Hello, I am new here. My name is Gary Jaron. I was born in 1954 in
Levittown, New York. I consider myself a Reform Jew, amongst other things.
I have a BA from the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington, in
Religious Studies with a Jewish Studies as major emphasis. I studied
Biblical Hebrew in a Master Program there as a first step to applying to a
Rabbinical Seminary. I could not master Hebrew and that ended my choice of
becoming a Rabbi. I later applied for and received a JD from Golden Gate
University in San Francisco, California. I passed the California State Bar
and I am currently a non-practicing attorney. I have written a
fantasy/philosophical novel, self published using a Print-on-demand
technology Publisher: Xlibris. The Novel is entitled: "Through the Gate of
Dreams".
I first encountered ZMM while at the University of Washington during my BA
phase. Understanding of the nature of and the construction of Reality has
been an ongoing theme and quest during my entire life. I had been reading
from all of your postings and essays for sometime. I have encountered and
grappling with the ideas of the following formative authors: Alfred
Korzybski, Arthur Koestler, Robert Pirsig and Ken Wilber, to list a few.
What I am posting now is the current conclusions of my understanding of
Reality. I am hereby making myself and this essay a "target" by asking the
following question concerning the essay which follows: "What is wrong with
this picture?"
My Holarchy
By Gary M. Jaron
[April 27, 2002]
Let me start with words and their relation to the Tao.
"The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be
named is not the eternal name." [From Lao Tsu's Tao Te Ching, translated
by Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English] Alfred Korzybski wrote something very
similar when he said: "A Word is not the things spoken about, and that there
is no such thing as an object in absolute isolation." [From pg 50 of
Korzybski's book Science and Sanity.] And: "The map is not the territory it
represents, but if correct, it has a similar structure to the territory,
which accounts for its usefulness." [pg. 58.] The Tao is the ultimate
object that we can speak about and the ultimate territory that we can try to
map. But everything that we say is "not the eternal Tao" it remains words.
The Tao is before human words and human maps. Human words and human maps
come after and are not the same as the pre-verbal/non-verbal reality and
experience of the Tao. So, what follows is a map in the form of words. It
can never be the same as the Tao, but it is all we humans can do, we are map
makers and word users.
The human word 'Tao' [which has the literal translation into English as a
way, a path, a road.] and the human word 'Quality', I believe are exact
equivalents. The choice of words are the products of two individuals
working within the maps of two cultures. One map and culture was a Romantic
Quality culture (China as experienced by Lao Tsu) the other a Classical
Quality culture (United States as experienced by Robert Pirsig.) Having
said this, I will start with both terms for final emphasis and then drop the
use of the word 'Tao' and switch to Pirsig's term Quality, since this essay
that follows is more about Classical Quality map making than Romantic
Quality map making.
I believe that the Tao/Quality is the ultimate Holon, and all Holon's exist
not in absolute isolation but in a Holarchy. And by saying this I therefore
am asserting that the totality of everything, all non-verbal objects and all
verbal objects are Holons. The assertion that Tao/Quality is a Holon is
something that is inherent in the nature of and the reality of the
Tao/Quality. It is not a mere human map. [An analogy: The word 'gravity'
is a human invention and everything that can be spoken to describe 'gravity'
in what ever symbol system used is still a collection of human effort. Yet,
Gravity is a force which exist in the workings of Reality before any human
every noticed its presence.] (The word 'Holon' and the word 'Holarchy' are
the invention of Arthur Koestler in his book "The Ghost and The Machine."
The recognition of the importance of those terms to making a true map of
reality was made by Ken Wilber.)
A Holon is a term to describe an object which has the characteristics of
both an individual whole and of being a part of a greater whole. This part
and whole aspect is complementary and not a divisible distinction. An
analogy is to a photon having both wave and particle characteristics,
depending on the tools use to examine the photon. All Holon's have the
following characteristics. They came be described from the perspective of
External and Internal, as Individual Wholes and Parts of a Collective, and
they have Dynamic Quality and Static Quality. [These last two terms are not
used by Koestler or Wilber.]
All of these characteristics are not either/or choices. Not one or the
other. They are choices along a continuum where abstract purity is imagined
at either end of the continuum but objects can be described anywhere along
that continuum. The act of placing an object along the continuum is a human
choice. And thus is not the "True" choice. Which is what both Lao Tsu and
Korzybski warns us about. That all objects have those characteristics is
"True". It is a part of the non-verbal and pre-human nature of reality.
Realizing that those choices exists and formulating a map to describe those
choices is a human act and a human product and thus theoretically there can
never be an end to the map making.
All Holons are part of a Holarchy. They can be mapped out showing their
relationships vertically and horizontally. This arrangement is endless in
either direction. Unless you recognize that a either end, the final
uppermost/biggest whole that can be imagined is Quality/Tao and the final
smallest part that can be imagined is Quality/Tao. To give as an
illustration of a External Classical Quality holarchy, one made by a Western
Scientists, they might place the terms the Universe at the top and quarks at
the bottom of their holarchy.
This ends my preliminary remarks, now begins my map making.
Reality is because there is Tao or Quality. Without the Tao/Quality there
would only be pure, uniform, undifferentiated energy quantum wavicles.
Because there is Quality the Universe exists is structured as it is. Energy
and Matter continually dance and flow in a continuum of Dynamic and Static
manifestations all in accordance with Quality. Quality is what makes for
organizing in a structural pattern of Holon's in a Holarchy. That flow of
energy and matter has formed into many things some of which are a form of
life which is sentient. [Theoretically humans are not the only such species
in the Universe, hence this reference. But for the sake of simplicity I
will henceforth only address this discussion to our own species.]
