Showing posts with label Theory. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Theory. Show all posts

From The I-Ching to 2012 - Terrance Mckenna's Astonishing Theory And The Singular Event For Mankind

Recently passed philosopher, scientist (and some may say, eccentric) Terrance McKenna was a complex man with a complex theory that ended in a simple statement: December of 2012 will be a time that we will never forget.

After intensely studying the I-Ching, the Ancient Chinese Oracle known as the "book of changes," (some say with the assistance of psychoactive plants in the Amazon) he began to see patterns. The I-Ching is composed of 64 hexagrams, which are made up of six levels each of alternating horizontal bars and dots. If you line them up and stack them so that they are within a perfect square, you start to see a movement within the shapes.

Invent

He decided to create a linear model beginning in time with the era that the I-Ching was created in China and continuing to the present to see what patterns develop. When he input this information into a computer program, it formulated a graph with a rising and falling line, like a stock market forecast. He then noticed something astonishing. The parts of the line that were highest or lowest corresponded with times in history when new forms were developing.

When the line reached a peak, a new form would trigger the psyche of people. When the line fell into a crevasse, it aligned with a time when reality seemed to be falling apart, or there was a great event, or group of events all at once, that galvanized people. (The graph tells when, not where or what happens.)

You can see by the graph that important things happen in peaks and in troughs, both. My personal theory is that the peaks are when the lights go on and someone embodies this by creating some new form (which may not be able to be assimilated, and therefore is feared or shunned). The low points are when the lights go out and everyone is scrambling to find the switch because nothing is recognizable. Each requires a new form to come in to existence, but for a different reason.

Following the line on the graph, we see it take its last rise around the time of Classical Greece (around 700 B.C.) and then take a steady plunge until it simply dives off the graph into infinity, ending the module. And when was this event that had not occurred ever in the history of mankind you may ask? It was 2012. December 21st of 2012 to be exact; the final moments of the Mayan Calendar, as well, a calendar which had begun 5000 years ago, ending with the same date that Terrance's module ended with.

Terrance saw this time period ending with time being compressed, over and over, from 1945 to 2012. What may we expect from this based on his calculations and the discoveries of correlations of the cycles of past events?

McKenna said in an interview with Sightings TV show that his best guess is that it is as if someone is likely to invent a time traveling machine of sorts, because it is as if it is the end of linear time. In other words, all time merges into one time. Everything becomes connected to everything else. Past, present and future become one. We could in effect be experiencing an infinite amount of evolution in a finite time.

Around 1968 there was the last peak. This coincided with a very tumultuous point in our cultural history in the USA. While the hippies frolicked and tried to create Nirvana on earth, the Vietnam War was escalated into its final death throws, and Martin Luther King's message came across amidst riots and violence until his voice was silenced. We can see that this peak provided great events that touched the psyche of a group of people and still resonates today.

As we progress in time, we experience more rapid evolutionary growth in shorter time periods. The last one we had was between that time of 1967-68 until the 1990s, which corresponded to The Dark Ages of the past. Then it cycles again from 2010 until 2012, only 64 times faster, then in 2012, 64 times faster still. In other words, we must adapt and evolve 64 times faster each cycle. (Remember what I said earlier about 64 being the number of hexagrams in the I-Ching.)

No one really knows what will happen. As the different views on this time period converge, this date of 2012 is beginning to be known in the mainstream culture. Whether taking it seriously or not, people are starting to notice. And when that happens, just like the compressed and sped up time, the attention draws energy to the date and speeds that energy toward us, creating a fait accompli.

As we are propelled closer and closer to 2012, I believe that it will be important to be able to be incredibly agile, releasing the old willingly and adapting to each quickly shifting circumstance with lightening fast decisions in the moment, decisions that come from the heart. This will ensure that we are where we need to be for our soul's best interest and that we will be there in peace.

We won't have to look at a graph, know how fast things are speeding up, or ask someone what we should be doing. We will just know. If what Terrance McKenna is saying is true, this will be a day out of time while we are still on earth, and could provide an opportunity for this life and all lifetimes for each soul on earth.

From The I-Ching to 2012 - Terrance Mckenna's Astonishing Theory And The Singular Event For Mankind

Craig Howell is a freelance writer and musician. You can hear his latest project, Mayan Days of Sound, resonant music for the soul, 20 songs for 20 Day Signs of the Mayan Calendar at http://mayansound.net Free download of an extended version of his "Chakra Tune Up".

Creativity Theory

Elements of Creativity Theory include:

What are the definitions of and differences between creativity and innovation? There is much confusion, for instance, Franklin (2003) writes that "innovation is anything that somebody thinks is a great idea." At a minimum, creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation. Innovation often means that outside decision makers have to get involved, as complete development and commercialisation commonly requires the competencies and knowledge of a team. Different competencies, structures, processes, resources and time-scales are required.

