memes

From Here to There: How To Open a New World

“Why are you on the Internet so much?” they asked.
“Oh, I’m finding out about more things every day…,” she replied.

Humanity wants a path to a better world. Individuals are looking for a mechanism, a function, to hurdle perceived obstacles.

There is a whole new world of life-giving products, services and processes busting the seams to become mainstream. And there’s an old world of death-dealing things that now needs to pass away. The new world is as inevitable as the attraction between two people whose eyes dance, where the electric meets the magnetic, a gravity that cannot be ignored.

Fortunately, the network has officially eclipsed the hierarchy. Humanity now sits in an ever expanding set of concentric circles. Connecting laterally is far more effective than “climbing the corporate ladder” in today’s paradigm.

If you want to experience your new world take the following steps:

1. 1 HOUR FREE WRITE: Spend an hour free-writing, where you allow the pen to move across the page without editing yourself. (Suggestion: Write with a pen on a pad of paper. See more on why at Julia Cameron’s page about “Morning Pages” here – http://juliacameronlive.com/basic-tools/morning-pages/ )
2. THREE KEYWORDS: Next write down a few keywords that capture your feeling after doing this writing.
3. SEARCHING THE KEYWORDS: Search these keywords in every social property and social “device” at The World Wide Mind.
4. ARCHIVING THE IMAGES: Save the images, links and text you find that “fit” or “attract” you.
5. MEETING UP: All of these images, links and texts were created by someone. One of those “someones” is going to jump out to you. Find that person’s social handles and send a message. Meet up with that person in the flesh. Spend some time “in the world” of your images. The experience of going from image to flesh is truly amazing.
6. CREATE A NEW WORLD: Once you’ve tasted this alternative universe that emerged from steps 1-5, you have to calculate the consequences for yourself of fully entering that world. Once you do your calculations, develop your ideas and write down your plans, simply go into that world. You just created it.

This process can be used over and over again. And this process can be used by individuals and enterprises, by students and institutions, by citizens and governments.

Linguistic relativity is a vital wand for transformation

“Control of consciousness determines the quality of life.” ~Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

theunconscious
Change comes when people talk with people. Image above of the Community Memory team in Berkeley 1973. Photo: Photo taken by and for the Community Memory Project, first published in the Resource One Newsletter, April 1974.

LANGUAGE CHANGES INDIVIDUAL THOUGHT AND COMMUNITY TAKES ACTION: I recently watched a video posted by a Greek economist that identified magic as the only method for solving the Greek economic crisis. My thoughts after watching the video went to creativity and the power of language to create one’s experience of reality. It is my firm belief that through language we can first change our own thoughts and experience and then the thoughts and reality of others. In terms of changing collective reality, we now live in a time when this has become even more possible via massively connected social networks in the digital realm. At no time in history has it been so easy to inject an idea (a meme) into the fabric of humanity and effect change.

In order to fully master this power, one must accept the principle of linguistic relativity. What is linguistic relativity?

LINGUISTIC RELATIVITY (http://bit.ly/linguistic_relativity1 + http://bit.ly/linguistic_relativity2) is a vital principle and potentially one of the most important revolutions of our time. The principle of linguistic relativity holds that the structure of a language affects the ways in which its speakers are able to conceptualize their world. Learning how language shapes thought is a HUGE step to transforming one’s life and the life of the community.

CULTURAL DIFFERENCES: One of the chief challenges to anyone wishing to create change is cultural difference. The principle of linguistic relativity IS BOTH vital INSIGHT and ACTION when one looks at the difference between how cultures thrive and how they fall apart. Some cultures orient entirely towards soma, or body, consciousness and find tremendous fulfillment through emotional connection – the artists, for instance. Others orient towards intellectual pursuit and find pleasure through mathematics and rational mapping of experience. One culture is subjective and focused on what is felt within the heart. Another triumphs objectivity and orients only towards what the five senses can know. One culture “holds it together” on the outside and has a chaotic interior life; another seems to be in chaos from the outside and has a rich emotional and spiritual heritage and experience collectively.

