Putting The Ego In Context
An Early Work In Progress, Please Comment!
This diagram has been unusually resistant to me writing about it in the relative short-form of a blog post. Not least because significant portions of it seem to describe areas of experience/being that are poorly catered for in normal language. I even have difficulty explaining succinctly what this is a diagram of. So please bear with my following linguistic fumblings, and I would love to hear your comments (especially for making it more illuminating / compelling / less dry) and reading recommendations if any come to mind in relation to this post!
The purpose of this table is to show one set of possibilities for how the ego/intellect fits in with the rest of being, so that the ego/intellect:
- learns not to mistake itself for the whole of being, or the most/only important aspect of being.
- gains an appreciation of the structure of being beyond itself and within itself, and how best to participate within that, especially allowing the heart and body more equal and less suppressed roles.
It’s possible (and I hope) that this understanding can illuminate paths for the heart and body to reclaim their access to language (take a look at Nonviolent Communication: an inspirational framework that appears to be pointing strongly in this direction), leading to fundamentally new/forgotten ways of being, and being socially/economically, with humanity and ecological soundness.
A mnemonic labelling some key characteristics of being
The body of the table contains a set of words which serve as a mnemonic for key characteristics of being. Unfortunately, I’m not aware of standard words for these characteristics, so I have commandeered other words, which is why the diagram is a mnemonic: the words serve to jog memory after their meaning has been shared, but without explanation they convey little of the intended meaning. I have tried to find words which relate as well as possible to the intended meaning. If you have other words that you prefer, I would love to know.
The mnemonic definitions can be found in the spreadsheet here. Commenting is also enabled, so you can comment on this blog post and/or on the spreadsheet itself.
A structure of being
Each of the columns A-E represents an abstraction layer in the structure of being. Each layer builds on the previous layer, illuminating a higher order of structure. One way to think of these layers of being is as an ascending sophistication of energy flow, each layer introducing a new feature:
- Foundation — energy flows with minimal structure and boundaries.
- Reception — how being receives/accepts energy. The new feature at this level is some degree of containment/boundaries for energy to be received into and contained within.
- Energy — how being releases energy. Once being is capable of receiving energy, energy release become possible.
- Direction — how being directs energy. Once being is capable of releasing energy, it becomes possible to refine the release of energy so that it is more finely regulated and directed in line with a more refined function.
- Navigation — how being directs energy over time and space according to complex goals and methods. This represents the problem-solving ability of being, the ability to go around obstacles that simply directed energy would be blocked at.
Each of the eight rows 1i-5i represents an aspect of being, intended to be an illuminating way of considering each of the five abstraction layers. These aspects are categorized into the 5 aspect categories:
- Consciousness — how being experiences and perceives. I have broken this down into awareness (the nature of experience), communication (how being interacts on an informational aspect) and time & space (the manner in which time & space impinge on, or are generated by, consciousness).
- Informational — looking at patterns of information flow within being. This gives rise to broad conceptions of mind, and generalisations of what thought looks like at each abstraction layer.
- Preprocess — intermediate steps between information flow (non-physical emphasis) and physical action. I have broken this down into requirements (what being ‘wants’) and impetus (what causes being to act).
- Process — how being acts on/in the physical world/plane. The time-based aspect of being that generates change.
- Substance — how being is manifested bodily on/in the physical world/plane.
Work focus areas
I have highlighted four work focus areas, which cut across the mnemonics in both directions (hinting at some sort of association between the abstraction layers and the aspects of being). These work focus areas relate being to historical socio-economic trends, and to common conceptions of work. They also relate ideas of personal growth work with ideas of economic work and how both of these are related to more fundamental being/experience in terms of the table of mnemonics.
- Body (work) — a common term in personal growth circles, relating to any work that focuses on and/or strengthens the body. Socio-economically, there are also industries that focus on the body (eg medicine), so that it is more able to perform other functions.
- Emotional (work) — a common term in personal growth circles, relating to any work that focuses on and/or strengthens the heart or emotional expression. Socio-economically this is most closely related to the caring professions.
- Knowledge (work) — any work related to the manipulation of information. Knowledge economies are closely associated with technology and finance and more economically developed countries. Personal growth circles are often hostile towards knowledge work or growth, or take it as a given.
