Orange Metaphor

If you watched the video of the Musing Moments, you will see I have an orange here. I want you just to ponder for a few moments on this orange.  If you are reading this article just imagine an orange. Remember that the background to my musings is an exploration and examination of the practical application of holistic awareness, a more holistic integral awareness. There is an important distinction between those two ways of thinking and the way we function in our life on the planet today.  I want you to just ponder this orange, and the processes that exist on this planet that lead this orange to be of the shape and form that it is at the moment. And obviously, I'm speaking to you in a habitat in a temperate climate, that is not the natural habitat of this orange.

Remember from an integral perspective, we're looking for different ways to embrace the whole and conventionally integral practise where we're considering the biology and the physical form of this orange. We're also one level looking at the underlying dynamic, the sentience, the capability of this orange to work with its life conditions and survive. We're also looking at how the dynamic of the orange as the fruit on a tree and the whole interspecies dynamic relates to thrive in a given context. And then last but not least, we've got how those species form an overall ecology, which can be patterned in its own right.

We’ve got a bio psycho-cultural and ecological ecosystems perspective that we're working with and is translated into plant speak. But remember that this is not about four dimensions dealt with separately.  We are using those four windows to embrace the whole.



Now what we know is from an integral perspective, which is a framework of the universe, that there's the bandwidth of what shapes this orange is massive.

From the finite worlds to infinity.  

From the physical to the gross.

From the gross and the subtle. and the causal.

From the physical world to the subtle, so that the subtle energy field that shapes this orange, right the way through to the causal dynamics in the universe, that that have different degrees of influence that lead to this life form here, this holon to exist in this particular context.

So, I'm using the language of integral psychology, integral theory, but fundamentally, this orange exists because of some complex meshing into the all.  In this orange is an expression of the all. Equally, this orange is shaping the all because it's a unique expression that shapes the habitat as much as being shaped by its habitat.

Think about all the processes that go into leaving behind this pattern, this shape, this form of an orange. And we have to thank Rupert Sheldrake for giving us the language that helps us understand how the shape of the orange may form because the certainly is no known patterning in the genetic form that shapes the orange into an orange.  Rupert Sheldrake would say that there's a morphic field that defines the shape of the orange and into which the orange is perpetually growing and recreating itself.  As it goes through its lifecycle from the birthing of the seed, right the way through to the life cycle where there is decay it decomposes and returns to its mineral form. In that process, the seed has captured its legitimacy in its habitat and sprung forth the growth of a new orange tree. Here I'm starting to talk about the successional dynamics of a given lifeform. Now, whether it's a virus, microbe, soil, plant, animal or human, there is this fundamentally similar pattern of the successional dynamics, but different contexts.

Now, what I want you to imagine is that plants and species such as this orange first emerged somewhere between 320 million years ago or a bit later. Plants of this stature have been around for a while. I will need to check into the Paleo geology or the Paleo history and just check when orange tree blossoms and fruit are first spotted, but it's not important to have that level of detail for what we are discussing here. What we're dealing with here is an understanding that at some stage, many millions of years before the human species emerged, this orange plant emerged.  And all it could rely upon were all the processes; chemical, biological, subtle and causal that existed to leave behind this pattern of this particular form.

And the language I use today, I want to build upon what Rupert Sheldrake is done in this morphic field. The way I think about this today is this plant, at this moment creates a standing wave. It draws in all the insights and processes of the universe to create its form. And for the period to exist, it is the fullest expression of that particular signature that is possible.

It equally means that as a standing wave, it has access to all the information of the universe and beyond, that pulls together, the biological, the chemical, and the other shaping influences and processes that took nearly 13 - 14 billion years to create on this planet, the possibility of this plant existing. It's an absolute miracle. But think of this orange as a standing wave.  An expression of the plant’s impression of its habitat. And its interaction with that habitat that operates within a certain bandwidth. Orange trees don't grow around here in the UK, the temperatures are outside its bandwidth, for example. So, within a certain bandwidth, this plant can thrive and sustain itself. Isn't that amazing?

Now, it's equally amazing when we apply that premise to ourselves. In my biological form, in my language around full spectrum emergence, I am a solid human form. Now, this may take you more into the subjective aspects of our world today. But consistently, if I'm dealing with a more holistically oriented science, if the evidence is repeated from many sources, we have to pay attention to it. So today, the language I use around the human form, (and I use the word holon here for the orange,) we are more complex, in that we can look back in and perceive these processes. I'm not aware that the orange can do that it's sentience and can interact with this habitat. But it doesn't have that capacity to cognize and interpret these processes of nature. One function of our species is to look back in and comprehend and learn about the processes of this universe.

