The Possible World
You may have heard the joke about the two caterpillars looking up at a butterfly and one caterpillar says to the other, "you wouldn't catch me dead in one of those contraptions."
I was just reviewing Mae-Wan Ho's book, "The Rainbow and the Worm, The Physics of Organisms," looking for the phrase and idea of imaginal cells. I had first encountered this idea at a Jean Houston gathering of the West Coast Mystery School a few years ago and it resonated deeply. Imaginal cells are now almost mainstream with over 10,000 hits at google; however, I could not quickly find a first entry of the phrase into the lexicon.
If you aren't familiar with imaginal cells, they have to do with making butterflies and other organisms. You can jump to http://www.wisdomways.net/AboutUs/ButterflyStory.asp and read a great entry and/or just read on.
In the regenerating process a caterpillar is all about consuming. Looking at our present world, we seem to be mimicking the caterpillar. Well, as the story goes, the caterpillar finally senses that it is time to hibernate and it builds a cocoon around itself. Unlike bears in hibernation, the caterpillar appears to die or turn to mush, but on an unseen level, its liquid crystalline structure remains coherent (alive) and within that structured mush can be found imaginal cells resonating at a frequency that allows them to be attracted to each other, and within those cells is the blueprint image (liquid crystalline memory) of a butterfly. They proceed to use the mushy resources to build it. So the caterpillar in the joke above was actually correct, he was never dead, just transformed.
Thousands of people around the world have awakened to the fact that they and/or the organizations of which they are a part, are imaginal cells resonating at a frequency that is attracting them to each other for the transformative work of building the Possible World, the Butterfly World, populated with the Possible Humans and cooperative structures that can only be called Beautiful.
How is it that a seed idea from a natural phenomenon can blossom into this grand awakening in such a short time? Or was the awakening already taking place globally at an observational level or an intuitive level among a few folk? Many say yes. And into that sense of awakening drops a metaphor that paints the process in such a simple language that all those who are awakening can understand it. The power of the metaphor, the mythic story, the parable that speaks simply and in physical terms of a mental/spiritual/societal application that resonates with the ones that have started to awaken.
Biblically, you can read "awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light" (Eph 5:14). Sounds like he's talking to a caterpillar. The caterpillar thinks he's sleeping, but he looks dead. He just needs his imaginal cells to wake up and build that butterfly so that the regenerating process brings him into the light again. But Paul was probably not talking to caterpillars. Many, many cultures had the same story with slightly different words. The dream of a better world, a possible world, seemed to be part of the basic fabric of societies.
Many think the time has finally come for the big transition, Jump Time, the Great Turning, the wake-up call so we won't sleep through this coming rEvolution. Martin Luther King Jr was concerned in 1968 that too many people might sleep through the great rEvolution of the Civil Rights Movement. He used the story of Rip van Winkle who went to sleep under the rule of King George of England and woke up under the rule of George Washington.
It is time to open our senses to those people and groups that resonate with this image of the Possible World. There are thousands of websites, organizations, bloggers, and individuals that are ready to interact with you, dialogue with you, support you and your project to help bring into being this Possible World. There is no hierarchy. Each has the same image when all the outside trappings are laid aside. The same key words of cooperation, respect, coherence, self-renewing, regenerating, and interdependence keep showing up along with dozens of more.
It is time, high time, to wake out of sleep, again. "But will they wake, for pity's sake."
I was just reviewing Mae-Wan Ho's book, "The Rainbow and the Worm, The Physics of Organisms," looking for the phrase and idea of imaginal cells. I had first encountered this idea at a Jean Houston gathering of the West Coast Mystery School a few years ago and it resonated deeply. Imaginal cells are now almost mainstream with over 10,000 hits at google; however, I could not quickly find a first entry of the phrase into the lexicon.
If you aren't familiar with imaginal cells, they have to do with making butterflies and other organisms. You can jump to http://www.wisdomways.net/AboutUs/ButterflyStory.asp and read a great entry and/or just read on.
In the regenerating process a caterpillar is all about consuming. Looking at our present world, we seem to be mimicking the caterpillar. Well, as the story goes, the caterpillar finally senses that it is time to hibernate and it builds a cocoon around itself. Unlike bears in hibernation, the caterpillar appears to die or turn to mush, but on an unseen level, its liquid crystalline structure remains coherent (alive) and within that structured mush can be found imaginal cells resonating at a frequency that allows them to be attracted to each other, and within those cells is the blueprint image (liquid crystalline memory) of a butterfly. They proceed to use the mushy resources to build it. So the caterpillar in the joke above was actually correct, he was never dead, just transformed.
Thousands of people around the world have awakened to the fact that they and/or the organizations of which they are a part, are imaginal cells resonating at a frequency that is attracting them to each other for the transformative work of building the Possible World, the Butterfly World, populated with the Possible Humans and cooperative structures that can only be called Beautiful.
How is it that a seed idea from a natural phenomenon can blossom into this grand awakening in such a short time? Or was the awakening already taking place globally at an observational level or an intuitive level among a few folk? Many say yes. And into that sense of awakening drops a metaphor that paints the process in such a simple language that all those who are awakening can understand it. The power of the metaphor, the mythic story, the parable that speaks simply and in physical terms of a mental/spiritual/societal application that resonates with the ones that have started to awaken.
Biblically, you can read "awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light" (Eph 5:14). Sounds like he's talking to a caterpillar. The caterpillar thinks he's sleeping, but he looks dead. He just needs his imaginal cells to wake up and build that butterfly so that the regenerating process brings him into the light again. But Paul was probably not talking to caterpillars. Many, many cultures had the same story with slightly different words. The dream of a better world, a possible world, seemed to be part of the basic fabric of societies.
Many think the time has finally come for the big transition, Jump Time, the Great Turning, the wake-up call so we won't sleep through this coming rEvolution. Martin Luther King Jr was concerned in 1968 that too many people might sleep through the great rEvolution of the Civil Rights Movement. He used the story of Rip van Winkle who went to sleep under the rule of King George of England and woke up under the rule of George Washington.
It is time to open our senses to those people and groups that resonate with this image of the Possible World. There are thousands of websites, organizations, bloggers, and individuals that are ready to interact with you, dialogue with you, support you and your project to help bring into being this Possible World. There is no hierarchy. Each has the same image when all the outside trappings are laid aside. The same key words of cooperation, respect, coherence, self-renewing, regenerating, and interdependence keep showing up along with dozens of more.
It is time, high time, to wake out of sleep, again. "But will they wake, for pity's sake."
posted by Dick Dalton at
5:33 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home