There are many roads to grasping the nature of cultural difference and working those differences (like a potter working clay). Getting educated in how to lead within the context of different cultures is important. Experience is the greatest teacher in this respect. What one discovers is that cultures are different AND similar.

MIND-CHANGE = LIFE-CHANGE: How does one work with a culture caught in an external and internl “downward spiral”? How does one transform that culture’s mind, its perspective. This is the important first step. As Peter Economides, a world-class branding expert and culture-changer par excellence, has said recently about the country of Greece, “Social psychology is far more important than economics. If people feel great about themselves, then they will do great things. And, if a nation feels great about itself, it will do great things. Screw economics!” The great mythologist Joseph Campbell writes, “All cultures … have grown out of myths. They are founded on myths. What these myths have given has been inspiration for aspiration. The economic interpretation of history is for the birds. Economics is itself a function of aspiration. It’s what people aspire to that creates the field in which economics works.”

Managing a fall and turning it into a victory is the action that nations like Greece are involved right now. One of the MOST inspirational clips I’ve ever seen in a film is when Eric Lidel in Chariots of Fire falls and then gets back up and wins the race. That’s what nations like Greece and the world MUST do now.

Look at this great quote by Joseph Campbell:
“We’re in a freefall into future. We don’t know where we’re going. Things are changing so fast, and always when you’re going through a long tunnel, anxiety comes along. And all you have to do to transform your hell into a paradise is to turn your fall into a voluntary act. It’s a very interesting shift of perspective and that’s all it is… joyful participation in the sorrows and everything changes.”

The quote by Campbell matches this quote from the movie Jacob’s Ladder, where Louis, Jacob Singer’s friend, quotes Eckhart: “The only thing that burns in Hell is the part of you that won’t let go of your life; your memories, your attachments. They burn ’em all away. But they’re not punishing you, he said. They’re freeing your soul. … If you’re frightened of dying and holding on, you’ll see devils tearing your life away. But if you’ve made your peace then the devils are really angels, freeing you from the Earth”.

A MAGIC WAND IS WOVEN OF DIFFERENT ELEMENTS: In Harry Potter, the wands are woven from different elements that match or compliment the personality and essence of the person using the wand. It’s a personalized tool for effecting change. Within Greece, there are some very powerful elements that could be woven together to effect real thought change and culture change…the basis of social psychology. Imagine combining The Atenistas (a grass-roots social change and action group) with the power of a financial institution focused on green business with a tourism that involves the visitor in the process (this last is what needs REAL creativity and NOW!) The transcendence one experiences in escaping Athens to the Greek islands IS felt BECAUSE of how hard one has worked in the city…to get in one’s car to the end of the block or wade through the red-tape of politics and business. And that motion, from city to island, is in the genes of the Greek. Capturing THAT MOTION is the key and answers lie within the very literature that gave birth to this nation chock-full of potent personalities.

TRANSFORMATION: The world needs transcendence (relief) now but this must come from having engaged at a deep level in working with the root issues and clearing out the muck. Fortunately, the world has very powerful tools like Quora and Wikileaks that combine to provide community and expert graded questions and answers to mysteries. Now that transparency is the new eco-system we inhabit, ethics has started to consume power and transform the fallout from catastrophe into fertilizer for tomorrow’s rich garden of abundance. And it is this transformative act that all of humanity IS, or ought to be, involved in presently.

One thing that comes out in myths is that at the bottom of the abyss comes the voice of salvation. The black moment is the moment when the real message of transformation is going to come. At the darkest moment comes the light. ~Joseph Campbell

The Psyche and Social Networks

Social networks and media are templates for humanity to develop multi-dimensional/spiritual abilities. Greek myth is just one “instruction manual” for application of this metaphor. One could identify the JOURNEY of BOTH the individual AND the community in social networks WITH Psyche’s journey toward Eros in the Greek myth of Psyche and Eros. For the Greeks, the essence of Eros is the unfoldment of human thought, and in Greek philosophy, he is described as a liberating agent who releases and activates the creative process of the mind. Eros inspires and opens the channel of intuition to the higher and abstract understanding and communion with beauty and truth. The myth of Eros and Psyche describes in detail the inner process of transformation.

