Breakthrough Story #3

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="057285a1erlcgo.png"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FFCC66" FACE="Arial" ><B>TurnTheTide</B></FONT><B>    </B><B> |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="TurnTheTide"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" > </FONT><B>  </B><A HREF="id57.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Breakthrough 1 Crash Course"><U><B>Breakthrough #1 Crash Course</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id65.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Breakthrough Story 2"><U><B>Breakthrough Story #2</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><B>Breakthrough Story #3</B><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id66.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Breakthrough Story 4"><U><B>Breakthrough Story #4</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id39.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Breakthrough Story 5 "><U><B>Breakthrough Story #5 </B></U></A><B> </B></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFCC66" TEXT="#080000" background="056d2c00dkelyh.png"> <div> <B> </B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="index_site_map.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="TurnTheTide"><U><B>LINK TO SITE MAP</B></U></A></FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B><IMG SRC="0d697c90.jpg" border=0 width="151" height="201" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> <B>Dr. Raima Larter</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>The old path we were traveling on longer exists, and we can sit at the bifurcation point, forever in confusion, not knowing how to move forward or get unstuck.</B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B><IMG SRC="0d888c40.jpg" border=0 width="136" height="196" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> <B>MAX PLANCK, Nobel Prize-winning father of quantum theory: </B></div> <div> <B>"All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force... We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent Mind. This Mind is the matrix of all matter." </B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <I><U><IMG SRC="0979de40.jpg" border=0 width="157" height="228" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></I></div> <bR> <div> <B>"Butterfly Emerging</B></div> <div> <B>from a Cocoon"</B></div> <div> <B>by</B></div> <div> <B>Lorie Anne Larson</B></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>Breakthrough Story #3</I></div> <div> <I><B> <A NAME="breakthrough__2__911_experienced_as"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B></I></div> <div> <I><B>BREAKTHROUGH #3:  </B></I><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><I><B>"9/11" experienced as the end of a path for humans: a Choice must be made. </B></I></FONT></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>“9/11” As a “Bifurcation:”</B></div> <div> <B> A Fork in the Road</B></div> <div> <B>"On September 11, 2001," writes Raima Larter, "events occurred that left everybody in the United States, and many around the world as well, deeply shaken and unsure how to react or even what to do next; in short our nation --- indeed the whole world --- encountered a bifurcation that day."</B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT></div> <div> Dr. Raima Larter is Professor and Chair of the Chemistry Department at Indiana University-Purdue University (IUPUI), where she teaches and conducts research in physical chemistry, nonlinear dynamics, and neuroscience.</div> <div> She explains that the word "bifurcation" is a term used in nonlinear dynamics to describe "a point in a journey where one life dies and another one is born." As when a caterpillar enters a cocoon and emerges a butterfly. Bifurcation literally means "a fork in the road."</div> <div> Larter published her analysis of "9/11" in an article, "Life Lessons from the Newest Science," published in the March - May 2002 issue of IONS Noetic Science Review. </div> <div> One lesson from the "newest science" is that on 9/11/02 we were all tossed into the same boat with Hilda Bernstein Silverman. Suddenly, our interior world and our exterior world didn't match. A path we had followed for most of human history was ending. </div> <div> “By the afternoon of that first awful day, we were all beginning to realize that things would never be the same again. We were left with the sure and certain knowledge that the world we lived in before September 11 no longer existed."</div> <div> Larter's analysis is based on an experience of a personal "bifurcation," as well as her research as a scientist. Like Silverman, she lived through a painful, disorienting time in which she faced choices she didn't want to make. In retrospect, she was able to see that she had entered a kind of cocoon. She was going through a time of breakthrough in her own personal journey. She had reached a fork in the road as a scientist where she would have to choose which way to turn. </div> <div> Her experience and insight provided the understanding needed for TurnTheTide's second breakthrough. </div> <div> <B>That understanding is that the disorientation Silverman experienced, Larter experienced, we all experience at one time or another, is being experienced simultaneously by humans everywhere. We are </B><B>at a turning