents scientific evidence on how body/mind is damaged

by television in "Endangered Minds".
The neurological patterns,

especially the left brain, rational language centers are badly

wired with the excess of visual stimulus including Sesame Street.

You only have to glance at MTV to understand brain damage. I

suggest the neurological mal function is in concert with chemical

disfunction augmented by bad diet.
The learned habits of mind

become chains that change "world-view or Gestalt" and deeply

effect the bio-chemical bond between people, the order of

society, educational practice, politics, economics and

communications.

Like all serious ailments the sickness feeds on itself. Because

we have a breeding population with damaged social habits, their

off-spring are even worse off.

Television has put the process of "civilization" into reverse.

Civilization as James Q. Wilson is the product of thousands of

years of "good" habits called virtue, character, responsibility,

family values, religion, political statesmanship, military

skills, science, tradition, libraries, institutions,

Universities, local governments, clubs and associations, a vast

social infrastructure built on "culture" which is socially

transmitted in child-raising. As the Greeks noticed the household

is the "model" of the state (Polis).
The issue of Family Values

and Virtue (Bennett, Covey, Deming ) is not some Religious Right

power play but the heart of survival of the "civilization".
The

need for "moral" revival is great. My example is Wallace's

Handsome Lake in "
The Death and rebirth of the Seneca", and why

this book is so important to our times. Rebuilding character (not

personality ) is an outward bound experience (body knowledge) and

maybe new colonies like Markarenko's Gorki Colony. (
The Road to

LIFE..another time of social breakdown was in Russia civil war of

the 1920's, end with a whimper or a bang -
The Wasteland T.S.

Elliot).

Society is based on the body/mind bond created by family habits.

We are our "culture" and the product of socialization. If the

body/mind is not "programmed or video taped scripts" but screwed

up by T.V. the social fabric unwinds. This is what is going on

and why is so difficult to understand and do anything about.

Remember the social breakdown of over crowded Norwegian Rats,

they failed to keep up their nests and family duties collapsed to

the point the population did as well.

WEEK 11: Listening:

ATTITUDES:

PREJUDICES:

PERCEPTIONS:

PATTERNS OF BEHAVIOR

FEELING:

THE REASONS YOU BELIEVE IN THE PERCEPTIONS

THAT YOU HAVE DEPENDS ON HOW YOU FEEL ABOUT YOURSELF AND OTHERS.

This activity involves an internal thought process.
The

cluster of concepts need to be defined and understood;

expectations, attitudes, prejudices, assumptions, values,

beliefs, etc. What really happens in the socialization process.

(P 209) What is the reference? What are we talking about? What

is going on here? What can go wrong? This is the going

somewhere or going nowhere cycles. How do you use understanding

to take action and be more effective ? Give other examples of

situations - thought process - behavior - feeling that are

common, such as power - who's the boss, greed (it's mine), love ?

Is your group going to do a field trip, to Court, prison,

school, hospital, public meeting? How about Interviews ? What is

going on ? What do these people think is going on ? Roles and

expectations / how do expectations become demands ? Give

examples of going nowhere and going somewhere .What did you learn

about yourself that you want to modify ? How is this exercise

related to more effective communication.

WEEK 11: LISTENING and prejudice -

Sociology - Chapter 10 Family USA Chapter 20 Education

Social Science Chapter 19 Family

Collective behavior, IDEOLOGY, CHAPTER 12 AUTHORITY AND

RESPONSIBILITY

CHOICE

A first and critical choice, is between existentialism and

platonic idealists. People believe in chance or in order. This

primary attitude becomes the internalized systematic theme of

their lives. Choices are made, even if people, and cultures are

not aware of doing so. One can believe there is no central

purpose in life and a person's past controls their future.
They

feel dependent, and what happens to them is deter mined by fate

and forces outside themselves. Other feel there is a rational

meaning in existence guided by FAITH, BIOLOGICAL principles,

PHYSICAL judgment, or OBJECTIVE wisdom. When people become aware

of who they are - including their place in the general scheme of

life - they can achieve independence. When a person knows how to

control life, within the limits of human nature, they view

themselves as subjects not objects.