As a species the patterns are similar, whether it's an orange, an orange tree, or me; I am a standing wave.  You are a standing wave in this universe.  Where all the processes in every aspect of your existence have been derived at some stage, in this 14.8-billion-year journey that leads us to have this conversation today. It means that I'm drawing in a whole range of experience that was hard run in earlier life forms. An orange is an early life form, that contributes to human existence today. And obviously, the successional dynamics of the physical form continues from a human emergence point of view into the waves and stages of psychological development, that today I would call full spectrum emergence. That full spectrum considers all aspects of the holon and the solon in terms of the evolutionary dynamics, the successional dynamics. This means that in a given habitat or a given context, this orange (or I) thrives.

Now, what we know is that we have adaptability. I can travel quite freely to different parts of the world and adapt to the habitat; the orange has not learned that requisite variety. It's limited in terms of its ability to replace and relocate. But equally, as climate changes, or as local weather patterns change, it may well mean that the area in which this particular type of plant can thrive, will change and vary, and the plant can learn to adapt and modify itself slightly to adapt to those life conditions and still appear to be an orange.

So just to recap.  States, and transitions. Waves and stages of development.  We can analyze from a bio psycho-cultural social systems perspective, or another way of looking at it from this plant in terms of the ecological form the ecological dynamics, we can say, this plant is dependent on the supply of minerals, a good supply of water, solar energy, and complex interaction with all other life forms. Now in holistic management as well laid out and the water cycle, the mineral cycle, the energy flow, and community dynamics communicates the four dynamics, four windows into the whole, through which we can understand the overall vitality of this particular life.

It means that if I'm going into a piece of land, and I'm assessing the vitality of a piece of land, using some of the metrics we have developed, we can see if this orange has a standing wave.

Is there a standing wave that could hold a healthy orange? Where the orange neatly fits into the wave.

Is the standing wave different to the orange that's manifest itself in this location? Maybe the wave is a shift away from the existing orange.

 If the standing wave is shifted from the actualized orange, that means that we can often find chemicals and other things that interfere with the full realization of that orange into its most flexible and dynamic form with full health and vitality. There is a principle here.  Even though I've got a degraded form of the orange, it still has that capacity to grow into its full potential. If you remove the chemicals the orange will grow back into that full form. What I'm also suggesting is that, if that's the recovery path, to get to a regenerative state, there's always a creative evolutionary dynamic in the universe. So, in a regenerative state, there's always a higher form that seems to be inviting the plant to operate within a certain bandwidth, so it can fully adapt and respond to the life conditions in which it finds itself.

If we go in and change the life conditions too far too fast, we drag it down away from its normal healthy bandwidth, that plant will die. If we push it too far, the other way artificial the plant will die. Life forms smaller than us remain in a remarkably fine bandwidth.  A change of temperature by a fraction of a degree can mean the difference between life and death for many of our microbial partners on this planet.  Whereas I can sit here with my snood (scarf/dickie) and my clothes. And I can operate on a much higher bandwidth from freezing temperatures to probably about 50 degrees Celsius would be the temperature that I could operate in as long as the humidity was not high.  In the case of 35 degrees, Celsius with very high humidity would kill me. Even I in my physical form has a bandwidth.



All the while, what I'm asking you to be aware of is the sweet spot of the integral conversation is not in the quadrants, it's in the sweet spot of the meshing of all these dynamics into a complex whole. In the human form, I call that solon. Where the soul is enmeshed with the physical form, the holon. And that I believe is the best way I can describe a lot of the features in spiral dynamics, which is the V MEME - is an organizing dynamic that shapes and influences interactively with our biological, psychological, cultural, and social systems dynamics.  And most importantly, there is depth and the depth around the integral perspective, the depth takes us into the stages and waves of development that shape our capacity to bring to language and bring to metaphor, our impression of how life functions in this context. 

Either from the first-person perspective, or to conceptually appreciate the successional dynamics of this orange, or that blade of grass, or that field of grass or that animal, is being continually recreated into a standing wave of possibility. And knowing that there's a probability if you set the life conditions right, this orange will go back into its form, or it's an optimum vitality.  Knowing that Nature never matches perfectly. Nature always leaves room for flexibility to adapt. And so it is with our human form. We have our centre of gravity, which is the fullest expression of fullest utilization of the dominant waves of consciousness around which we operate. And it's through those waves of consciousness that we interpret and perceive and interpret the information we receive about our habitat, and also about how we process minerals, how we process water, etc, etc.

Suddenly, we expand medical awareness into a whole new integral ability. Because each stage of development has different nutritional needs, water needs, interaction needs, and energy source needs. That is why in our work together, we need to learn to move beyond a flatland approach and interpretation where everybody is the same, to really celebrate the successional dynamics and the amazing meshing together of the all into you, or myself, at this moment, because it's standing wave expression, where we're drawing in information from the all to equip us in our current biological form, to be viable, and contribute to a creative, evolutionary dynamic that still lies way beyond our comprehension. But we can surely work with the principles, postulates and patterns of what we observe. Because the more we do that, the more our innate knowing moves beyond feeling. And the more we grow into that space, the knowing of the knowing can come together to help us support the creation of a world that works for all and become the platform for freedom for the next wave of our creative evolutionary journey. Thank you