Spiral Dynamics Dreaming

I like to consider how spiral dynamic v-meme groups might interpret experiences through the three basic states of waking, dreaming, and deep sleep.

Particularly the dream state, and even more so the lucid dream state.

It seems like each v-meme group speaks a different language.

Everything

I keep trying to work my personal transformation strategies using enneagrammatical insight. The enneagram provides a symbolic model that allows me to see multiple perspectives, from multiple levels, simultaneously.

For me the outer circle of the enneagram symbolizes "everything". "Everything" in the most absolute sense possible. Real, imagined, time, space, physiosphere, biosphere, noosphere, emptiness, heaven, emotions, creation.... everything, bar none.

It seems as though we should have a word to symbolize this as well. But the word I often think might apply, I don't dare use for fear of getting myself killed, or even worse, ridiculed and laughed at.

Language Learning Loser

I have had a strong lifetime interest in languages and trying to learn them, but have failed miserably. If I had another chance in life, I would choose linguistics as my profession. My earliest interest occurred around age 10-11, around the time that the innate gift of natural language learning by children has already passed.

I had a Berlitz French phrase book and tried to learn some French, without ever having actually heard the language spoken.

Par lay voo frawn say?

When our family moved from Arizona back up to the extreme Northern California coast, about halfway through my 8th grade year, I got my first chance to take an actual French class in school! My eagerness and excitement burst into humiliation and embarrassment as I spoke my Berlitz phrase book French in front of my new classmates who had already had 3 months of classes.

In high school I wanted to take language courses, but because of a math and science class emphasis, I only got to take one year of French.


However, my interest in electronics and ham radio allowed me an opportunity to hear all sorts of languages on my short wave radio. And I soon discovered alternative opportunities for learning languages. Radio Nederland had a “Dutch by Radio” course. Radio Sweden had a Swedish course. Radio Japan had “Let’s Learn Japanese”.

And they didn’t cost anything!

And ultimately I didn’t learn anything!

During my military service I had a number of chances to learn languages. While stationed in a small town in Spain I met a girl that shared the same age and birth date as me. I can attest to the language learning acceleration factor that occurs when romance enters the picture.

In Iceland I tried once again to learn the local language, but eventually abandoned it and really that marked the end of my language learning enthusiasm for about 5 years.

In college I found myself in the same situation as high school. I had to take all science classes for my degree in Computer Science. My General Study classes, as chosen by the Computer Science department and not me, did not include language courses.

However, I rekindled my interest in French and started listening to Radio France, and the Radio Canada french broadcasts, and started checking out books from the library and translating them.

I actually decided to extend my college days by an extra semester just so that I could take a course in German. A huge decision since I basically lived in poverty during my college years

German ended up as the only language that I managed to develop a modicum of fluency in. Jane and I lived there for a couple of years, and I have made numerous business trips there. I think german beer helped me finally get over the remnants of my 8th grade French class embarrassment.

But 10 years have passed since living in Germany and I have not gone back since then. I have about 100 video tapes of german TV that I recorded while there that I have started converting from the European PAL TV format into computer .mpg format. But as I do that, I realize I have forgotten most of what I had learned.

A few years ago Mushtaq managed to rekindle my interests in languages, initially with Arabic. Sufi mystics employ Arabic as their technical language in ways that english can’t support.

More recently Mushtaq steered me towards areas of language study that go way beyond mere translation from one language to another. Semantics, Semiotics, Sumer… and some other really interesting stuff…..

Service Management Kitchen

In my current Livelihood position I manage an IT program using an ITIL Service Management model. High level depictions of Service Management often show this diagram integrating technology, processes, and people.



However, I prefer to use an Enneagram to depict this.



It reminds me a lot of the popular “kitchen” Enneagram that depicts the process for transforming raw food into something customers consume. Only in the case of Service Management, technology gets “transformed” into a service that customers consume.



As much fun as I have with that, I have even more fun applying it to the study of personal transformation. For instance, the process of "transforming" raw sensations into the reality I experience:

More Organizing

I guess by 2001-2002 or so I no longer had an organizing planner, or method of approaching all the things I wanted to do. I had finally stopped creating my transpersonal ads (I had over 2000 of them) and had tried to pick out 365 of my favorites to use as a perpetual calendar (note: add perpetual calendar to my blog to-do list.)

My interest in organizing got rekindled when I received a Palm Pilot at work. I started creating to-do lists, and using the calendar to try and schedule stuff. I eventually bought my own PDA, a Tungsten T3, that gave me a lot more power, and a lot of kewl applications.



Ultimately I ended up with a huge 300+ to-do list of things I would most likely never get done, and I rarely followed my calendar, except for actual meetings and things I really HAD to do.

Sensation to Thought

I have a number of observations on meditation that I hope to make, but I want to insert a more recent development before doing that.

Most of the meditation techniques I use involve keeping the body very, very still in order to observe and quiet my monkey mind.

For a number of years Mushtaq has suggested I try another approach that emphasizes body movement watching more than mind watching, but I don't think I really quite got it.

But, late last year I finally started some new exercises and things started to figure a little bit more.

Scott Sonnon's Body Flow helped clarify some things for me:



A lot happens between a sensation and a thought. Now I especially see how my body creates the thoughts I have, before I even know it has happened.

Skin Resistance

Radio Shack has sold this thing since the early 1970's. I bought it as a kit back in 1973 while in the USCG when they marketed it as a "lie detector". In 1997 they called it a "biofeedback monitor", and it came preassembled. I don't know if they still sell it, but I knew I still had it somewhere, and started to wonder how it might work while using the binaural beat technologies to force my brain into certain brainwave states.

SD Orange to Green

The Spiral Dynamics movement from the Orange v-meme to Green v-meme seemed a lot more suited to studying with an Enneagram than my previous attempts at doing it. Things seem to click a lot more when I observe "the process" from point 3 to 4 to 5 to 6.

SD Orange to Yellow

I've tried to place Spiral Dynamics "levels" around an enneagram in various ways, but without a lot of success. So, then I looked at just three levels, as a triad:


This seemed better, but still not quite right.

Spiral Dynamics

I've really enjoyed trying to develop the ability to see things from different perspectives. The personality enneagram helped me see how people experience life differently, but mostly from a horizontal approach. Spiral Dynamics offers an interesting persepctive of looking at how memes attach themselves to groups depending on that groups particular level of development.