Some value issues are perplexing and cause divisions among

people when they become very political. It is in some people's

interest to enhance the differences. Euthanasia, abortion, school

prayer, cultural diversity, property rights, and individualism

are hard issues. It can make one believe that all issues are

limited by the interest and concerns of solely personal values

and viewpoints. This is true of some issues but not all there is

to the matter. If there is a "right" way do we need to be

tolerant of "wrong"?

Social science, in the imitation of physical sciences tries

to be "value-free." Because some issues are difficult and some

rational approaches try to control for unproven opinions, does

not mean that all value issues are complex or all thinking has to

be value-free.
There are areas of agreement and room for

differences.

Every culture and society, social scientists, people of the

political right and of the left, Chinese and Greek, all religious

believers and nonreligious skeptics, all can agree on the

necessity of certain common virtues, such as; - Hard work and

responsibility - diligence and forthright ness - clarity of

purpose and the social worth of others - cTHING2ss, honest, the

responsibilities of parents and neighbors, etc. Social success

depends on having proscribed cultural standards and norms. An

individual's well being depends on the groups success. Only

thieves and con-men will disagree. We cannot live in a society of

thieves and con- men.
The chart shows many common elements of all

cultures.
These common elements are biological. People are all

within a range of size, intelligence, visual abilities, and they

all behave within certain patterns. All languages and customs

have common elements because we share a common biology.

There is an extreme form of individualism where the greed

and selfishness of the "master builders" benefit the whole

society. (Ayn Rand)
The idea of the `invisible hand' can be taken

to simplistic extremes.
There is a proper selfishness, one

should belief in your self-worth, one needs a firm belief in ones

powers and capacities, people should have a love of freedom and

independence. We all can respect the rights of man.

There is also clearly an extreme form of collectivism. In

this ideology the person is only a subject. People owe

everything to higher authority and exist only for the society.

Extreme capitalism or the law of the jungle does not work

and never has. Communism clearly does not work. We all depend

on the web-of-life and our social system. Synergy requires

"good" character. Trust and sharing requires values beyond the

self.
The true individual is also the good citizen. Live is a

balancing act.
The biology of the brain drives us toward the

evolution of effective behaviors and "right" answers.

The model of "right" behavior is preeminent in the role of

parents. Children require long period of care and good parents

produce a good child that make for a good society. Bad parents

produce problems for everyone. We must care for others and be

cared for. If people believe that "anything" goes, in just doing

it, and ideas as `long as it works for me it OK', `different

stokes for differed folks', and other selfish beliefs, society

itself will not work. If people believe that values are just

relative and situational then the keystone of the social

structure falls.

Specific fixed, universal, immutable, unchanging principles

cannot be proven or disproved. It's a choice between beliefs. I

chose to be on the side of the ages and angels. (Also biology)

The beliefs in principles arise out of practical experience and

the nature of society over thousands of years. Successful living

and a functional society depend on wise customs and beliefs.

Everyone has civic duties and responsibilities. If people despoil

the public parks, we all are the poorer. When growth is greater

than the caring capacity, everyone is worse off. Knowledge is the

cure for ignorance, example the guide to excellence.

Central principles organize all the other activity within

the common myths and traditions of the people.
The hard

decisions are made simpler, the crooked path is made straighter.

Central values are critical to all education and learning.

Tradition is the wisdom and experience of the past. Some things

change but not everything.

The value free position believes the world was made by

chance. Natural forces formed the planet and life evolved by the

random mixing of chemicals.
These random events can be

reproduced in the laboratories to create organic compounds, the

building blocks of simple organisms. Over millions of years

humanoid species developed more complex abilities. Homo-sapiens

developed a complex brain with facilities in language and the

ability to make speech. Language allowed other skills to be

shared. With writing, information was stored, the dead could

inform the living. Cultural synergy means the sum is greater then

the parts. Human groups vaulted ahead by cooperation and the use

of knowledge stored in cultural traditions, folkways, customs,

and technology. People can learn from each other and from

knowledge gained in the past. Other species require biological,

genetic change to increase their capacities. Human can change

through cultural technology. Biology does not change. Technology

has physical and behavioral limits. Industrial societies have

pushed but cannot remove the heredity limits and ignore human

nature.

