Imaginal Cells and Cultural Creatives,
“See the forest for the trees”
For those troubled about the world situation it would be most helpful to “see the forest for the trees.”
This old cliché may seem to be nonsensical for modern speakers, especially because of unfamiliarity with the Old English meaning of the word “for.” In this case, for simply means “due to.” The profound meaning of this phrase is that one may not discern an overall pattern from being immersed in the details. The phrasing emphasizes that to understand something, we need to acquire some perspective, to see the “big picture,” and not get bogged down with all of the details.
With the continuous barrage of print, broadcast, and web media, we are drowning in a flood of details on today’s global crises. Everywhere we look, the world we have known, our way of life, appears to be crumbling as chaos ensues. Rather than perceiving our crises as a cluster of individual trees, with perspective, we can see the wholeness of the “forest.” Collectively our crises are pushing the whole of human civilization to face either global evolution or global extinction.
For a moment, consider yourself to be a cell among the billions comprising a caterpillar that is in the process of transforming into a butterfly. A few days ago, you and your community of fellow cells were all gainfully employed, collectively contributing to the growth of your civilization. Then all of a sudden, the growth “economy” is shut down, cells are out of work and the system starts to come apart at the seams. What would you see and sense as a resident of that world? Fear for your survival?
What we as humans know from our “perspective,” that the cells in the caterpillar community don’t know, is that imaginal cells within the community will guide the chaotic cellular population to reconstruct itself into a magnificent butterfly. Imagine how reassuring it would be for the cellular community in a caterpillar to know what we know … their future will unfold in the amazing expression of a butterfly.
Now imagine that the Earth is a caterpillar being observed through a microscope by a distant and massive entity that we cannot see. What if, from their perspective, they could perceive humanity’s chaos as a state of metamorphosis as we evolve into a higher expression of life?
Now here is the cool part … Nature is built upon fractal geometry, the mathematics that describes the patterns of how structure (the material world) fits into space. A unique character of fractal geometry is that it is physically built on iterated (repeated) use of a basic pattern at every level of its organization. A fundamental character inherent in fractal geometry is, “As above, so below.” Simply, a pattern at one level of an organization will be repeated at other levels of the organization.
Pattern #1 in our story is that a cell, for example an amoeba, has all of the functions of a human being (respiration, digestion, excretion, nervous system, reproductive system, musculoskeletal system, and even an immune system among others). In addition, cells have the same drives and needs as humans.
Pattern #2 is that ~50 trillion amoeba-like cells form a highly organized and extremely advanced civilization that from a distance can be observed as a human being. By logic, every need of a cell is also a need of a human (air, water, food, health, protection, supportive environment, etc).
What can we learn from the perspective of considering patterns #1 and #2 in terms of fractal geometry? Human beings are the equivalent of amoeba-like cells in the evolving body of a giant superorganism, Humanity. The current crises facing civilization are an expression of our metamorphosis from an unsustainable “caterpillar” phase into a more advanced “butterfly.”
What can the perspective gained through the microscope offer to support our evolution? For nearly a million years, the highly advanced and super efficient community of cells comprising human beings has successfully adapted to an ever-changing world. Since human “needs” are the same as those of cells, a fractal assessment of the life-sustaining technologies and systems supporting a civilization of 50-trillion cells should provide insights to sustain a community of 8-billion human “cells.”
In fact, this is the mission of the thriving field of biomimicry, the science of designing materials, structures, and systems that are modeled on biological processes and cellular systems. Through biomimicry, insights into the cellular mechanics and organizations that provide the life-support systems in living organisms can be directly applied to sustaining life in human society. For example, an understanding of the mechanics of photosynthesis, wherein sunlight catalyzes the conversion of carbon dioxide and water into “food,” could literally save the current decimation of the environment as we turn rainforests into industrial farms.
Similarly, a mechanistic assessment of the immune system would radically improve healthcare, as would an analysis of the nervous system reveal the mechanics of a functional government. To model a successful global economy for humanity simply requires an understanding of the flow of energy and the exchange of ATP molecules in a human body.
While we perceive of the adrenal system, our internal Department of Defense, as the fight-or-flight mechanism used in protecting ourselves, we have overlooked that the same system is used to save and help people in times of emergency. Soldiers, police and firemen use their adrenal systems to save others. This casts a radically different role for our service men and women, offering them positive, constructive roles in peacetime. If the Department of Defense would emphasize its peacetime roles, such as the disaster relief services (e.g., tsunami response), we wouldn’t need to invoke fear and war to justify the massive military-industrial complex, a budgetary black hole that is draining the life out of our civilization.
Viewing civilization “under the microscope” offers a perspective that envisions the light at the end of the tunnel. From this perspective, we are better off rising above the focus on the crises (trees), and begin to perceive the forest of our destination.
My deepest appreciation and gratitude for your presence at this time, for you ARE an Imaginal Cell that is instrumental in shaping our survival, nay, our thrival, into the future!
With Love and Light,
Bruce
Hay House presents Bruce H. Lipton Ph.D.’s online The Biology of Belief Course
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East West Bookstore
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Bruce recommends:
Uplift Festival Coming to California
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Hay House World Summit. More details
My friend and colleagues Nancy Marie’s I Create What I Believe groundbreaking approach to drawing, based on my research which enables both children and adults to reduce stress, release bottled-up emotions, transform stifling and or inaccurate beliefs and gain a deeper sense of self with just crayons and paper.
My friend and colleague Dr. Joan Borysenko offering SyNAPSE—a solution to help you simplify and transform the road to health and wellbeing. If you are a health care professional, this will help your clients too! If you are intrigued by this topic, join Joan in sunny Santa Fe, New Mexico—capital of the Land of Enchantment—for one of two retreat opportunities this fall. More information: September Self-care Retreat or October Retreat/Training for Behavioral Health Professionals
My friend and colleague Judith Orloff MD – a UCLA psychiatrist, an empath and intuitive healer, and NY Times bestselling author’s new book The Empath’s Survival Guide.
What message do you send to your cells? Here is a clip from the upcoming film Heal that I am happy to be a part of. Be one of the first to see the film when it is released later this year by visiting The Website and joining their mailing list!