- Physical (work) — any work related to the manipulation of matter. Socio-economically, this includes any of the labouring/manual work professions, and also physical industrial/factory/extractive/processing activities. Personal growth circles are often hostile towards physical work, or desire utopic or golden age conceptions of physical work.
Interactions between characteristics
These are not shown in the table. Consideration of these is what the table lays the groundwork for, as they constitute the connections between heart, head, body and action, the qualities of which gives rise to the quality / coherence / interconnectedness of being on an individual and ecological level.
Exploring the mnemonic
Hopefully I’ve managed to communicate enough of the structure and meaning of the table for the mnemonic definitions to make sense. They can be found in the spreadsheet here. Commenting is also enabled, so you can comment on this blog post and/or on the spreadsheet itself.
Following this are some descriptions of relationships in the mnemonic table that may increase the intuitive depth of the table.
Thanks for reading!
Some relationships
Aspects considered in terms of layers of abstraction
Awareness
- Microcosmic awareness is sufficient to allow reactions at points of impact, and no more. Without this level of awareness, energy flows without interacting at all.
- Boundaried awareness is the beginnings of a coherently pervasive awareness contained within the boundary of being.
- When being starts to become aware of the state of itself, self awareness dawns.
- When being starts to become aware of external states — modelling its environment rather than just instinctively responding to external stimuli — then other awareness dawns.
- When being is able to contemplate itself as other (ie, in the third person), reflective awareness dawns and being becomes aware of itself as simultaneously separate from /and/ a part of the environment.
Communication
- Concrete communication is communicating through physical action. The communication and what the communication is about are one and the same thing.
- Symbolic communication occurs when the communication and what the communication is about separate, so that the symbol and the referent are separate and no longer identical. Symbolic communication allows information processing to occur independently of what the information is about, a much more energy, time and space efficient means of sharing and processing information.
- Empathetic communication occurs when being is able to mirror the feelings of another within itself. Being is unable to distinguish its own feelings from that of another.
- Sympathetic communication occurs when being is able to model the feelings of another as distinct from its own feelings.
- Semantic communication occurs when being is able to share abstract meaning as distinct from feelings based in bodily emotions.
Time & Space
- Time & space is implicit when it is merely a reference frame that distinguishes one reaction from another.
- Time & space is embedded when being employs it as an organising principle within and at the boundary of being. Time & space do not reach beyond the boundary of being and consequently being is not aware of being limited in time & space.
- Time & space is binary when being becomes aware of needs, and therefore the idea that things should be different, in the future. Being is aware of now and not-now (future). The awareness of time & space starts to extend beyond the boundary of being.
- Shared time & space occurs when being becomes aware of the needs of others, so that the emerging concept of now and not-now for me and not-me begins to knit together the previously disconnected time & spaces into a shared time & space.
- Explicit time & space occurs when being is aware of and able to process time & space as an abstraction, independent of the experience of time & space, in service of its goals.
Mind
- Feedback is the most basic unit of thought (mind). Without feedback, information cannot be processed as part of a closed system. Feedback is the building block of contained information processing, and therefore thought.
- Sensations are thoughts representing symbolic communication at boundaries. The senses create sensations. Sensations are thoughts that represent what is happening at internal or external boundaries of being.
- Feelings are thoughts that represent the state of being to itself, the thoughts associated with self-awareness (but not self-reflective-awareness). When being accumulates enough internal boundaries, the sensations originating at those internal boundaries become feelings.
- Representations are thoughts that represent the state of other being to being. They allow being to represent the feelings of others to itself. The feelings of others are comparatively abstract in comparison to beings own feelings. This paves the way for abstract thought.
- Abstractions are thoughts that are increasingly indirectly connected to any feelings, and allow for conscious and aware processing of semantic and symbolic information comparatively disassociated from underlying emotional and nervous states.
Requirements
- Environment is the foundation of the requirements aspect of being because environment is where requirements may be found.
- Boundaries make distinctions possible. Being learns to distinguish elements of the environment from each other, and therefore to sense them.
- Once self awareness is attained, internal distinctions are acquired which make needs possible. Being is able to instinctively reach towards present circumstances it distinguishes to satisfy its needs.
- Once representation is attained, being is able to desire that which is not presently available.