Information is not limited by physical perception. We know

about things we cannot see, feel, hear or test, but only know

indirectly by their effects. Black holes, the strong and weak

forces that make the universe possible, the atoms themselves are

illusions that create the impression of a solid material world.

Scientific and social materialism no longer dominates certain

doctrines. Logical positivism has faded. Existentialism has

passed its prime. Modern physics rejects the machine like model

for an almost mystic one. Time is finite, there clearly was a

beginning in the big bang.
There is direction to matter and

energy. Psychobiology is beginning to understand the limits of

behavior.

Choice is a critical act in a successful and a happy life.

If one choice is clearly distractive and the other helpful,

productive, and moral, why is there still an issue?
The hubris

of science and technology discounted the belief in universal and

fixed principle. Civilization believed it had little to learn

from the past. We forgot Socrates, oriental culture, and wise men

had no rating. Commercialism became the new religion.
The poor

and ignorant remain poor and mired in superstition and false

beliefs. In the last hundred years we should have learned a

certain respect for our best cultural traditions and folkways. If

we believe there is a truth beyond our own perception then we

can seek something that is unknown to us. What the truth is

exactly, is another question.
The point here is that there is

such a thing as universal principles. Something exists beyond the

common experience and perception of everyday life.

Subject: A few good Sufi Jokes

RE: Humor #1 Scholars

I am asked "are you the secret teacher?"

"Yes, I am." I say

"But you don't know anything about Sufi teaching." they say.

"That's right - but that's the secret."

A Sufi camping one night put a bottle under his head for a

pillow.

His student said "surely that is going to be too hard?"

"as an ordinary bottle, Yes," the Sufi said " but I am going to

stuff it with straw before I put my head on it."

I computer translation system is set up for the Russian

Republic - the message is sent "
The spirit is willing but

the flesh is weak."

The terminal in Moscow quickly types "
The Vodka is ready

but the meat is devitalized."

Fruit Flies like Bananas (Chompsky)

Unconsidered Trifles = Neglected Puddings

A famous Professor was demonstrating, before fellow-members of

the learned Academy, a remarkable discovery.

First he took three flies out of a matchbox.
Then he

commanded them to fly three times around the table.
Then. on his

command, they jumped five times. Finally they danced a silent tap

dance on the table, their images magnified

through a gigantic apparatus devised for the purpose of

making such demonstrations visible to a large audience.

The onlookers were spellbound. "and now," said the

scholar, "I will give you the real demonstration. It is the

illustration of my discovery."

He took the flies and placed drops of honey on their

feet, sticking them to the table.
Then he shouted "FLIES

JUMP!"
The flies went on licking the stick stuff.

"And that ladies and gentlemen," concluded the

Professor "demonstrates that flies, when their feet are

covered in honey, cannot hear!"

A whole band of Sufis were being admitted to heaven. Each

was admitted without any ceremony, the doors simply closed and

open for the next. Right at the end came a scholar, with a

reverent look and majestic gait, full of confidence. He

was the most respected academic of his age. As he step

forward the gates swing wide, the trumpets sounded, there

was tremendous applause from the assembled multitude.
The

shining figure of St. Michael himself came to escort him

within.

"This is most gratifying", said the scholar, " to know that

the learned are recognized for their importance. But

why all this ceremony?"

"Well", said St. Michael, "it is something of an occasion. You

see, this is the first time that we have had an academic among

us.."