That individual human being interacts with the Universe and within itself.
That interaction is an interaction of energy and matter. Which like the
rest of the Universe is a continuum of events of sub-atomic through atomic,
through molecular, through chemical, bio-chemical, through networks of
biological systems. Our brains have evolved such that wiring not only
process data coming in from sources external to the brain, but it is wired
to react to and monitor it's own brain processes. Our brain is self-aware
on a biological level. This self-awareness of our own biological/nervous
system and brain states is the external key to our own inner experience of
self-awareness. This being aware of our own processes is the experience
that is a continuum from sensations up to feelings and even up to thoughts.
We developed, for reasons unknown, the ability to conceive of and process
the monitoring of our own internal brain processes into sets of symbols.
These symbols give rise to words. A product of the workings of our brain
biology gives rise to a mind [my own theory is that it has something to do
with the internal wiring which can monitor our own brain states & brain
synapses - this reflexive process.] Within that mind are thought processes,
which are pre-symbolic. We developed overtime symbols as a means to
organize our thought processes. Our attempting to organize and understand
is a process which utilizes symbols, these become words.
The brain is a collection of neural structure which is holarchical. It can
be mapped out vertically and horizontally. What I am about to do is to
describe that holarchical structure.
The First and lowest, and quantitatively speaking the largest amount of
activity takes place at this level of brain activity. It is the level of
matter/energy exchange taking place in the form of bio-chemical neural
interaction. It is where and when information from higher level brain
activity is transmitted and starts other bio-chemical neural interactions
which lead to information being sent to the rest of the body bio-chemical
systems. All sensory data is input to this level. All sensory data is
compared to stored information of previous patterns of information.
The second level up and the next largest amount of activity is when the
bio-chemical neural patterns of information is matched up with the
bio-chemical neural patterns of information that stores the symbols of human
creation. The Internal experience of this process is what we humans
describe as non-verbal feelings, non-verbal images and non-verbal sensations
[Touch, taste, smell, etc.].
This experience is Internal and the first experience of what has been
labeled by the word--'Mind'. All those 'feelings', 'images', 'sensations'
('smells', 'tastes', 'touches', etc.) have been stored as patterns of neural
inter-relationships similar to how data is stored in a computer. At the
lowest level all data in a computer is ones and zeros, on and offs. This is
the same for neurons. They have or have not a bio-chemical charge. At this
level information is sent up to the final level of brain activity and is
brought down from that level.
This level is External and therefore before the existence of human words.
At this level 'feelings', 'images' 'sensations' are being translated into
human symbols and words. And also at this level human symbols and words are
being translated back into non-verbal feelings, etc. This activity when it
is noticed by the uppermost level is described as experiencing 'thoughts'
and 'emotions'. This level is where the neural system process the data and
'understands' that data. This is the level of 'sub-conscious thoughts' and
'un-conscious thoughts', to use terminology of the human map called
psychology. These thoughts are processed and this is the experience by the
uppermost level which is labeled 'thinking'. 'Ideas', 'Beliefs', 'Theories'
, 'Songs', etc. All products of the human Mind are composed/created at this
level.
This is the level where the human activity of dividing the External objects,
External experience of those objects, and even the human constructs of
Ideas, Beliefs, etc, all are classified as being located along the Classical
Quality -- Romantic Quality continuum. 'Classic Quality' and 'Romantic
Quality' are not part of the six characteristics of Holons. They are pure
human experience and constructs. They are products of Internal human
activity. They have no External existence outside of a human mind [except
that the words which the human mind has created can be manifested in
External mediums, on computer screens and on paper, for two examples.] This
means that theoretically anything can be classified as either having more or
less Classical Quality, or more or less Romantic Quality by any single
individual human and these choice can be diametrically in opposition and
contradiction to another human's choices.
Finally this level is what we humans describe as Internal Reality.
Everything 'here' is part of Internal Reality. Everything not found here is
thus designated as External Reality.
The uppermost level of neural activity is the smallest quantitatively. It
is the level of 'Consciousness'. Another word for this level is 'Awareness.
' Consciousness is the Internal experience of identity of existing as a
being that can experience. Here is where and when all brain activity
previous described is experienced. Here is where and when thoughts can be
formed in verbal manner that directs the human body to take action. Here is
where the experience of controlling the lower level activities takes 'place'
. This is the level of awareness. It is a level of pure experience. It is
not a level of brain processing. All neural/brain processing, all thinking
is done at all the lower levels. Here is simply the sensation of directing
thought and experiencing emotions and even experiencing the non-verbal
sensations and all other sensory data. What is called 'the conscious mind'
is at this level.
To repeat myself: the activity that gives rise to the 'conscious mind' or
'conscious awareness' or 'consciousness' is all taking place below this
level holarchically speaking. This experience of consciousness can be
extremely focused on a singular object of Internal or External reality. Or
mystically expanded into a sensation of cosmic communion with the totality
of Internal and External Tao/Quality.
My map, my holarchy can be illustrated thusly:
EXTERNAL REALITY
TAO/QUALITY
ENERGY/MATTER
UNIVERSE
SENTIENT BEING
BIOCHEMICAL EVENTS WITHIN THE SENTIENT BEING
-----------SENTIENT BEING'S MIND------------
INTERNAL REALITY
SENSATIONS/FEELINGS/THOUGHT PROCESS
SYMBOLS/WORDS
Ideas/Beliefs/Emotions
Romantic Quality - - Classical Quality
That's all folks,
Gary Jaron: "People shape, and are shaped by, Ideas."
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