- Once the faculty of goals is attained, being is able to desire in the abstract, and therefore to satisfy specific desires and needs with a greater range of possible solutions.
Impetus
- Without potential, there is no tendency to move. Potential represents the essential, undifferentiated, tendency of being to move.
- Boundaries distinguish uniform potential into a situation of varying potential which boundaried being can distinguish, sense, receive and move around. Situation is a variegated landscape of potential through which being can move. A situation is an event concerning the movement of energy which being may reflexively receive or avoid.
- Arousal represents the internalisation of situations: internal events concerning the movement of energy which being may instinctively allow or suppress.
- Motivation represents the awareness of external situations which aroused energy may be directed towards.
- Method represents the abstraction of motivation and direction, allowing complex plans/actions to be conceived in service of some goal derived from needs and desires.
Action
- Without reaction, there can be no boundaries. A reaction is a fundamental energetic interaction from which boundaries arise.
- Reflexes are the symbolic counterpart to reactions: a reaction is a deterministic physical consequence of a given physical situation. A reflex is a deterministic physical consequence of a given symbolic stimulus.
- Instinct represents action caused by symbolic stimulus in conjunction with an internally recognised need.
- Response represents action in response to symbolic stimulus in conjunction with desire.
- Initiative represents action conceived primarily internally from abstract thought, acted out in an environment that may or may not be aligned with the intent of the action (the goal).
Body
- Matter is the fundamental component of body, the representation of the other aspects in the physical plane.
- Senses are arrangements of matter that can sense other matter symbolically, rather than only concretely/reactively.
- The emotional body is made up of inwardly directed senses. An emotion is the action of an internal sense. Emotions in the body are associated with feelings (thoughts) in the mind.
- The cerebral body is matter concerned with symbolically representing the state of other matter.
- The cortical body is matter concerns with symbolically representing the state of other symbols.
Layers of abstraction considered in terms of aspects
Foundation
The foundation layer is the layer from which boundaries and all other characteristics emerge.
The foundation layer, as with every layer, isn’t fundamentally formed of the eight aspects, but they are different ways of regarding it.
The foundation layer is a disaggregated environment of potential, every concrete reaction creating a tiny resonating, dissipating feedback of microcosmic awareness. Time and space has little meaning as structure and distinguishing does not occur at the foundation layer, but arises from it.
Reception
The reception layer is the layer of boundaries, from which self arises.
Awareness and time & space begin to gain coherence as they embed within boundaries. Senses at boundaries transmit information across boundaries (symbols), representing the world on one side in terms of the world on the other side (sensation). Senses symbolically generate distinctions, which create a sense of situation, the backdrop against which reflexes act.
Energy
The energy layer is the layer at which energy is instinctively received, stored and released.
There are enough internal boundaries at this layer that a sense of self arises, with attendant emotions (the actions of internal sense/reflex groupings), feelings (the thoughts associated with emotions), needs (associated with the (non)alignment of feelings with the function of the being) and arousal (associated with the ability of being to release energy in service of needs). These rich internal dynamics give rise to instinctive action, which moves being through binary time, from now to not-now (where needs are better met).
Symbolic communication from outside triggers feelings that are of near identical nature to those triggered by emotions, leading to empathic resonance between beings.
Direction
The direction layer is the layer at which being learns to distinguish itself from other being, instead of empathically resonating with other being in a directly reactive fashion.
As the feelings associated with symbolic communication from outside are better differentiated from those from inside, sympathetic communication and representations arise, which are a mental innovation allowing any feelings to be contemplated even when not directly felt. Representations also allow situations not present to be desired, which gives rise to the refinement of arousal (towards that present) to motivation (towards that not necessarily present). This internal representation of the not-present and/or not-internal gives rise to actions as responses and a sense of time as shared between a population of differentiated beings. This is all associated with the cerebral aspect of body.
Navigation
The navigation layer is where being is able to reflect upon itself as if it were other, bridging and resolving the cosmic existential contradiction between self and other. This capacity for abstraction also allows semantic communication, and the explicit awareness of time & space. The abstraction of desires (goals) allows not only the not-present to be pursued, but also the never-previously-present. This is the layer at which initiative is born: all other layers are primarily responsive to circumstance. This layer is associated with the cortical aspect of body.