#2

Idries Shah - Octagon Press

************************************************************

Peter E. Pflaum Ph.D. * THE_SUFI_METHODS

"Mankinds' moral sense is not a strong beacon light,

radiating outward to illuminate in sharp outline all that it

touches. It is, rather, a small candle flame, casting vague and

multiple shadows, flickering and sputtering in the

strong winds of power and passion, greed and ideology. But

brought close to the heart and cupped it one's hands, it

dispels the darkness and warms the soul." James Q. Wilson

************************************************************

Also in # 10:

Being Human:

Each human and humanity must find unity with the natural

world in our own unique way.
The future of the species depends

on the choices we make.
The awareness of new physical and mental

possibilities increasing the freedom of choice both in our use of

our biology and our self-awareness maybe the reason for our being

the way we are and how we got where we are. Unanswered questions,

such as what is important to us as individuals and a society and

what criteria should be used to make decisions are no longer

abstract philosophical wanderings of a leisure class but critical

to all of us.

What we can learn from the biological and cultural history

of the species opens a foundation for a few powerful central

ideas. Technology and science progress by the use of theories

that make sense of complex events. Social science as failed the

species in suggesting more and more small ideas.
The career needs

of specialist has given us less and less social insight into the

really important questions. In fact, social science has wished

the important questions away. With a human value system all

becomes noise, the tinkling of drums and the sound of idiots

clashing at night.

The event, in evolutionary history was the ability of humans

to use culture to transform the environment. First with simple

tools and hominidae social organization. (Pack behavior of

Baboons and Chimps). Homo sapiens have developed complex brains

that process language (ideas) and communicate them with symbols.

This ability made us half angles and half beasts.
The success of

social organization (technology) bypassed biological and

environmental limits. All life expands if it is possible and is

only limited by other life and physics. (food supply, climate,

competition in its niche) Human organizational ability made

possible by image producing brains and language has recently

created a world dependent on thought and the communications of

ideas.

The uniquely human factors are critical to understanding how

to survive in this man created environment. Understanding human

nature has never been more important and more difficult.
The

species has created a condition where it is dependent on itself

for its survival. It has created a collective Frankenstein.

Human judgement has never been more important if we are to manage

the new complex systems. Science alone can't help much in

managing the technology it creates.

The future of the species has for thousands of years been

dependent on the choices made by each generation. Those choices

were in context of a natural world. Some choices worked better

than others in this context. Evolution continued with culture

(technology) only slowly taking over from biology. Social systems

were able to slowly transform the limits of the environment.
The

first hominidae stood upright.
They left the trees and went into

the savanna.
They used tools, fire, and communications to survive

and spread. For hundreds of thousand of years "hunters - gathers"

lived in close relationship with nature. Homo sapiens developed

complex specialized brains for the processing of images and words

in separated but connected parts of the brain.
The right brain

left brain specialization (yin-yang) gave power to communications

and ideas through symbols. Human were limited as all life was by

limits on resources and competitions of other species.
The

population spread widely but thinly. Physical limits keep a

balance.
The image producing brain could conceive of new ways of

using the resources available and learn and teach others. This

started a technological explosion about 10,000 years ago. We can

learn about our biological character from the genes that carry

history. Genics build on the old in complex layers. Each new is

layered over the old. Domestic animals, canals, wagons, weapons,

grow and become com In the last few centuries the technological

explosion has increased in speed. We are now as a species

dependent on thought and communications to make choices that will

allow continue survival.
The success of social organization,

technology has bypassed biological and environmental limits.

Cities and energy are dependent on complex social, political,

economic systems that require choice.
The growing awareness of

possibilities, the technological freedom to choice rests on

environmental and biological systems not designed by nature but

ourselves.
The survival of the species depends on the collective

efforts of the species to understand and deal with a world of its

own making. We have created a world we must control and limit. We

must redefine a unity with the natural world in a new and unique

way.
The basic unanswered questions of social and personal life -

what is important and what criteria can be used to make choices

are more important that ever. Moral and philosophical - cosmic

question are all around us Being human is progressively more

difficult. As long as we are we might as well try to make a go of

it.

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