Creativity

Common characteristics of creative people. Do creative people have common characteristics that we can identify, so that we can hire the right people? Some firms do not engage in creative activities because of a belief that "special" people are needed. Many theorists and practitioners think that there are common characteristics, such as tolerance to ambiguity and risk taking. However, many others argue that there are none ("For sixteen years I have been trying to find some common denominator which seems to apply to all creative people. There aren't any. If I could find five or six characteristics I might be more successful at hiring them. I could make a list of curiosity, vocabulary, good visual imagery etc and then I could interview hundreds of people and hire the best. But I don't know of any common characteristic. We've got fifty copywriters and I suppose the good ones are judged at the end of the year, when we compare how many successful campaigns they have created").

Learning versus talent. Can creativity be learned and developed or is it a talent / special gift? Why is it that some people just are more creative? Nature nurture arguments are notoriously inconclusive and trait theories assume stability across situations and time. The best way to answer this question is to investigate whether creativity improves with practice. The experience curve, automisation, learning theories and the experiences of practitioners suggest that it does improve but there are caveats.

Motivation. Motivation is arguably more important than nature / nurture or traits. Someone with natural ability or placed in the right environment may not take advantage of it unless motivated. There is intrinsic motivation, synergistic and non-synergistic extrinsic motivation. How can it be induced and measured? There are many elements: material reward, progress to the ideal self, self-determination, self-evaluation, feedback, enjoyment, competency expansion, recognition and feasibility.

Blocks to creativity and organisational culture. What are the blocks to creativity and how can they be overcome? We can all be more creative, so what is stopping us? There are many blocks such as evaluation apprehension (in its many forms) and lack of adequate finance and resources. Separating creative from critical thinking, incremental productivity, tools that draw out tacit knowledge and using frameworks to trigger flow are some of the effective unblocking techniques. What is psychological safety and freedom? What properties of an organisational culture cultivate productivity?

Organisational structure. What properties of an organisational structure most foster creativity? There are many reasons why an entity has a particular organisational structure: history, logistics, market segmentation, product line, strategy and so forth. It is often unreasonable to ask a firm to change its organisational structure, so how do we get around this problem?

Group structure What is the most effective team structure? Many people who are acknowledged to have made great contributions to society have worked alone, but it is very easy for individuals to go "off track" and feedback is required to some degree, as well as other things. It is also very difficult to separate the idea from its influences. Many others work in pairs or small teams, as this reduces the negative effects of large groups. Successful firms generally start off as very small, creative enterprises. Many people think that brainstorming in large groups enhances creativity, but large groups bring with them politics, status differentials, group think, dilution of ideas and conformity among other things.

The role of knowledge. What type and level of knowledge helps creativity most? Can someone with limited knowledge of a field make a significant contribution to it? Does excess knowledge cause blinkered vision? Intellectual cross-pollination fosters creativity, but how do we overcome competency traps and other negatives? How do we frame-break, reduce path dependency and collaborate effectively?

Radical versus incremental creativity. Radical / transformational / disruptive creativity is very much glamorised. But is this what is required most often? Is it wiser to target radical or incremental ideas? Is radical really radical or the result of incremental improvement? How is radical defined? If we want a radical idea as opposed to an incremental change, what are the implications? Incremental and radical creativity require vastly different structures, processes, skills and resources.

Structure & goals. Many creative people object to structure and goals - they argue they interfere with thought processes and originality; there is a very fine line between structure and conformity. Does structure help trigger a flow of good ideas? Do structure and goals help set the boundaries of a problem and produce more output that when an individual is simply allowed to "do their best?" Do structure and goals help us achieve the objective more rapidly? How many people have a half finished novel or screenplay in their office?

Process. Many people question the concept that creativity can be a process. Ask many practitioners what process they engage in and they may well deny there is one. But if you examine the activities of many creative people, common patterns of behaviour emerge. This common process makes insight / eureka / the aha! experience more likely. The process includes identifying and intensely investigating the problem, forcing production of ideas using creative versus critical thinking and other techniques; seeking stimuli and allowing the unconscious mind to take over by engaging in rest and unrelated activities.

Valuation. How do we value an idea, so as to decide how to invest resources? Even a painter who creates for pure pleasure has to decide which one of his ideas is best; there is always a value system and (some argue) always some sort of promotional instinct. There are decisions as to whether you are looking for applied creativity and who the consumer is; how do they benefit? There is no sure fire way to evaluate perfectly because there is no sure fire route to commercial success. But we can benchmark against those types of ideas that have succeeded in the past; firms must make a decision as to their strategic, competence and technical fit; there are comparisons against rivals and practical impediments; how do we make the go or kill decision and what are the trade-offs? A quantitative tool for measuring the value of ideas has been developed.

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Creativity Theory

The MBA research project and other creativity and innovation tools can be found at http://managing-creativity.com/.

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Kal Bishop, MBA

Kal Bishop is a management consultant based in London, UK. His specialities include Knowledge Management and Creativity and Innovation Management. He has consulted in the visual media and software industries and for clients such as Toshiba and Transport for London. He has led Improv, creativity and innovation workshops, exhibited artwork in San Francisco, Los Angeles and London and written a number of screenplays. He is a passionate traveller. He can be reached at http://managing-creativity.com/.