One could identify the JOURNEY of BOTH the individual AND the community in social networks WITH Psyche’s journey toward Eros in the Greek myth of Psyche and Eros. For the Greeks, the essence of Eros is the unfoldment of human thought, and in Greek philosophy, he is described as a liberating agent who releases and activates the creative process of the mind. Eros inspires and opens the channel of intuition to the higher and abstract understanding and communion with beauty and truth. The myth of Eros and Psyche describes in detail the inner process of transformation.

To begin, here is a shortened version of the tale:

ONCE UPON A TIME there was a king with three daughters. They were all beautiful, but by far the most beautiful was the youngest, Psyche. She was so beautiful that people began to neglect the worship of Venus, the goddess of love and beauty. Venus was very jealous, and asked her son Cupid (the boy with the arrows) to make Psyche fall in love with a horrible monster. When he saw how beautiful she was, Cupid dropped the arrow meant for her and pricked himself, and fell in love with her.

Despite her great beauty no-one wanted to marry Psyche. Her parents consulted an oracle, and were told that she was destined to marry a monster, and they were to take her to the top of a mountain and leave her there. The west wind took her and wafted her away to a palace, where she was waited on by invisible servants. When night came her new husband visited her, and told her that he would always visit her by night and she must never try to see him.

Although her invisible husband was kind and gentle with her, and the invisible servants attended to her every desire, Psyche grew homesick. She persuaded her husband to allow her sisters to visit her. When they saw how she lived they became very jealous and talked Psyche into peeking at her husband, saying that he was a monster who was fattening her up to be eaten and that her only chance of safety was to kill him. Psyche took a lamp and a knife, but when she saw her beautiful husband, Cupid, she was so surprised she dripped some hot wax onto his shoulder, waking him. He took in the situation at a glance and immediately left Psyche and the magnificent palace she had been living in disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Psyche roamed about looking for her husband, and eventually in desperation approached his mother, Venus. Still angry, the goddess set various tasks for Psyche, all of which she passed, with a bit of help from ants and river gods. At last Cupid found out what was going on, and he persuaded Jupiter to order Venus to stop her persecution of Psyche. Then they were married and lived happily ever after – and it really was ever after since Psyche was made a goddess.

According to JEAN SHINODA-BOLEN“In the Greek myth of Eros and Psyche, Psyche’s story is about the growth of the soul that began with her decision to face the truth, and led her to being on her own, challenged to complete tasks that were initially beyond her ability to perform. In the myth, her unseen bridegroom would come to her in the dark of the night and be gone by morning. Metaphorically, she was in an unconscious relationship. Fearing that he could be a monster, Psyche followed her sister’s advice, hid a lamp and a knife, and waited until he had fallen asleep. She needed the lamp to see him, and the knife to cut off his head if indeed her were a monster.”

“These two symbols, the lamp and the knife, are both necessary for a psyche–for a soul–to act decisively when we know the truth. The ‘lamp’ is a symbol of illumination, of consciousness, the means of seeing a situation clearly. The knife, like the sword, is a symbol of decisive action, of the capacity to cut through confusion. The lamp without the knife is not adequate; it is insight into the situation with the capacity to act upon this perception.”

“Myths and symbols are in the language of the soul. A myth helps us to take a situation to heart and know what we must do: if it is to see the truth and act upon it, then the image of Psyche with her sword provides a magic perspective. A symbolic object can then be a talisman that helps us to do what we need to do. Like passing a literal torch, these are rituals that empower us by infusing an act with a deeper meaning. To think and act this way is magical, metaphoric thinking that can call forth the qualities we need from within ourselves and may also tap into sources of help that lie beyond us.”

I submit that the social fabric of the internet IS the fabric of humanity’s collective soul. I also suggest that the tale of Psyche and Eros is a template for one’s journey into the complex eco-systems of social networks. In keeping with this metaphor, one has a real working metaphor that may act as a template, NOT ONLY for the INDIVIDUAL but also for the BRAND andCORPORATIONBrian Solis’ Behaviorgraphics images the action of one who gets how to access the heart of this collective digital environment. Pair Behaviorgraphics WITH his Conversation Prism and you have a philosophy of engaging not only a customer, a competitor and a market BUT also one’s own unique gift and contribution to the world at large.

