We introduced, quite ambitiously, Social Presencing theatre (SPT) as a way to problem solve, with a group of engineers.
Social Presencing Theater is an embodied method for change created by the Presencing Institute, under the direction of Arawana Hayashi, that enables individuals and groups to make their current situations visible, reflect on their potentials and blind spots, and allow them to move into a saner more compassionate future. (From – Social Presencing Institute)
The tenet of this method is that, “Theater” here denotes an empty stage or a blank canvas, where the different aspects and roles of the “system” can be embodied. In that space, the roles can interact in fresh and creative ways to reveal emerging possibilities hidden in the system. It is the “Art of Making a True Move”.
It seems mysterious when you see it work. People who are “plotted” and placed in the space, have no idea of the context of who they represent. And yet every single time I have seen them take on “characteristics” of the original character in the situation.
Explaining why a concept like this works ‘logically’, is tricky one. I could completely empathize with the confused skepticism. I have also been there once. And It had such a deep sense of realization of just how entrenched we are in the belief of “individuals” and separate entities. Years ago when somebody tried to explain this, it sounded a lot like spirituality. And my “logical” mind needed more than – “Because I said so”
How you do anything is how you do everything
Enter Quantum Physics
Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic
Put simply, it’s the physics that explains how everything works. The best description we have of the nature of the particles that make up matter and the forces with which they interact.
The most important aspect of this is it’s impact and how it permeates EVERYTHING. One of the reasons I find it so fascinating is it’s unitive nature, and the fact that it does not differentiate. The seen and unseen. The observer and the observed. Human and non-humans. The subject and the Object. The local and the abstract. Not even considering the separation in time and space. It postulates and proves the theory of one consciousness and behaves as one interconnected world.
I find this important for so many practical reasons.
It does away with the Newtonian cause and effect explanation of things. Look at where that has got us. We have discords and wars because of this way of thinking. Because in a cause-effect way, when something happens we are very sure somebody or something, other than me caused it. Then we start the witch hunt, punish somebody and feel “Justice is done”. Untill that somebody uses this event as a cause and goes on to repeat the same thinking and does the same thing. We pass on revenge or blame from one generation to another.
History and even mythology is filled with such instances. As is the entertainment industry.
It is a short cut way of convenient thinking. Which gives no room for “mystery” or non causality. I find this often a way to shrug off responsibility
Quantum Entanglement.
The basic idea of quantum entanglement is that two particles and their fate can be intimately linked to each other even if separated by billions of light-years of space or time; a change induced in one will affect the other.
Albert Einstein famously called it “spooky action at a distance,”
Seen from this lens, since the embodiment of one act or thought, has already altered the other’s state, because they are in an entanglement, the “responsibility” is circular. One cannot apply causality.
“The aim is to balance the terror of being alive with the wonder of being alive.”
― Carlos Castaneda
We have all had experiences at some time or the other, of thinking of someone, and he/she calls you. Or you get a message from someone, when you were about to write to that person. Or you thought of eating something and somehow it appears.
With some people in my life, It has happened so often, that I call just as the other person picks up the phone to call me. Or vice versa. And there is a moment of confusion where one is not sure who called whom. This is a moment of realisation of the realty of Quantum entanglement. Or Non-duality.
Most times we just gape and wow a few times and move on. We don’t pause to notice, just what happened? How was it possible. What was really going on.
In quantum entanglement, subatomic particles maintain a relationship—for instance, vibrating when the other vibrates—even when separated and even if they are at great distances from each other.— Sean Hamill
The Quantum view of Uncertainty
What quantum mechanics revealed was that uncertainty in physics was not due to an epistemological lack of detail, nor any deficiency in our measuring apparatus — it lay at the very heart of these theories and was an unavoidable and essential component, central to the workings of nature.
This essential ambiguity — embedded in reality, not in our understanding of it — is enshrined in Heisenberg’s famous Uncertainty Principle. This states that there is a fundamental limit to the precision with which we can be know the physical properties of a pair of particles, such as their position and momentum. The more accurate our knowledge of one property, the fuzzier is our knowledge about the other.
It turns out our ongoing quest for certainty continues to be foiled. Since the first awakenings of human cognition we have tried to “make sense” and give meaning. We are meaning making machines. It seems our only defence against the vast panorama of Uncertainties. And so for some reason we feel we must fight it. Certainly.
We have been endowed with just enough intelligence to be able to see clearly just how utterly inadequate that intelligence is when confronted with what exists. Last two years of COVID has been a huge lesson in this. If this humility could be imparted to everybody, the world of human endeavours would perhaps become more appealing.
“Sell Intelligence – Buy Bewilderment, said Rumi.
Complementarity.
The more interesting question is , in what specific ways does the “other” change. Because then one can atleast “theoretically” embody one type of behavior. If one spins clockwise – the other will instantaneously move counterclockwise. This will happen however far you move the particles
A simple way to think about this is, if you take a coin and flip it and it open to a heads. You KNOW without seeing the other side is a Tails.
Unfortunately we don’t “See”, or not able to perceive this connection in people and behavior. But to nudge this coin toss envelop further. Imagine when we toss a coin, we are trying to decide something and are not able to. And so we “Flip a coin”. Because we seemingly don’t know what we want. But when the coin is in the air and for the brief second we hope for it to be something. In that – we have just revealed what we TRULLY want. But don’t want the responsibility for making that choice.
We know, simultaneously, everything.
Perhaps if we really pause and think and start to see these existing interconnections we can see how profoundly we impact each other. How being in the close proximity of some people, we either experience drain or gain. Abundance or scarcity.
For small creatures such as we, the vastness is bearable only through love. Carl Sagan
Perhaps it really is time to see that science and spirt are not opposites.
Years ago, when I was in Geneva, I was so delighted to see CERN. The European Organization for Nuclear Research. It is an organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. It was such a moment of awe and pride at seeing the large statue of Shiva, Nataraj in front of the Building.
“According to quantum field theory, the dance of creation and destruction is the basis of the very existence of matter. Modern physics has thus revealed that every subatomic particle not only performs an energy dance, but also is an energy dance; a pulsating process of creation and destruction. For the modern physicists then, Shiva’s dance is the dance of subatomic matter, the basis of all existence and of all natural phenomena.” (Physicist Fritjof Capra’s ‘The Tao of Physics’)
Maybe we are not so Independent after all. And yet sometimes, I feel exhausted at the long wait till we really know this and act from this knowing. Until then, I can rest in knowing what I am sensing is also sensed. And time and space are constructs. Nothing can get in the way of feeling the connection.
It is strangely comforting, to think of the social presencing theatre in this way. We are the actors, the ones who place the actors, and we are also the stage on which it is being placed. And perhaps the greatest proof of Quantum Entanglement is Love
“For me the world is weird because it is stupendous, awesome, mysterious, unfathomable; my interest has been to convince you that you must assume responsibility for being here, in this marvelous world, in this marvelous desert, in this marvelous time. I want to convince you that you must learn to make every act count, since you are going to be here for only a short while, in fact, too short for witnessing all the marvels of it.”
― Carlos Castaneda, Journey to Ixtlan