in the human journey where something must die in order for something new to be born. </B></div> <div> <B>From this perspective, citizen diplomats working for peace in the Holy Land are pioneers. They are sorting out what must die and what must be born in order to get life back on an even keel again. </B></div> <div> For Silverman, friends in Israel and Palestine helped get her life back on an even keel. They confirmed there were good reasons why her interior world and her exterior world didn't match. To go on with her life, she had to make a choice. Her new life began when she sent a donation to peacemakers in the Holy Land, rather than attend the 2002 “Stand with Israel” rally in Washington, DC. </div> <div> For Larter, her understanding of how the natural world works helped get her life back on an even keel. She says her research in nonlinear science gradually revealed to her the “almost miraculous” process she was going through. The choice she had to make was to let go of something she had considered indispensable to her career in science. She had to, she said, give up “being in control.” </div> <div> “Through an unsettling three-year period I felt very much like a caterpillar in a cocoon. Everything I had come to believe and understand about myself and my life up to the point I unwittingly entered the cocoon had gradually fallen apart. At the time, I had no idea that I was caught up in a process as natural as that which allows a butterfly to open its wings for the first time. Growth was what I was experiencing, and gradually I came to understand that real growth is not always the smooth, gradual, under-control experience we all wish for, but growth as it actually occurs --- growth as bifurcation.</div> <div> “Naming the process with a term familiar to me was comforting. What I really wanted was to be able to control what was happening and stop it… Like most scientists, I was still operating under the assumption that once I understood something, I could figure out how to control it. Only in hindsight did I see what I really needed to learn was that it is impossible to control the uncontrollable.”</div> <div> She found that the words of an ancient mystic resonated with her new understanding. Larter quoted the mystic: </div> <div> “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.”</div> <div> “These words of wisdom,” she continued, “contain the same assurance of stability as that provided by nonlinear science through the notion of an eternal, unshakable attractor. The attractor is always present, regardless of how many wrenching bifurcations we go through or whether these bifurcations throw us into chaos.”</div> <div> The concept that a "strange attractor" is present in natural states of chaos and disorder is based on a mathematical formula and has been verified in many experiments. The attractor's eternal presence brings to even the most chaotic states the assurance that inevitably order will "break through" again. But it may break through in totally unpredictable ways. A new equilibrium, a new balance, a new reality may emerge when least expected. Therefore, given enough time (and patience) “all manner of things shall be well.” </div> <div> Spiritual "laws," more and more, seem to have parallels in “scientific” laws of nature. Order always lurks just beneath the surface of disorder. Just as disorder always lurks just beneath the surface of order. Growth emerges from the balancing act between order and disorder. </div> <div> In times of "bifurcation," when we experience the unsettling cocoon stage of growth, it is a mistake to assume the new order will resemble the old. </div> <div> <B>The second breakthrough is that there is a model in nature that can help us understand the chaos of the transformation process in which the United States has been engaged since September 11, 2001. Israel and Palestine have been engaged in the same chaotic process for half a century. </B></div> <div> As Larter did when she entered her “cocoon,” we also want to control what is happening to us. We want to make it stop.</div> <div> “In the days immediately after September 11," Larter said, "leaders urged the nation to get back to `business as usual.' Similarly, at a time of personal crisis, well-meaning family and friends urge us to `snap out of it, get on with your life.' At the time we are in bifurcation, though, this just does not seem possible. In fact, it does not even seem right.</div> <div> “And, perhaps it isn't right. The confusion we feel about what we should be doing with our life in the time immediately following a bifurcation event is due to a deep-seated knowledge that our world really has changed after all. What governed our lives before the bifurcation may now be gone, replaced by something not yet apparent. If we rush back to our previous activities we risk closing our eyes and ears to clues about just what it is we should be doing now - and this may very well be something very different from what we were doing before…</div> <div> “These clues may be very personal, applying to us as individuals and urging us forward toward necessary changes in our individual lives. If we listen carefully enough, we may also find clues that tell us what we, as members of society, should do now --- now that we live in a different world.”