I submit that Psyche’s journey and the tasks she undertook to reach Eros IS a model for successful engagement by a BRAND of its target audience.

What were her tasks and HOW does this look from a marketing standpoint?

a)  SORTING OF THE SEEDS: Intelligence gathering and listening. Psyche’s first task is to sort all the seeds that are heaped up in a room. This is a wonderful metaphor for all of the possibilities before a brand. Sorting the seed is really taking stock. What are all of the seeds of possibility in the psyche of your brand? What belongs where? WhichFacebook Groups, Key Influencers in blogs, Twitter, YouTube channels and in forums are worth engaging with? (read more on the importance of listening to the social fabric of the internet)

b)  THE GOLDEN FLEECE: Timing and correct audience for an offering. The second task of Psyche is to get some golden fleece from the violent rams of the sun, gather a small amount of it, and bring it to Aphrodite. This takes strategy. Some of the best examples of effective strategists come from the extremely competitive environments of sports and warfare. Military strategy in particular provides a template for marketers as they move out into the social fabric of the internet and command a particular market space. Here is a simple outline of HOW to move into the social space of the internet for enterprise-level businesses. And here is THE template for SCENARIO PLANNING straight from center of military strategy 101.

c)  CRYSTAL GOBLET OF WATER: Developing content that has depth and purchase with an audience. In the myth, Psyche has to deliver something of great value that is actually from the shadow realm – water from the River Styx: an image of being quenched by “hidden” wisdom and all the value such a quenching entails. This is the basis effective and engaging content theory: original, living/breathing messaging that comes from a place of depth.

Great content contains effective memes, or word-creatures, the weavers of this living tissue that we call the social fabric of the internet. Quotes, one-liners and personal news in the form of tweets and status updates are examples of word-creatures that move through individual and communal minds/hearts to what end none of us may ever know. These thought-animals consume the attention of a community, grow larger, and move deeper into the texture of the community.

Eros IS a powerful archetypal force in the action of these thought-animals. Civilization is a process in the service of Eros, whose purpose is to combine single human individuals, and after that families, then races, peoples and nations, into one great unity, the unity of mankind. Why this has to happen, we do not know; the work of Eros is precisely this. Great content is informed by the greek god Eros. It is lyrical and attracts.

d)  PERSEPHONE’S BEAUTY: In her fourth task, Psyche descends into Hades to retrieve some of Persephone’s beauty for Aphrodite. Psyche is given a box to carry the beauty in. To do this task requires incredible focus and compliance with a list of complicated instructions – things to do and NOT to do.

Again, with this task, we return to the psyche’s connection with what is real for an audience: image vs. reality, the cover of a book vs. the full text, and an engagement + lifetime relationship with the customer developed. In the fourth task, it could be said that Psyche undergoes a kind of ego-death in order to serve love. This love of the demographic we are marketing to really captures the identity of today’s most effective marketers. Immersion in the “underworld”, in the shadows AND beauty of the target customer within that demographic gives a marketer insight and a kind of hypnotic power over the audience. To know a demographics shadow, both in negative and positive potential, yields a FULL knowing of the OTHER. The value of understanding what is “hidden” within a demographic’s collective psyche is priceless. A fabulous example of such an exploration may found in books like Karma Queens, Geek Gods and Innerpreneurs: Meet the 9 Consumer Types Shaping Today’s Marketplace. In this book, the author has delved deeply into the internal complexity of his market’s psychic complexion and the result is a fantastic study of that demographic. Read it!

To continue, Psyche goes all the way with this fourth task and is brought back to life through Eros’ kiss in the end. The image here is of giving oneself IN SERVICE and doing EVERY single action required to reach the center of the customer’s heart.

A fabulous condensation of HOW social business pros REACH THE CENTER OF THE CUSTOMER’S HEART, with REAL case studies, has been assembled by ANN MACK (Director of Trendspotting at JWT Intelligence) in her June 2010 Social Media Checklist. Ann has identified 18 global experts in social business integration and outlined the  powerful process of ENGAGEMENT, the heart of social business practice! Another recommended read!