</div> <div> More often than not, Larter said, we don't see that we have reached a point in our journey through life (as individuals, groups, or nations) at which a decision must be made. </div> <div> “As we approach our bifurcation point, we close our eyes to the fact that the path we are traveling is ending, forcing us to make a choice about which new path to take, and we march right on through, out into the tall grass and weeds. Before we know it, our insistence on keeping things the way they were, sticking to the original path, has left us far from any path at all, unable to find our way back to either the old life, the original path, or to locate our new life… In fact, if we ever were able to find our way back to where the original path used to be, we would see that it had disappeared.</div> <div> “The old path we were traveling on no longer exists, and we can sit at the bifurcation point, forever in confusion, not knowing how to move forward or get unstuck…”</div> <div> <B>The second breakthrough is a call to awaken to a new reality; to not waste time trying to return to a path that has disappeared. The call is to look and listen for clues for making necessary changes in our individual lives; and for doing what we should be doing as members of society now that we live in a different world. </B></div> <div> Larter makes the “call to awaken” explicit. Again she speaks from personal experience and as a scientist. </div> <div> “The way one's life had previously been lived is suddenly irrelevant. It doesn't matter how successful, accomplished, or fulfilled we might have been before --- all that is no longer of any importance… We are plagued by the feeling that everything we understood about how to live our life has fallen to pieces. We have no idea that what is about to happen will redefine our life in ways we could never have predicted. </div> <div> “When I look back at my life before I encountered my own personal bifurcation point, I can barely remember who I was or what I felt… On the surface, my life since bifurcation looks very much the same as before… Under the surface, however, I am a different person, with a different purpose. My life is no longer driven by the need to achieve…</div> <div> “Getting from `there' to `here' has definitely not been easy, and I have struggled mightily with my own anger, despair, and resentment over past events --- but without a sense of the benevolence of the underlying "attractor," I am quite sure I would never have chosen the path that led to this very happy life. </div> <div> <I><B>"After all, to take those first steps required the acceptance of spiritual realities that challenged all I believed as a scientist.</B></I> </div> <div> “What seems right at certain times in life is not necessarily right when one is at a bifurcation point. The nature of dramatic transformational change, such as that which occurred in our world, initiated by the events of September 11, 2001, is quite different from the slow, incremental changes that characterize the usual day-to-day progress in life. The rules for how to act, what to do, are different at these times. To understand this better, we need to know how the natural world behaves when bifurcations occur --- and they do, all the time. Bifurcation is the most natural thing in the world --- as natural as a caterpillar turning into a butterfly.” </div> <div> <B>The second breakthrough confirms the first.  Hilda Bernstein Silverman searched for clues and found them. The time was right to question her investment in Israel as the homeland of the Jews. What return was she and other Jews getting on their investment? Could the bifurcation she experienced lead to better investment strategies for obtaining security for both Israelis and Palestinians?</B></div> <div> <B>The second breakthrough sets the stage for the third. Father Elias Chacour, a Palestinian Malekite Catholic priest from Israel, will provide clues for a better investment strategy for bringing peace to Israel and Palestine, and for winning the “war on terrorism.”</B><B>   </B></div> <div> <I><B>NOTE: For an in-depth analysis of the September 11, 2001 tragedy, I recommend the entire issue of IONS Noetic Science Review #59 (March-May 2002). In addition to Dr. Larter's “Life Lessons from a New Science,” there are Ervin Laszlo's “The Quiet Dawn;” Chris Mache's “Stepping into the Fire;” and Bishop Bennett Sims, “Genetic Spirit?” --- all of which provide a holistic perspective for making sense out of the growing insanity of violence and terrorism…and for a possible response that offers hope for the future. Of the many dozens of analyses by Futurist “think tanks” and world-class authorities we have reviewed, I would put these four at the top. </B></I></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id66.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Breakthrough Story 4"><U><B>Go to Breakthrough #4</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <B><U>RELEVANT LINK RESOURCES TO BREAKTHROUGH STORY #3 IN ARCHIVES</U></B></div> <div> <A HREF="id83_3__speech_by_tim_robbins_to_the_1.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Breakthru 3 Documents"><U><B>1. Speech by Tim Robbins</B></U></A><B> to the National Press Club in Washington DC </B></div> <div> <A HREF="id83_5__when_democracy_failed_the_warnings.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Breakthru 3 Documents"><U><B>2. When Democracy Failed:</B></U></A><B> The warnings of history</B></div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>